When University of Minnesota senior Toussaint Morrison swiped his debit card for a candy bar, he ended up paying over $80. "How can this be?" you ask.

Banks have changed their tactics. Whereas they used to disallow checks to clear when account funds were insufficient, they now allow debit card charges, but add a "courtesy overdraft" fee for the service. You get your Snickers or Big Mac when your account is empty; but it will cost you.

This overdraft is a type of short-term loan that often figures to 20,000 percent APR.

Toussaint is not alone. According to a report from the Center for Responsible Lending, 18- to 24-year-olds rack up more than $1 billion in overdraft fees each year. The average transaction that creates the overdraft is $12; the median fee for the overdraft is $33. The report stated that 40 percent of bank and credit union income is generated by fees.

So how can you avoid those fees? Use cash.

Cash should be a essential part of your budget for all items that are tricky to track throughout the month. My wife and I use cash for groceries, eating out, gasoline, clothing, entertainment and helping others. Each month we draw the budgeted amounts from our account and put the cash in their respective envelopes: one for groceries, one for eating out, etc.

The tracking is simple: If we are considering eating out, we check our eating-out envelope. If it has money in it, we eat out. If it is empty, we don't.

Using cash helps us spend less because the average person spends 12 percent to 18 percent more when using plastic. Why? Because there is no pain related to swiping a card compared to handing over hard earned cash.

Do we ever use debit cards? Of course. But we prefer cash. It is simple, and it works every time.

JOE PLEMON is a certified financial counselor. E-mail your questions on personal finance to Joe at plemon@verizon.net.