Paper or Plastic?

I was doing pretty well on the cash envelope system for 2 or so months so I decided to take a month and see if I could budget just using the debit card.  The main reason for this is that I feel slightly uncomfortable carrying a giant wad of cash around and also feel slightly uncomfortable leaving it at home too.  But it’s also because I use a credit union that’s nearest branch is a pretty decent drive away.  I mean, there are ATMs everywhere, but ATMs can’t give the change I need to separate everything into envelopes.  So I thought I’d experiment for a few weeks and see.

The first two weeks were an experience for sure.  What I discovered is that, no,  debit card money is easier to spend than paper money and infinitely more difficult (for me) to track in real time.  It’s way easier to glance into my wallet before entering Trader Joe’s than to sit in my car looking on my phone to see my bank account and adding/subtracting the scattered deductions from my bank account.  So I went a little over the first two weeks.  The last two weeks I decided to try a hybrid where half of my money was paper and the other was plastic.  This might have worked but since I got sick and had to dip into additional funds for doctor bills, prescriptions, over the counter stuff, Gatorade, etc, I couldn’t really test it out fully.

Basically, I learned that I need to just pull out the cash.  I’ll likely be adding a bank (I plan on keeping my current credit union right now simply because I like them and it’s super simple in the age of direct deposit to manage a savings account online) once I move and I’ll make sure that this time I pick somewhere with a ton of branches.  

Speaking of moving, I’m still job searching.  I have a lot, like, upwards of 300, inquiries out there and I’m basically planning to take the first serious offer that comes my way.  I’ve been glancing at apartments, mostly in the DFW area, and it’s amazing what I can get for my money out there.  For what I’m paying for a basement studio without a bathtub or dishwasher in a nice but older neighborhood in Minneapolis, I can get a 800+ square luxury apartment in a super fancy area with up to two bedrooms, two full baths, in unit full size washer and dryer, and a dishwasher.  They also throw in things like stainless steel appliances and granite counter-tops but I don’t really care about those so much.  I just want a light, bright, spacious place in a nice area.  And a vent hood over the stove.  And windows that open.  You don’t realize how much it matters until it’s gone.