That's how I fed a family of 7 on less than the SNAP allowance for 1 person. Every day after school, all the children in the neighborhood hung out and snacked at our place. We ate heartily, healthily, and deliciously. Additionally, I built a frugal year's supply pantry with the surplus cash from my minuscule budget. I love playing this frugality game.
There’s a Canadian money person years ago she talked about Money jars for every category. You can take money from jar for another category but we couldn’t over spend. Any money left over went into a savings account. I did that and every month when I took what was left to the bank the tellers were all interested in what was left. By the end of a full year I had 3000 left over!!!
Thanks Rachel. We were cash based when I was going through college, building the emergency fund, and saving a big down payment. We went back to debit once we moved in and I feel like I've been struggling with a few categories since. We need to get back to the envelopes!
I just almost always order groceries for pickup- it forces me to remove stuff from my cart that goes over budget. The more I stay the heck out of stores altogether-the less I spend. Any time I can order online, I do it. I save & invest 30% of my income most months unless I have a home repair or it’s a major holiday. Cash never worked for me. I truly hate dealing with cash. I prefer every penny accounted for electronically & automatically.
@@liana2136 the nutrition facts labels are online, you just swipe left. it’s even faster than in the store. Also when you do an online order if the produce isn’t perfect or something is too close to an expiration date, you can just tap your phone & get your money back. You don’t need to return it. I’ve never saved so much money and time! in my life since I went completely digital. Every penny is accounted for and scrutinized. Cash would waste a lot of my precious time. To each his own though, whatever works!
I am a SAHM of three and one family car. Online shopping is waaaaaay easier but I do overspend. Better to just have a separate account for my spending to fix this. But I do see the envelope idea as a fix to not overspend my grocery budget.
You make it difficult to overspend by having only one card on the Amazon account that’s linked with the separate account. Once money is gone you’d have to add another card to spend more but that’s an extra step making it less likely to reach out your wallet and physically pull out another card.
That is such a great idea!!! I bought fake money from a dollar store and put it in 3 envelopes; -Beauty and clothes -Groceries - short-term savings ( if I want to buy something extra for the house, gifts, etc. But maybe when I put real money in my wallet I will be even more careful!!!
I saw my parents searching for the cheapest, on sale groceries, and they both died of cancer. I swore to get the best whole food I could find, first and foremost. I'll scrimp somewhere else. Good idea to plan ahead.
I try to do both, in a way. I go to stores where I can get the best price for the food I want. I save a lot of money because I buy healthy food, but I quit buying junk food. Snack foods such as cookies and chips and premade pizzas all cost. I can get 6 bananas for less than $2.00. I can buy a bag of apples for around $3.00. So when I cut my spending on junk, then I was able to afford healthier options.
Yes I’m recovering from EBV and my husband is type 1 diabetic, so an investment in food is in our health and that’s priceless. We shop at ALDIs so we can even get organic produce, grassfed meat, wildcaught fish there for a bargain. And we buy supplements and herbal tea which helps me feel better. I ordered black ginseng from Amazon and THAT has been therapeutic. Sometimes it’s worth spending money on even if it’s slower to reach some goals. It’s a trade off.
Im glad to see others out there that are aware of health wisdom !! Our family same, we use food & supplements & quality water to heal otherwise the money saved would just wind being spent to fix our health. I was wondering does the black ginseng fix anything profoundly ?
I love your wallets I bought the camel color one that one in the video about 2-3 years ago and just got the metallic blush one for my birthday 🙌 Loveeeee them Rachel!!
They sold you a wallet to cash budget. Which budget did this come out of? And you just bought a second. Back in the day, my parents used white envelopes with labels. This method may work but god forbid you lose it. With separate envelopes, you just grab the one you need and leave the others at home.
@@Galworld761so. The wallets are useful. Not everyone wants to use paper envelopes. I’ve done them and they got worn and had to replace them often. Eventually the cost and hassle wasn’t worth it to keep doing so.
Since we live rural and do a good portion of shopping online (and for specialty items and bc some online places are cheaper than exact brand in stores) I have learned to treat the month's budget like a video game. When the points are gone they are gone. I have to keep myself within that limit or wait until next month to get it. The cash thing isn't enough to stop me from spending.
