By the time I was halfway through high school, my dad had implemented Dave Ramsey’s all cash plan. At this time I had two credit cards, which everyone in the family was used to me using.

An example: Right before Christmas, my mom asked “Can you go to the store and pick up the following?”

“I don’t have any money.”

“Just use your credit card.”

Well about this time my dad, listening to KTAR like always, heard of Dave Ramsey’s miraculous plan to get out of debt. The basics (at least that I learned) are:

1. Figure out what your monthly expenses are (seems pretty simple, I touched on that in my previous post)
2. Make an envelope for that expense
3. Take out enough cash every month (or every two weeks) for all your expenses and put them in the appropriate envelope
4. Mark the original amount on the envelope. Every time you take out money, mark down how much/what for and do the math. It’s just like balancing your checkbook, you just do it more often.
5. The important part: You DON’T GET ANY MORE money for the rest of the month/time period if you run out.

It doesn’t seem too hard and really isn’t that bad - once you get used to it. It does make it harder to spend money if you stick to that allotment. And once you’ve had a couple of run-ins at the grocery store where you have to put groceries back because you don’t have enough money, you learn how to do the calculations in your head.

Most people say it’s easier for them to spend cash than use their debit/credit card(s). You know how you spend all your cash so quickly? How much more do you put on your debit/credit card? It’s a lot easier to pull out a little piece of plastic. As you see it dwindle (which it can do very quickly), you’ll realize how much you actually spend.

While I don’t agree with a lot of Dave Ramsey’s teachings - really, what does it matter if we spend an extra $50 on groceries when we have the money? I’d rather do that than put the groceries back, he really does have some good points:

• When you know that’s all you have for the month, it’s hard to part with the money.
• You judge your purchases a lot more and decide if it’s really necessary.
• You don’t spend as much and you stay on budget.