We all know how dangerous the credit card shopping is, but have you considered what you are spending on debit? Did you know that you think more deeply about purchases when you have to hand cash over? Maybe it’s just me. I am more likely to make impulse buys when I use my debit card rather than when I only have cash. For me, its not enough to have cash for my shopping trip, I cannot have the debit card with me either. Its easy to hand the cash over and say “the rest on debit please”.
UsNews reported that, “Studies show that consumers spend less when they hand over cold hard cash versus swiping plastic, since cash feels more like real money” (see rest of article for pros and cons of using money vs. plastic). It is good to have a list with an idea of what you want to spend and what it going to be realistically spent, and go from there. I tend to add an extra $20 to what I think my purchases will be because I know that there are often times price increases, tax that I didn’t add correctly, or that one item that always forgets to make it on the list but you remember in the store. $20 seems to give me enough to have a little wiggle room but not a whole lot for splurging.