For years I was an "deposited in the bank on Friday, spent on Saturday" type.
Despite my mothers impassioned entreaties, I never really learned to save.
I figured out that access is what allows me to go, "oh shiny" and spend money.
First it was checks, then ATM and now debit. Putting the money in the bank is not a barrier. It's barely a speed bump.
Cash in my pocket isn't a deterrence while I am out and about, but it does keep me from buying online.
Cash in a jar in the gun safe... Can't spend it at the store if I don't have it on me. Can't spend it online because it's not accessible electronically.
The mind game is the hard part.
Forcing myself to explain why I am removing the money from the jar and for what purpose. I have a post-it in the jar with a short list of why I am saving the money.
It works for me.
It's especially helpful for me that to spend those funds to buy some things, I have to pull the cash, go to the bank, deposit it, then order the item online. The more tedious I make the process, the less likely I will be to spend it.
I'll be interested to see how I react to actually having a steady, not insignificant paycheck. Usually I agonize over every purchase for somewhere between an hour and a month, but that's because usually I have a very small amount of spending money to make last a good long while. Hopefully a lifetime of mostly-frugality will have trained me well enough to get through the rest of it just fine.
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