At a time when we were really watching our pennies, my husband and I decided to use an old-school trick for budgeting to stop us from frittering our money away.
I wasn’t sure exactly how much money we actually spent week to week — we were in the habit of going to the bank machine and using our debit cards whenever we needed to buy something. Read More…
Uhh, its really simple. Don’t use debit cards! Done! And welcome the 2012. Geez. People still use debit cards with all those fees and nonsense?!? 8o Crazy world!
Well then @moneyfirst one can conclude that to get an economy going we should not be doing tax cuts which tend to favor the rich only and instead look to government spending to encourage the poor to spend such as more government programs to hire more people since these type of people tend to spend what they earn each pay day.
Here is hoping for an NDP landslide in the next election.
It’s always funny to see how different classes of people value money
What i mean is that the poor tend to look to spend their paycheck the moment they get it while the rich think first to invest it.
@Dave you raise a great point. I think when people are spending their own money they are more inclined to learn to budget.
But when it comes to spending others money they arent as concious and spend away. Which is precisely what credit card companies love. More debt means more profit. If i recall TD made $5 billion in profit for the quarter just from credit cards alone. 😯
With so much cash available it is inevitable, as humans, to want to spend it.
So going to such trouble just to ensure you dont spend it is humorous and futile. I’ve tried and failed many times.
Debit card? How about Credit Cards. That is where MOST people have their real problems. If we had big problems with debit cards that would be great because at least debit cards is playing with your money. Credit card is just that “credit”. Yikes!
In my household we do almost the same as the article in that we take out a set amount each week and if we need more then we have to drag ourselves back out to an ABM machine for more which likely we wont because the machine is so far away (several kilometers).
It’s really helped up take control of our finances.
Great tips! I am bad ad managing my money and end up forgetting where it went to by the end of the week 🙁
More people are moving towards mobile payments (aka Near Field Communication). It has been around for some time in Japan and is starting to pick up interest in the US. Here is hoping Canada follows quickly.
So i think debit cards will be every bit as big as credit cards as we move to a more convient tool (our phones) to pay. So managing will be a lot harder since we wont be carying cah in our wallets but our entire bank accounts. 😎
One wont be able to “tame” anything until one understands and feels the hardships of the consequences of overusing it and going into debt. I say spend away and learn when you are in deep doo-doo 😈
Who wants to tame our debit cards. I love carrying cash all day long. It turns the ladies on 😉 and who cant love the new plastic/washable currency. Hey i’m 18 and loving my freedom to spend my life savings away. Life’s short. Enjoy!