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Cash Amnesia

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Re: Cash Amnesia

#101

Post by bombcar »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #95
bern4444 wrote: post #80

I've always thought the opposite. When I pay for something with cash I remember it far more strongly than when I pay with card. I pay with a card all the time and the action is the same no matter the price. I tap it and move on. With cash I remember having to go get the cash, counting out the right amount at the register, and physically handing it over. And then I notice its absence since now I gave up all the cash I…

I'll say this, spending cash is harder in the moment . There's a real visceral feeling of loss when handing over actual cash vs card. However, when it comes to tracking long term? Cash always seemed to just ...evaporate, out of my wallet where as I can look back and see my credit card purchases and go 'why did I spend that much on that?!' In my experience, there are two types of people when it comes to money. There a…

This is it exactly - if I spend $2k on an item, I'm going to remember that if it was cash or card, but only card tells me "you spend $2k last month at Walmart".

Re: Cash Amnesia

#102

Post by brewdad »

CaliforniaKarl wrote: post #97
sneed_chucker wrote: post #92

When I pay with cash, all purchases are essentially rounded up to the Dollar, since I will literally never end up spending my change anywhere once it enters coin form.

I'm curious: Do you go grocery-shopping yourself? If yes, do you use a self-checkout option? And if yes, does it support paying with cash? In my case, the answer to all the above is "yes", and I found paying with cash is a good way of getting rid of the change that I've built up. Every self-checkout I've come across that supports cash will also support splitting payments, allowing me to pay the rest with credit card.

While that's certainly an option, it would require both that I remember to grab my accumulated coins before leaving for the shop and that I spend extra time feeding them into the machine. These friction points will probably lead me to my current path of least resistance, tossing my coins into a container on my dresser and dealing with them about once a decade when it fills up.

Re: Cash Amnesia

#103

Post by nfriedly »

tracker1 wrote: post #100
nfriedly wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lived in the USA my whole life, and I still think it's bizarre and ought to be illegal. It's basically a bribe. The worst part is, as long as it is legal, it just makes sense use it - because most things are the same price either way, so it's essentially a small discount on everything. So, I simultaneously use it regularly and hope it becomes illegal.

I definitely favor using CC, and paying off if only for the 2-5% "cash back" program(s). If I pay cash, I'm effectively paying extra, same for debit. It kind of sucks, and definitely should be better managed. Also, if you let the debt accumulate on a CC (very easy to do), then the interest definitely comes out to more than the rewards in that case.

Oh, yeah, CC companies love it when people carry a balance and pay interest.

But they're still making money off of someone like me who pays the full balance off each month, because when they give me 2% back, they're charging the merchant 5% or more.

It's kind of a heads-they-win, tails-you-loose situation.

Re: Cash Amnesia

#104

Post by brewdad »

mingus88 wrote: post #17
malfist wrote: post #2

This goes against everything I'm familiar with around budgeting. One of the big tricks to getting your budget in check is to pay cash so you can see the money leaving your wallet. Swiping a credit card makes that all invisible

“I spent $100 on incidentals” Vs “I spent $100 on pizza and beer” Cash doesn’t sit there in your ledger month after month reminding you of your weakness. Instead you have a generic line-item that doesn’t threaten your ego; it could be anything. You will never know you spent $1200 a year on junk food and booze. It’s just some vague category you can safely manage.

About the only place I spend cash regularly is the farmers market. I typically take out 80-120 dollars on my way to the market and come home with anywhere from 0-60 dollars and a pile of produce. I also probably bought coffee and something for breakfast. As far as spending goes, I know the money probably went towards food (or was it flowers or some crafty thing?) but it's really just a black hole where I ultimately end up categorizing it as "cash spending" in my budget software rather than trying to rebuild where exactly it went.

Credit cards work much better for me.

