How to Pay Cash For What You Need The Right Way : The Saturday Weekend Review #186
JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE CASH TO BUY SOMETHING DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD.
Believe me when I say there is a right way and a wrong way to pay cash for something. Choose the wrong way too often and you’ll soon know why you should have chosen the other option that many people forget, savings.
If the ice-cream cone in the above picture caught your attention make that a reminder just how easy we are swayed by things that tempt us. Wouldn’t it be nice if that was you enjoying that ice-cream cone? You deserve it, but can you afford it?
Related: I can buy it but can I afford it?
Not everyone can get credit but if given the opportunity it’s just as easy to burn a hole through plastic as it is to empty your bank account of cash.
Just because you pay cash for purchases doesn’t make you a super-saving, shopping super-hero. What you are is someone who knows the difference between cash and credit but even then that won’t stop someone from spending more than they earn if they don’t care about their financial freedom.
All of my life I’ve been surrounded by people who have been frugal only because they grew up that way and it carried down the generations. My parents are mortgage and debt free and still pay cash for everything they buy. Over the years they have inspired me to continue going down the same route for one reason, freedom.
So often I read or hear about kids who are saving their money to pay cash for a bike, video game or something that they fancy. This is great that parents are teaching their kids the importance of saving first to pay cash but do they really need to spend it?
Wiping out your bank account after saving money to buy something leaving nothing to fall back on isn’t a financial lesson we want to teach our son. It becomes a revolving door of saving and buying, saving and buying because this is the feel-good pat on the back we give kids for earning, saving and spending.
Challenge your life lessons
I remember a time when my dad handed me some money for my birthday and said, “Cash for you will always be plenty if you spend it wisely.”
Over the years as I was learning how to be financially independent I still paid cash for any purchases I made because it made me feel like I earned what I bought. I also knew that I didn’t have to spend all of my saved money to get that same feeling. It was opposite for me which is why I had enough money to buy my first house very young.
I don’t even recall seeing my parents using credit cards when I was growing up. It was almost unheard of in our house because if we needed something we paid cash. My parents saved their money in the bank where they would go to deposit money and retrieve money when needed.
I’d like to say my parents did well for themselves since they are semi-retired, debt-free and own houses that are free and clear of any mortgages but earning a rental income.
Credit Cards are for Rich people
Although my wife and I have been smart with our money from a young age we never grew up in the plastic money game wars. In the 70’s it was either cash or cash unless you were rich and had a credit card.
My wife says that when she saw someone use a credit card it was her belief that they were made of money. By that she meant that they didn’t need to carry it around with them because they were given a card to spend it as needed. Funny how perception can be so misguided when no one is there to tell you differently.
Could I Interest You In…
Everywhere we turn today someone is offering us credit, increased credit or some magical interest rates to help us buy what we need now and pay later. At least once a month we get a random phone call from a credit card company trying to get us to sign up. Just the other day I was pumping gas and approached by employees of the company who wanted me to sign-up for a credit card.
The problem is when people are in desperate situations and someone flashes plastic money in their faces they are being tempted and it’s hard to say no when you know it can help get you out of a money rut. Problem is that they take from one pile and put it into another which doesn’t solve a problem it only prolongs it.
In the finance world we continue to be reminded that cash is King and it always will be. That is correct in my opinion however it doesn’t matter if you pay cash or by credit card if you are spending on stuff you don’t need you’re wasting money.
That may be obvious to you reading this or it may be the push you need to be mindful of where your money is going and why you aren’t able to save as much as you’d like.
Pay Cash the right way
So whether you pay cash or use credit cards to make purchases to get rewards points but pay it in full monthly ask yourself these four questions;
- Can I pay cash for a purchase in full?
- Do I need it or want it?
- Can I wait to make the purchase?
- Is it in the budget?
Just because you can afford to pay cash for something doesn’t mean you should. If you have a budget it’s important to stick to it the best you can without justifying extra expenses.
This has been one of our biggest struggles over the years especially with grocery shopping and on the odd occasion extra purchases for around the house. I think all of you can relate with us at some point. That doesn’t make you a sloppy spender it simply means you have to clean up your budget act.
Sometimes if you just sit on a purchase or wait it out you may find out you don’t need something or you score a better deal because it goes on sale when the time is right for your budget.
Don’t be swayed by the sweets of life, they may just cost you.
Before I go one last thing, It’s not about how much money you make, it’s how you save it. Never forget that.
Do you save to pay cash for purchases and how do you distinguish between what you want and what you need?
