This exercise is pretty straightforward. Use only cash for whenever you need to spend money today, excluding any usual bills or expenses that might be prescheduled or handled automatically. Stop at the ATM first thing in the morning and then use only that cash today. It’ll be like a gut check: either you won’t spend a dime for a day, or you’ll be more like me and keep reaching for your card out of habit as you watch your cash dwindle, uh, rather quickly. Neither reaction is wrong, but both will make you think twice about your spending habits. I’ll venture to guess that you will be shocked at how quickly your cash goes, and it will hopefully force you to look at your spending habits and adjust them so you can stretch your money out to last the whole day. What happens if you run out of cash before the day is over? Use it as a kind of a test to see if you can make it through the rest of the day without spending any more money.