The past two weeks we have been back to using cash for everything except gas. I'm proud to say that the cast lasted the whole two weeks.

It was a little rough after the first week. I didn't start week two with as much cash as I had expected. Plus with the fair and a trip to the pumpkin patch, I had doubts that I could make the cash last. But it did. For the first time in a long time, we actually had money in the account on payday and didn't touch savings.

These past two weeks I haven't worried about money. Using cash gives me hope we can finally make our money work for us and start saving more.

A few months ago, we tried the envelope system for everything but gas. It is just too convenient to swipe the debit card at the pump instead of paying with cash. Last week we went back to using cash for everything except gas.

It seemed last time to take about a pay period to get used to cash. Using cash shows us how much we spend without really thinking about it. The weekend after payday is always the worse. We will spend $100-$200 without even realizing it - and we're not buying stuff. It's from eating out and impromptu trips to the grocery store. Maybe a trip to the bookstore is thrown in there. But using cash we see the ugly truth - we are spending way too much money.

I love cash because it means that the bill money is in the bank. I don't have to worry about figuring groceries, lunches, etc. out of the amount in our account.

I have been saving my receipts so that I see where every penny of the cash went. This way I know exactly where I need to tighten up my spending.

It is such a relief to spend cash. Now hopefully we can get our spending under control and get rid of our debt.