Another recommendation for YNAB: http://www.youneedabudget.com/

Make sure everyone downloads the smartphone app, makes entering expenses and checking the budget so easy.

I actually have money these days as I'm no longer blowing it mindlessly on whatever takes my fancy.

Good luck!

Second/third the rec for YNAB. We suck at using cash only and find that we lose a lot in change/ones that don't get used. But we are super militant about the money in the YNAB electronic envelope. When it's gone, it's gone.

I am a huge convert. We went from being paycheck to paycheck to living on several paychecks ago in about 2 months. I love YNAB.

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to get our family to cut down on unnecessary expenses (Starbucks, eating lunch out, etc.) and to lower our grocery bills. (I've previously complained about this, and I think my family is finally getting on board.) Now that we need to implement, I'm trying to come up with the best way. Am thinking of setting aside a certain amount of cash in an envelope and when it's gone, it's gone. Has anyone gone old school and tried that? (My mom tells me that is what her mom did when they were growing up.) Any other suggestions. It is so easy to pull out that debit card.

First, I HUGELY recommend You Need a Budget (YNAB). You can pick a reasonable "allowance" for yourself or others for particular categories, and that can help, but what helps IMO most of all is just tracking every penny and seeing where everythign is going. Like, when I realized that I was literally pissing away about $1040/year on Snapple Iced Tea, it was MUCH easier to dilute it 50/50 to save $500 annually, and then switch entirely to water. When you can really see where your money is going, you can become more strategic about how you spend it.

Secondly, when you say "family", who do you mean? Who has debit cards that can access your account? If anyone other than you and your spouse, I highly recommend that you either move to cash or give them their own accounts into which you will transfer their "allowance" amount. The advantage of the account is that they can see where every penny is spent, but when the money is gone, it's gone.

Very interesting, OP. DH and I are getting ready to have a major budget shake-up ($20k college expense for oldest DD).

We've decided that we will go to a cash-only system because we tend to swipe our debit cards for everything and I have an "oh crap" moment when I look online and see that we overspent (this is particularly true on the weekends).

I think having the cash will be a visual reminder of what we have rather than obliviously swiping the card.

DH and I have an allowance for our frivolous expenses. He has his transferred into a separate bank account and uses a debit card or cash. I just take out cash each payday. Sometimes I'm pretty flush and have hundreds of dollars on me, other times I'm down to my last 50. Usually the former.

I've heard of people using prepaid credit cards instead of cash that they put a certain amount of money on each month

A poster the other day was recommending youneedabudget-- I think it's an app or website or something.

Dave Ramsey advocates a cash only system.

It depends on what works for you. I tend to blow through cash but have wont use a debit card for Starbucks. I think tracking every penny for a month or two can be enlightening. We also did a no spend month in February, which made me realize how much money we were spending stocking up at Costco and little extras at target.

I'm trying to get our family to cut down on unnecessary expenses (Starbucks, eating lunch out, etc.) and to lower our grocery bills. (I've previously complained about this, and I think my family is finally getting on board.) Now that we need to implement, I'm trying to come up with the best way. Am thinking of setting aside a certain amount of cash in an envelope and when it's gone, it's gone. Has anyone gone old school and tried that? (My mom tells me that is what her mom did when they were growing up.) Any other suggestions. It is so easy to pull out that debit card.