live within my means

I’ve found that carrying cash realllly helps with this. That also means that I leave my credit cards at home. I know that means I don’t have an unlimited amount of money in an emergency, but I do still carry my debit card, which has enough on it. I’ve also found that only carrying the amount of money I’ll need for the day is helpful. If all I’m doing is going to work and then home I won’t carry any cash, which means I can’t just stop at dunks to get coffee.

I feel like this is working really well so far. We’ll see how it holds up over time.

This means saving up for things before buying them instead of using credit. Credit cards need to be reserved for monthly recurring bills (this way I’ll still get SOME rewards points) which I will pay off immediately (at least, this is the hope).

I feel better about buying something when I’ve saved up for it anyway. I’m currently trying to save up for a bunch of kitchen stuff for my new apartment. I have a few months and hopefully I’ll get a pretty decent discount through work.’

I’m going to start working on this goal by trying to use cash only. Going to try to go to the ATM this morning before work.