This is a sponsored post from Zions Bank as part of Forward Influence. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
As you know, we just bought our first home a few months ago! I love it so much, and we always joke about why didn’t we do this sooner? Haha. But I definitely feel more pressure to budget and save more since our bills are a lot more than they were before. I am okay spending more now that we have our own place and I know that our money is going somewhere good now instead of rent, I have a larger budget for it too.
I am okay with budgeting, but budgeting with grocery shopping is where I kind of struggle and get out of hand, haha. I have heard that you should budget about $100 a person per month on groceries. I think for sure the bigger your family is, the easier it is to do that. I count Beck as a person, though, and do a full $100 for him a month—so $300 total. Even with a $300 monthly grocery budget, it is still tight & there are things I definitely cut back on.
When I heard about the Zions Bank OnCard®, I decided to use that to budget for grocery shopping and it has been a game changer. It is a reloadable, prepaid debit card. I love that I can load, let’s say, $300 onto it a month and then throughout the month only use the OnCard to pay for groceries. I love that weekly, or really whenever I want, I can hop on the app and see how I am doing budget wise. It makes it possible that you can get on the app on the 15th of the month to see how you are doing so far and make changes where needed. In addition, I love that I receive push notifications each time a transaction occurs, and that at any time, I can hop on the app and see how I am doing and make changes where needed. A lot of the time, I can see I am overspending my budget in certain areas & underspending in others.
Some months I will use it to budget groceries, but I also like switching it up and using the debit card to monitor and budget our eating out, etc. I like to add money onto the card and then tell myself if there isn’t money left on the card, then we aren’t going out to eat and will be staying in and saving money. Or I sometimes use the card as a reward and allocate myself with a shopping budget. It is great discipline to help myself cut back and realize that I have gone way over budget in certain areas.
I mentioned an app above and I just love that there is an OnCard app. Hopping on the debit card app makes it really easy to check the balance. Another great thing about OnCard, since it is a reloadable card, is it is great for kids & teens. When Beck is a little older, I am going to use an OnCard to give him an allowance for helping with chores.
I love that I will be able to get on the mobile app for all debit card related activity and see where Beck has been spending his money, haha. Also, in the app you can add money to the card, make transfers, etc. In the app there are also security features where you can lock and unlock and set access controls. I have been using this card for the last 3 months and I can’t wait to use it more!
Side note- I love the sticker labels on my food jars to organize my pantry with. I love the look and it does make it useful. I have linked them here.
Zions Bank is a division of Zions Bancorporation, N.A. Member FDIC.
