How to Live With Cash Only

When I came back to Italy, one thing I learned is that Italians are for the most part, not a population of people making debt especially for frugal things. They prefer cash in the majority of the situation. Of course stores and restaurants have credit card machines but it seems that the fear that your card number can be stolen is greater, and by starting to use more cash than credit or even debit cards you will be more aware of your spending habits.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Cash

1. The first thing to do is to assess all your bills and debts that you pay on a monthly basis such as your rent or mortgage, phone bills, electricity, gas and food but do not forget your monthly credit card bills and extras.

2. Now take the whole amount of what you spend on a monthly basis and divided that by four, divide by half the result of that and it will be the cash that you will use on a weekly basis, this is a start so that one gets used to cash only.

3. When leaving the house in the morning think about what you will need money for such as lunch, snack, the mechanic, cell phone etc. and bring a bit extra of that amount to be safe but do not carry an excessive amount of cash with you either.

4. Leave your credit cards and debit cards at home so you will not be tempted to use them.

5. To conserve even more your cash, think about bringing lunch from home.

6. Buy your grocery also with cash only, this way you will avoid to buy unnecessary items, at each item that you are tempted to buy ask yourself "Do I really need it? Can I do with out for another week?" And the same principle goes when shopping at the mall or shopping centers, if you like an outfit, think if you really need it or if you can make something similar with the wardrobe that you already have.

7. Using cash will make you more aware of your spending habits and the value of money in itself; try this for a month as a trial period even though it will take time to get used to not having plastic with you, once your trial is over, take two reports of your spending the one where you used credit and debit cards and the one month in which you used cash only, most likely you will see a 15 percent in savings.