Re: Cash Amnesia

#105

Post by HWR_14 »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #24
hunter2_ wrote: post #18

> “Certain products are more guilt-inducing because they feel more like impulsive purchases, like a foam hand for the sports game,” Huang says. “Some are more rational purchases, such as books or stationery products for class.” Sure enough, they found that customers were more likely to pay in cash for harder-to-justify items like stuffed plush mascots and Christmas ornaments. Or perhaps the group of people buying har…

When I first moved to North America, the idea that a credit card company was allowed to give people cash back, offer insurance, etc. for using their cards seemed like some bizarroworld "how is this legal" concept. Having lived here for decades, it still is. It's like an alcohol shop rewarding its most alcoholic customers by giving them free booze. And then if you sign up for a new card, or you cancel a card, some ran…

> some random private company decides to rate you

Where did you move from that didn't have a private company assess your creditworthiness before issuing you a loan? If each bank/credit card company did so separately, what is the issue with outsourcing it to a specialist?

Re: Cash Amnesia

#106

Post by thingification »

tracker1 wrote: post #98
bern4444 wrote: post #80

I've always thought the opposite. When I pay for something with cash I remember it far more strongly than when I pay with card. I pay with a card all the time and the action is the same no matter the price. I tap it and move on. With cash I remember having to go get the cash, counting out the right amount at the register, and physically handing it over. And then I notice its absence since now I gave up all the cash I…

That was my take as well... when I was younger and paid for nearly everything in cash... I'd literally see the amount in my wallet go down, and have to think twice on everything. I was so much more aware of the fuel I was buying, how much I would or wouldn't spend eating out, grocery shopping etc. Now it feels like sticker shock each month when I pay everything off... "how did I spend that much." I think the article…

I wonder if part of this is a function of time passing / getting older rather than purely cash vs not.

Re: Cash Amnesia

#107

Post by HWR_14 »

AlanSE wrote: post #48
kldavis4 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you mean the merchant agreement. There are many gas stations in the area where I live that have different cash prices and still take credit cards, so I'm not sure if this is still a thing. And honestly the fact that they would have that lends support to the fact that all of these credit card "benefits" are subsidized by cash payers.

Yes, I should have Googled that before using the wrong word. I am also operating on old information, perhaps the law changed and this it varies by state now.

AFAIK, this changed in 2010 at a federal level.

Re: Cash Amnesia

#108

Post by brewdad »

hooverd wrote: post #56
Larrikin wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just pay as you go with your credit card as there really is no upside to opening a tab or paying in cash if you have a credit card. If the bar is so busy that you think you're saving time by paying in cash, you're wasting that time else where by going to the ATM and making sure you have the right collection of bills to pay in exact change. If you're getting change even once then you're making the server spend even…

I keep a good mix of ones, fives, and tens. I also use a credit card for most expenses.

I use cash so rarely that I end up at the bar (or wherever) with a stack of 20s.

Re: Cash Amnesia

#109

Post by EGreg »

WirelessGigabit wrote: post #68
chrismcb wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America started to do this to try to collect taxes on small transactions. Not to prevent money laundering.

And I don't mind it at all. Unreported cash transactions create a whole separate economy that is exploited. Take your local AC guy. Writes receipts, reports income, charges sales tax, gives the employees insurance etc... Now the other guy, who doesn't do anything, and because of that is able to undercut the guy above by 10%. Short term? Great, your AC is 10% cheaper. Long term? You got 5 people in your neighborhood w…

I wonder if you would mind when this happens to you: https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/1/18246297/china-transportat...

Or maybe this: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/americas/canada-pro...

Re: Cash Amnesia

#110

Post by em-bee »

bombcar wrote: post #101
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll say this, spending cash is harder in the moment . There's a real visceral feeling of loss when handing over actual cash vs card. However, when it comes to tracking long term? Cash always seemed to just ...evaporate, out of my wallet where as I can look back and see my credit card purchases and go 'why did I spend that much on that?!' In my experience, there are two types of people when it comes to money. There a…

This is it exactly - if I spend $2k on an item, I'm going to remember that if it was cash or card, but only card tells me "you spend $2k last month at Walmart".

so the benefit is that paying by card makes tracking your expenses easier.

but the downside is that it also makes makes profiling easier for anyone who can get access to your bank statements which not only includes the bank but more critically also walmart or any other place where you shop regularly.

i rather track my spending manually. there are tools that can help with that too, like receipt scanners. granted, it's more work, so one needs to weigh the options. for me though, supermarkets are the last place that i want to be able to track my shopping because most of it happens there.

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