Trouble I got into this week
There was too much heat and humidity this week along with a side-dish of rain that kept me indoors. Most of the week was spent cleaning the house completing those once or twice a year tasks, playing with my boy, baking a low-carb loaf of bread and gardening.
We sold our Little Tikes play centre that we bought in the summer for $50 and got back $45 which was great as we only lost $5 but our son got enough play time out of it that we were happy with the sale. The reason we sold it was because it was about a week or two after we bought it that we picked up our amazing swing set with the slide, climbing wall, 2 swings, monkey bars and a play area, with a picnic table for snacks and lunch attached for $80.
I refinished all the wood and built our son a huge sandbox and now that’s all he plays on. There was no point keeping something around that he’s just not that into.
Other than that, I slept when I could as I’ve been super tired lately and enjoying life with my family. I’m on vacation now for 2 weeks so if I’m MIA you know where I am.
Tonight is the last Tragically Hip concert from their final tour in Kingston! The wife and I are heading out for a fun night of partying with friends while the inlaws watch the little guy. Wish them luck, haha!!!
Mr.CBB
Awesome posts I published this week
Just in case you’ve missed any of my blog posts this week I will share them all below. If you are looking for past Saturday Weekend Review posts scroll down to the bottom of this post where I will list up to 5 previous weeks for you to read.
If you have a question that you would like to ask Mr.CBB fill out the Contact Mr.CBB form on the blog home page and I’ll do my best to reply to each one. If you want to share a story via a Fan Question please ensure that there is minimum 500 words and lots of details…we love details! I’m more than happy to chat via email to bring your story to life.
New: If your story submission gets chosen and published you will be entered into a yearly draw for a $25 Gift Card or $25 CDN via PayPal if you are from the USA.
Right now CBB is posting Tuesday (Grocery Game Challenge), Thursday (Personal Finance Post), Saturday (Personal Finance and Weekly Wrap-Up and a Frugal Recipe on Sunday!
Top performing CBB Post this week : The Scanning Code of Practice- Did You Know?
- 5 Simple Money Rules We Live By To Stay Debt Free
- 10 Food Staples To Buy When You’re Broke
- Creamy Bacon Tomato Salad
Reader Budget Brags
Join the Budget Brag Challenge 2016 and WIN!!!
You got WHAT for HOW Much?
What I love the most is when my fans share their amazing shops with me whether it be groceries or other deals they find at a garage sale, online or freebies! For 2016 if you send me your Budget Brag you will automatically get entered into a yearly draw for a surprise gift card.
Every submission gets a ballot in the draw but you get an extra ballot if your brag is featured. Start sending in your brags with a photo and tell me about your deals. If you reside in the USA and win I will PayPal you the money. Open to Canada and USA residents only.
Email me at canadianbudgetbinder@yahoo.ca
Hi Mr. CBB and Fans,
Check out this bargain I was able to get this week. I picked up a queen size down duvet through our area Freecycle group. I put it in the washing machine and hung it outside to dry and we love it. Free is Awesome!
Pat.
Making a difference (MAD)
Welcome to the 2016 Making A Difference series! Join the networking movement of Personal Finance Bloggers around the world. If you are a personal finance blogger (anywhere around the world) and would like your blog to be MAD featured simply drop me an email and I’ll explain the process to you. I’m currently booking for September and October.
This is my way of giving back to the personal finance community through networking and sharing knowledge with my fans. Today it is my pleasure to share with you the personal finance blog, My Debtspiration.
Hello everyone!
My name is Beth and you can connect with me at my blog, My Debtspiration
I am a brand spanking new blogger so I am super excited to be included in the MAD feature on Canadian Budget Binder. Seriously! Thanks so much – this has made my month!
For starters I am a 33-year-old mom and I have two children – they are 7 and 11. I work full-time at a financial institution as a Retirement Plan Administrator. I also coach cheer-leading at the local high school. Fun times!
On top of my two jobs, now that my kids are older, they are also involved in things like cheerleading, soccer, and theatre. We stay pretty busy. At times I hate it and want to say screw it all but then I really couldn’t imagine it any other way. As long as we get our down time here and there and we can re-charge we are usually good to go for a while.
I have been interested in personal finance for a long time. Starting from a very young age I had always been acutely aware of the financial stresses my parents faced and I never wanted to deal with things like that when I grew up. But you will never believe what happened when I grew up…life happened! How dare it!
I was in college, working part-time, living at home and excited about life when the dreaded cancer word entered our lives. My mom was the victim of melanoma and passed away when I was 22. At the same time I became pregnant with my daughter. Two major life altering occurrences really threw my mind set for a loop…upside down, inside out…and I entered survival mode.
