Pay Cash

In Emotionally Spent, I discuss how paying cash was key to our success in becoming debt free. We took Dave Ramsey’s advice, pay cash for everything, very seriously. We literally paid cash for every purchase…for 3 years. We had over 30 cash envelopes that each month we sat down and filled with cash. Then when we made purchases we only touched that cash and completely ignored our cards. We have a large safe in our home so we felt comfortable storing this much cash in our home. Below is our box of cash envelopes.

Really Lindsay? My Cash Just Disappears

This first thing people tell me when I talk about spending cash only is, “When I have cash it disappears and I don’t know where it goes.” Yes, this is true UNLESS you put cash in separate envelopes that have a purpose. Trust me when I say, the cash in my envelopes didn’t just disappear. This cash was my lifeline and I treated it with great respect. For the cash that stayed in my purse (food, gas, fun money), I purchased cute envelopes on Etsy so that it wouldn’t just disappear from my wallet (see below).