We were on a trip with some friends a few years ago when the subject of budgets, consumer debt and credit cards came up. We talked about this for hours.

We stopped for lunch and as we were paying, my friend Mike asked me about paying for lunch with a credit card. We had no idea the subject of credit cards was to take the twist it did.

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Mike said, he and his wife Lee Anne, had accidentally realized something about their credit cards years ago. This discovery put them back onto a greenback and checks system again.

It seems they’d used credit cards as convenience cards, just as we were doing; paying off the cards each month when the bill arrived. We told them we were simply having the payment auto drafted out of our checking account each month.

They’d done the same thing for years. They had some friends they played cards with every week. One night, the friends explained how they’d gotten about $30,000 behind on consumer debt.

A lawyer/counselor told them if they went back to a greenback only basis, they’d spend between fifteen to twenty-five percent less by using greenbacks as their form of exchange.

In desperation, these people cut up their cards and closed the accounts. Sunday afternoons, they’d go over the bills. On Mondays, they cashed a $300 check; $150 for her; $150 for him.

They carried about seventy-five dollars on their persons along with one check. They’d promised each other not to write the check unless it was some type of emergency. They were amazed; almost immediately they started using less money.

Lee Anne and Mike told their friends the reason they spent less was because they were up against it. This couple however, insisted it had something to do with the form of exchange we call cash. They even thought it worked with cash vs. debit cards.

There was something psychological about the plastic.

Plastic tends to make us believe there is an infinite supply of money. In most people’s early uses of the cards, they were for emergency use only. When our so-called “emergencies” happened, we used the cards. As a result, we learned to associate the plastic with an infinite supply of money.

The next week, while they were playing cards, the subject came up again.

This time it got to be a dare. The couple dared Mike and Lee Anne to try cash for two months and just see what happened. They all laughed about it. The next week their friends asked whether they’d tried it; the dare became a bet.

The bet was Mike and Lee Anne were too afraid to go without their cards and wouldn’t even try it. If they did try it, they’d all go out to dinner at a swanky restaurant, compliments of the other couple. If they didn’t try it, they’d go out to eat at the same place on Mike and Lee Anne’s nickel.

There was a catch. On the starting day, the four of them would meet at Mike and Lee Anne’s bank and place all their cards in Mike and Lee Anne’s safety deposit box. If Mike and Lee Anne accessed the box during the next sixty days, they’d lose the bet.

Mike and Lee Anne decided to carry seventy-five dollars and a check just as their friends did. Lee Anne was actually a little upset at Mike. They didn’t have any credit problems; yet they were doing this stupid experiment. She went along simply to support Mike’s decision.

After the third day, they’d each taken some of the remaining weekly allowance and replenished their pockets to seventy-five dollars. By Saturday, their usual shopping day, they talked about the situation on the way to the mega home improvement store. Maybe there was something to this.

Each had experienced being more aware of their money when they handed the greenbacks to the cashiers. They used the check for their purchase at the home improvement store that day.

On card night, Mike told his friend he had gotten into a situation where he previously would have used his card. Since he didn’t have the card, he simply put the purchase off until next time. Lee Anne saw no difference. She couldn’t wait for the dinner their friends were going to pay for. They all laughed.

By the middle of week three, Lee Anne found herself at the craft store. As she left, she noticed she had one bag with just the items she had intended to buy. Usually when she went for a specific item, she’d buy other things for other projects.

That afternoon she said something to Mike about it. A similar situation had happened to him at the auto parts store. He’d gone in to get a box of fuses and noticed the store had oil filters on sale, two for the price of one. In the past, he would’ve bought four filters, two for each vehicle. He thought he had one for each vehicle, so he didn’t buy them.

Lee Anne resolved there might be something to this. Mike remarked how strange the bet was turning out. Their friends were going to pay for dinner and were sharing a valuable lesson to boot.

In the end they were spending about eighteen percent less by using greenbacks instead of credit cards. Not because of a lack of buying anything they wanted; they still bought anything they wanted. It just did something, somehow, and it worked for them.

Lee Anne commented, “In fact those decisions may be part of it. Maybe the eighteen percent, overall savings, is a result of saving 100 percent on several, small purchases over a given period.”

A funny thing happens when you start using cash again. The way you treated your money as a youngster comes back to you. Almost immediately, there are purchases, you never thought about, you stop making all together.

Maybe that’s why it works, maybe not. All I know is, if you get back onto greenbacks, you’ll spend less. I dare you to try it. Even if you don’t have any financial problems at all, try it.

Embrace these simple financial strategies? Life is short. Begin now.