All of a sudden I had to go from working part-time to full-time. This made going to college difficult but I never quit. I couldn’t let that be an option for me. Although it took a while longer I finished school in 2007.
Hallelujah!
Through those beginning years I didn’t make the best decisions financially. Things like racking up credit card debt and financing cars and being upside on them – I wasn’t thinking for the long-term. I kept doing things to please others and have instant gratification. I lived pay check to pay check and constantly felt some stress about our finances.
About 4 years ago I started to really remember my obsession I had as a teenager with personal finance. I was disappointed in myself because I was doing the same crap my parents did and I was putting myself in the same situation.
It was then I decided to focus on paying my debt off. I started to obsessively read personal finance blogs. I seriously have read PF blogs for about 4 years and I have always wanted to start my own. I finally took the plunge back in May and finally started my blog.
My hopes with my blog is that maybe I can inspire others to make a change in their financial situation too, just like reading other PF blogs did for me. Not to sound to cliché but even if I can inspire one person to better their finances I will be happy.
I am not perfect and I still make some questionable decisions about my spending habits sometimes (I AM human after all) BUT as long as we are dedicated to lowering and/or paying off debt, not taking on debt that is totally out of our means and just being aware of the financial decisions we make we will all be less stressed and a more happy. J
Frugal Recipe Pick
Food and grocery shopping are relevant to us because food is a large part of the budget which people struggle the most with.
We all have to eat to survive but just because we have a budget doesn’t mean we can’t eat delicious home-cooked meals that are drool-worthy.
If you are someone who would rather buy convenience foods consider cooking homemade meals or baking from scratch. Not only will you save money but you will be proud of what you’ve accomplished and you’ll see that from the smiles on those you feed.
For the past 2 years I’ve had a second Facebook page called The Free Recipe Depot where I exclusively share recipes from Food Bloggers around the world. I also share recipes on the blog on Sunday either made by home cook and mom Nicola Don or myself.
This week our Top Recipe Pick:
You must head over to Domestic Gothess and check out this AMAZING Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake she has showcased on her blog. I would love to make this and I know one certain little monkey who would go mad for it. Great stuff.
Cool Pinterest Find
My wife and I adore people who can take something as simple and turn them into a masterpiece like the Shanty Sisters over at Shanty 2 Chic.
This DIY console project blew me away and if we had an older Victorian house I would most certainly take this DIY Console Table project on.
What I love about it is that it doesn’t stick out like a traditional table would. Brilliant!!
Editor’s Choice
Every week I will pick a blog post of the week from around the web that I found interesting and want to share with all of you. Please head on over and give the post a read and let them know that Mr. CBB sent you if you comment. Thanks.
Editor’s pick (That’s me Mr.CBB) This week I read a story which went viral simply because a 30-something year-old couple from Ontario wasn’t interested in becoming homeowners rather they wanted to become millionaires. They did just that and now they travel and enjoy life. Their story received lots of backlash because it was felt this is not realistic for many people.
How could they save $500,000 so early on in life without any form of help from family, lottery winnings etc. It was plenty of jealous people in my opinion who were looking for ways to chip a hole into their retirement party.
I don’t care one way or another if they want to have kids or own a home but what I can say is that it is very possible to save the money they did as we are doing jut the same. The only difference is we have a kid and no mortgage on our house.
How a 30-something couple got rich and retired by not joining the home ownership cult.
Finance Quote Of the Week
You can’t Deposit Excuses. Enough said and very true. If you dream it you must start to make it a reality. Found on Pinterest but main Source
Google Search Giggles
Always begin and end your day with a SMILE!- Mr.CBB
Every week I get thousands of people visit Canadian Budget Binder because they did a search online and found my blog. If you notice any spelling errors below this is because I share the exact way it was typed into a search engine query to land on my blog.
Most times funny, Sometimes serious.
That’s all the fun for this week, thanks for dropping by and we’ll see ya all again next Saturday!
- What is the best way to earn money in Canada?– Get a Job!!
- How to spot a smart woman?– Your best bet is just to talk to women instead of assuming from looks.
- Where to buy Costco Canada cigarettes? – Must be hidden code here hahaha!!
Mr.CBB
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- The Saturday Weekend Review #181: Should I buy a Cheaper or more Expensive house?
- The Saturday Weekend Review #182: Free Stuff to do During A Heat Wave to Keep Cool
- The Saturday Weekend Review #183: 8 Habits To Increase Financial Self-Discipline
- The Saturday Weekend Review #184: In 1 Minute This 10-year-old teaches the world about materialism
- The Saturday Weekend Review #185: 15 Action Steps We Use To Get Ahead Financially
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