Paper or Plastic?

I'm a child of the plastic revolution. What does that mean? It means that for the whole of my life as an employee, I've had the option of using plastic... IE the debit/credit card. I'd say that well over 90% of my lifetime transactions anywhere were made with a debit card (I have a credit/debit card, but the credit portion is attached to my debit account... I do not have an actual credit card). My ability to spend when I only have a limited amount of on-hand cash available? Not so good. Pair that with the anxiety I feel when I know I've walked out the door with only X amount of money, and I've just justified quite beautifully to myself why I *need* debit cards. What if I get into an accident and I can't afford to get help? What if I go out and the bill is a little higher than I thought? I'll be so embarrassed! What if I'm abducted by aliens and the only way they'll let me go free is if I show to them my Visa card and I don't have it?

But as we all know, paying with plastic gives comfort, but it also removes accountability. It's easy to spend it if I was never actually were holding onto the money. There's no "Oh, I can't afford this... I don't have the cash on me." It's all "Oh, I'm sure I have $10.50 in my account. No biggie." And I think to myself that it's *only* $10.50... But you know, 10.50 a month for a year in extra spending is $126. That's a lot of money! Or at least it is for me... That's two weeks worth of groceries, plus a half tank of gas. Yikes. And I'll be honest, my extra spending isn't $10.50 a month. I easily buy $10.50 of wants, and then some, each week. Why? Because it's easy to spend it when you use plastic. *Really* easy.

So as part of my Fledgling Frugalness, I've been reading Meredith's posts on Living Well on Less, and in one of her posts she talks about paying cash for the day-to-day expenses. It's so simple, so brilliant, I'm almost embarrassed it didn't occur to me earlier. But hey, as a child of the Plastic Revolution, I've been trained to think only plastic and not paper. Even in my Home Ec. classes in school, they taught that the (at that time) new idea of using debit was the cure-all to budgeting illnesses. One didn't need to keep a register or an accounting record... The bank did it for you!! Of course, if you let the bank do it for you and you didn't keep on top of it, that financial manager called the bank would charge you $25 for every overdraft... But hey, that's way easier than balancing your checkbook, and it takes less time. And that little $25 fee, call it an investment. In investment in never worrying that you don't have enough money. Comfort in knowing that no matter what, that plastic card means you can buy it, even if you can't afford it.

Here's the thing though... I know paying cash works to keep my spending in check. I made a pledge to spend only $100 every-other-week on groceries for the family, and to make sure I did it, I only carried $100 in cash. I knew if I spent it elsewhere, that meant my family didn't eat. And boy oh boy, is that a motivator to a financial diet.

There's always that nagging fear, though... The "what ifs" of fear or embarrassment for not having that plastic lifeline there at your beck and call to get you out of those silly little jams that life throws at you and greed tells you that you have to bend to... But let's put it in perspective. I have other financial fears that will come true if we don't adhere to a budget of some type ~

• If we pay minimum payment on our debts, and gain no more, then our debt will be paid off right when my husband hopes to retire. That means for all of our adult life, we will be in debt


• If we do not put aside money to savings, we will always earn more debt when we have unexpected expenses


• If we put all of our money to current spending and paying off the minimums on our debt, we will not have any money in savings


• We also won't have money for our kids savings


• More frighteningly, we will have nothing set aside for our children's college education, weddings, or even to bail them out if they find themselves in a jam

I don't know about you guys, but the embarrassment I'd feel in having to put back $10 worth of stuff at the grocery store is far less then that of looking at my kids and saying "Sorry... We can't afford college unless you dive into the kind of debt I dove into and didn't escape until your father retired." I know I don't want that for my kids. And I know I don't want my husband to question his ability to provide because we both didn't want to undertake the trouble to budget, and now we're in our golden years and fearing how we can survive financially. The humiliation that I'd feel in leaving our kids with debt after we pass on, or even worse, asking for their support because we didn't prepare... I just can't do it. And I don't think I've really stopped to think that if we don't make this effort, that may just be what happens.

So, this weekend, Mr. Stepford and I are really going to sit down and lay out the path for our financial diet. It won't be easy I'm sure, but really, it has to be done. I'm sure that we can show the restraint it takes to succeed in this. Really, in terms of investments, is there a better one out there that we can make? I don't think so. :)