In this article I’m sharing three personal moves I’ve made with my household finances to have a more efficient 2025. First, I opened a new debit card account to get a better handle on our grocery bill. I also set up budget billing in all of my utility providers to avoid the costly swings that come with seasonality. Lastly, I’m taking advantage of free credit to make more efficient use of my dollars.
The capped debit card strategy
My wife and I do not share finances. We tried to do it early in our relationship and it just didn’t work for us. Our set up has been that I’ll pay the home expenses (mortgage, utilities), and she’ll pay the household expenses (groceries, clothes for the kids, gifts for birthdays, etc). Then there would be things like going out to eat, where we’d take turns picking up the bill. This approach has worked fine but it’s less transparent and organized than I’d like it to be… so we’re trying again, at least to an extent.
One of our main goals has been to become more aware of the spending groceries. The expenses I pay for are generally fixed… the mortgage doesn’t change, insurance/taxes go up each year but are the same each month, etc. My wife’s expenses on the other hand, especially groceries, vary wildly, and inflation hasn’t done her any favors. A $250 trip to the grocery store three years ago is a $325-$350 trip today.
So we’re tackling the grocery bill with a capped debit card strategy. We opened a new debit card at Discover, where I already have a yield savings account, and started a monthly deposit of $750. This amount will serve as the cap for each month. We turned off overdraft protection on the card so that any amounts above the money limit will be declined. $750 may end up being too low of a grocery budget for a family of four, but we’re going to see how it goes and make adjustments as needed.
One of the things I like best about this approach is the debit card is tied to its own category. While various software will give you category breakdowns each month from a larger account, it just works better for my brain to see the single spending category happening in its own account. This type of approach would work well for any expense you want to get a better handle on… Feel like you’re eating out too much? Set up a debit card and only use that card for eating out… when the money on the card runs out, no more eating out for the month! We went with this cash-back debit card from Discover, if you’re looking for ideas.
Budget billing & easy credit
Budget billing is a feature most utility providers offer that smooths out your monthly bill. For example, in Illinois our gas bill is always very high in the winter due to heating needs, but very low in the summer. The opposite is true for our electric bill, which is high in the summer when we run our air conditioner, and lower in the winter months. The same goes for our water bill. When the kids are outside a ton playing with the hose and what not, our water bill shoots up.
In 2024, for instance, I paid a total of $1,400 for our gas bill, but $770 worth of those charges occurred between December-March. So my years long monthly average bill of $117 shot up to an average of $212 during those winter months. By turning on the budget billing feature, I now know my gas bill every single month next year will be $115 per month (the number set by my utility provider). I much prefer fixed expenses over variable expenses, so I like this approach a lot.
The last thing I did to be smarter with finances in 2025 is apply for a new rewards credit card. After doing some research, I settled on the Wells Fargo Autograph card which offers 3% cash back on restaurants, gas, ride shares, and air fare. In addition, there’s 0% annual fee on this card and a 0% intro APR for the first 12 months. After our recent refinance, we do not have any credit needs on the horizon so it was a good time to apply for a new credit card.
In an era of high interest rates, when you can make “free money” in high yield savings accounts, money markets, and treasury bills, you should consider taking advantage of free credit. Of course, you can’t view a credit card as a blank check. But if you’re a disciplined spender, cash-back credit cards can be great tools for flexibility and more efficient use of your dollars.
Changing what we use for spending
I think budgeting is one of the hardest things to get under control. You are what you spend, and those can be hard habits to change. What’s much easier to control is how you allocate your dollars for that spending. For instance, all of the steps I’ve taken are aimed at being more efficient with spending, not so much at curbing it. The only challenge in our plan will be remembering to use the right card for certain expenses, and that shouldn’t be too hard.
The capped debit card strategy will allow for better clarity on just what we’re spending on groceries each month. Having a fixed amount for utility bills will make it so I can run my household more like a business… my income is fixed, and now almost all of my main expenses are too. Our family loves to eat out together and we enjoy a couple vacations per year, earning 3% cash back will make those luxuries a little less expensive. For smart budgeting, you have to find what works for you. In my household, we don’t need to make any drastic changes, but these small changes should help free up a little cash flow month to month.
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