Raiding the Coin Jar

The other day I found myself needing five dollars, and my wallet was bare. I could have stopped at the bank. I probably could have written a check at the place I was going, but I decided to raid the coin jar. 

We are trying to stick to the budget, in cash. We haven't been perfect on that goal, but it felt good to find that five dollars I needed. Even if it was all in quarters. Digging through that jar reminded me of our first years of marriage. 

We were both in school, and raiding the coin jar was a common event. The coin jar was our little stash for treats and getting through. We would raid it and go to our favorite ice cream place, and sometimes we would raid it to get a few groceries to stretch us to the next payday. 

These were the days before the ice cream place and the grocery store took credit cards. The days before our credit limits were sky high.  The days we did without instead of buying it with plastic. Times were tight, but we had very little debt. 

Now just about every place takes plastic, and it is all too easy to buy it now and figure out where the money is coming from later. This doesn't just happen with our credit, but when using our debit card too. Times are still tight, and our debt is much larger than I like. 

Five dollars may seem like a trivial amount, but finding it in cash without taking money out of the bank felt like a small victory. It was a victory over the get it now figure it out later mentality. It was an encouragement to me to stick with the cash only budget. 

photo credit:  jay d