Cash based budgeting

That's how the wifey and I do it. The only thing we consistently use the debit card for is gas since we go to Sam's and can't pay in cash. It has helped us reduce wasteful and impulsive spending.

 

When we were first married we had to budget very carefully. We were poor. I mean we were poor. So we used the envelope method, an envelope for each weeks groceries, an envelope for each weeks laundry, etc. You cannot deficit spend an envelope. When it is empty ... it is empty.

We still use cash quite a bit of the time.

 

We use a cash budget for our groceries, eating out, and entertainment.

We use Automatic payments for most of our regular bills, and we use the Credit card for Gas, because the rewards make it well worth it.

Beyond that, we know that any time we use the credit card, we are going outside of our budget and need to be careful.

At our best, we just use the cash we have withdrawn each week.

At our medium best, One of us will come home and say, "I had to use the credit card for lunch today." ....but then we'll withdraw less cash the next week to compensate

At worst, we simply write off the loss so we can still have enough cash for groceries next time.