We do a lot of online ordering too. I've created digital envelopes by using different checking accounts for the major areas that we spend. This is especially helpful for making our larger bulk purchases for items like food or buying a quarter cow etc.
So wise. I live by : spend frugally day to do on the essentials, keep everything as low as possible…then you can spend intentionally in the areas of life that bring happiness and help you progress as a person or career path ❤spend where it matters to you so being frugal in all other areas is easy ❤
Even though I’m single I bulk buy or stock up…I hate if every check I need this I need that, so get it all at once and I’m good usually good for like 3 to 6 months and it helps those visits to cvs Walgreens etc where you go in for one thing and buy a bunch of stuff you didn’t need. Less visits equals less money for me personally. I sometimes visit a coupler who sells stuff and I can get most personal necessities at once and discounted. Also right now I’m doing a 52 week savings so each Friday I put aside 50 cash it’s not a lot no but what I can do while still adding to savings and 402k and it’ll add up at the end of the year and it’ll be my emergency fund. I’ve cut clothes buying and eating out the past 3 years.
And I have been doing a version of this for decades. And only pay in cold hard cash. Cashiers are puzzled since most people pay by credit card or debit card.
I like this idea. Thankfully we don’t have any cc debt but I notice I spend more when I use them so I have taken them out of my wallet and only use our bank card and paying cash and I’m more aware knowing I can only spend a certain amount. We have challenged ourselves for 2024 to add more to the emergency fund.
My hesitation with carrying your entire month’s budget in cash is that it could get stolen or lost and you have no way to recoup that. At least if someone steals your money from a credit/debit card you have recourse.
You know what you guys ought to do You ought to put out some kind of a computer program like quicken. That's what got me straightened out because you put everything in their own group which automatically shows it over into a overall statement I forgot the name that it shows you while your assets and your liabilities and your final amount which you can just watch it go up and up.
I have never seen a wallet like that. Back in the '80s and '90s we used to have these old-fashioned budget envelopes. They were bound together in a little booklet and you titled each envelope and put the cash in them. Obviously I don't do that anymore but in the early 2000s I had to teach my mother how to budget. Which was really strange. And I just got her a bunch of regular envelopes and titled them and we would put the cash in them. (All the old binders I had fell apart long ago and I was using credit cards and spreadsheets by then) I remember the main time when I was overspending. I finally had like $50 a week to spend on myself and I was going out to lunch everyday and spending $5 and it finally occurred to me that if I stopped doing that I might be able to afford to buy things which would last longer like clothing... So I pretty much stopped doing that. Think I did it now and then but mostly I went back to the cafeteria at work.
Try and remember when Amazon crushed all the small businesses during covid and it might help you not want to buy so much on Amazon, that's what helps me
I totally agree! I’ve had your cash wallet for a few months now and it’s transformed how I spend money and my mindset on those easily over-spent categories. I love feeling so in control and feels great having easy accountability.
She took the cash out of the bank for that category. She put it into her wallet and only used cash to pay for that category. Each cash category was separated. 😊
It’s a game when you take it to a cash budget. The goal is, spend the budget or less, then take the extra cash and put it in a savings challenge like…the 100 envelope challenge, get you $5050 by the time your done. Your welcome 😂
What worked for me was to deplete my bank account of all expenses right after the money came in. So groceries, order your 1 month stock in bulk (you save a few pennies), now hold yourself accountable to eat that for the rest of the month. It’s easier to shove the food down your throat when you don’t like it compared to falling short of your goals, ever. Cmon! Show some restraint ya old badgers!
If government wasn't printing trillions of dollars every month out of thin air life would be different. People could actually afford groceries. We need to have a serious conversation about hyperinflation.
Then you have people like me that spend more with cash because it’s no longer a number in my bank account and I’d rather not have it around so I just make it disappear
I agree. Legal tender has no inherent value these days, since it's not backed by precious metals. I'm buying stuff that holds value before the banks collapse and steal our deposits for their bail-in crimes.
