I love the idea of having a set amount of cash set aside for groceries. However, in my family, it just does not work. We used to take out our monthly allotment (about 200 dollars) in cash. In theory, I was to use that for our groceries, which would make it super easy to stay in our budget. Yay! However, in practice, the cash often migrated to another expense, in bits and pieces. We really don't keep cash around at all. We write checks or put it on our cards, which we pay off in full every month. So my husband would need five dollars for some reason, and rather than write out a check, he'd pull five bucks out of the grocery money. Or I would use it. For example, last month I went to a friend's wedding in Tennessee. It seemed silly to put the museum ticket, the lunch at Wendy's, the gas for the rental car on my card. After all, each was only a bit of money...but by the end of the trip, a lot of the grocery cash was gone. I was constantly having to re-figure in my head how much we'd spent on groceries to make sure we did not go over budget. That was kind of pain, even though we do record every expense as we incur it. There had to be a better way!
Then it occurred to me- Gift Cards. You can buy gift cards at most grocery stores. Since I primarily shop at one store, with very occasional stops at a few others for super sale items, I thought it may just be easier to buy a card for that store at the start of each month. I bought a gift card for 150 dollars at my usual store, which left fifty dollars to keep in reserve if we need to make a stop at one of our other stores. I put the card on my credit card (which again, we pay in full each month) so we will even get cash back on that amount. No more trying to figure out how much is left in the grocery budget. I've also spent less on groceries since I've done this, since I am trying very hard to not go over however much I put on the gift card.
You can use the gift card idea for many types of purchases- gas stations often have gift cards. If you eat out a lot at a certain restaurant but are trying to cut back, why not get a gift card for an agreed upon amount? If you like the idea of a cash system but do not want to have cash sitting around, the gift card idea may work for you.
For other frugal tips, head on over to Crystal's blog!
4 comments:
What a great idea! We don't like to use cash at all so this could work well for us.
I am glad you found somet hing that works for y ou
That is a wonderful idea! My husband and I use the envelope system and I find myself digging into the grocery money if I run out of money in another envelope. I need to remember that one! Thanks for the tip!
That's a great idea. My family just embarked on Dave Ramsey's envelope system for things like groceries, gasoline and entertainment. I like the idea of having a gift card vs. the cash sitting around. Again great idea!
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