Put $30 a week into a jar instead of my banking app and the jar won

Three months ago I started pulling $30 out every Friday and stuffing it in an old pasta sauce jar on top of my fridge. No app, no auto transfer, just cash. I figured I'd raid it for pizza within two weeks like always. But here's the thing, I forgot it was up there. It stopped being money I could spend because I never saw a number on a screen telling me what I had. Last night I finally counted it and there was $390 in the jar, which is more than my savings account grew in the past 6 months. I know that sounds fake but my savings account has a debit card linked to it, that's the whole problem. The jar has a lid and a label that says "don't" in my own handwriting from March. I'm not saying jars beat banks, I'm saying I clearly can't trust myself with anything I can tap a button on. Now I'm wondering if I should switch to the envelope thing for groceries too, or if that's overkill. Anyone here tried cash-only for a month and actually stuck with it?

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nancy81717d ago

Tried the envelope thing for groceries back in 2019 and made it about 5 weeks before I started borrowing from the gas envelope. What finally worked for me was pulling cash for the whole week every Monday, not per category, just one stack and when it's gone it's gone. The trick is you have to leave the debit card at home, not in your wallet, or you'll cheat the second you're in a checkout line and short by $4. Your jar worked because of that "don't" label and the fact that it was out of sight, so copy that setup for whatever else you're trying to fix.

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