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.
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…
The point is that once your memory fades, that's it. Unless you took a receipt, kept it, don't lose it, AND have a reason to look at it, the purchase will essentially have never happened. If it's on a card it's on that statement forever.
Obviously you pay cash so it doesn't affect your social credit score. I always pay cash at the bar- it's an easy way to realize you're spending too much compared to just opening a tab. Plus you don't get stuck closing out if you wait too long.
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…
At bars, I'll open a tab with a card, then tip on the first round with cash. Then at the end of the night I'll tip for subsequent rounds on the card. I don't want to do a bunch of scribbling on a receipt after each order, and I want to establish that I'm willing to tip well early to get quicker service. It's definitely the ideal solution.
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.
Same, I take all of my coins to the grocery store and dump them in before finishing off whatever's left with my card. It takes some time to get the machine to take them all so I don't do it if there's a queue behind me but otherwise it's great for quickly getting rid of the coins without them just vanishing into the aether.
I also have a corner store that loves to get my coins. I suspect he has to make awkward change more often than a big-box store does because when I pull out my $3 in quarters before breaking out the paper bills he always thanks me for it
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…
As part of teaching our kids about money, I insisted on not only using physical currency for items the kids decided to purchase with "their own money", but on ringing them up in a separate transaction and having my kid actually hand over the currency and receive the change and the item. (This doesn't work for online purchasing, of course, but anything in store, we'd do this way.)
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 also use a CC for most expenses, but besides small bills, I like to have a handful of large bills (1 or 2 hundreds, a fifty, a handful of twenties) because large bills are a great way to ask for favors. Nobody's going to remember a 10 you hand them, but a 20 is going to stay in their head. A fifty or hundred is going to sit in their wallet, and be a recurring reminder. My rule of thumb is that asking someone to commit to doing something they probably would have done for free is a twenty, asking someone to bend the rules a bit through inaction is a fifty, and asking someone to act in my favor in exception to the rules is a hundred.
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.
5% processing fees are predatory, and the only people that pay them are mom and pop shops that don't have leverage. Larger merchants are going to be closer to ~1.5%.
Well, I know I'm getting 5% back on Amazon purchases, so there's some there, there so to speak.
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.
I can't speak for all, but I came from a lower/lower-middle income family... when I was in my later teens, I generally didn't hold a lot of money to trust in debit purchases not overdrawing. Didn't even have a CC until I was nearly 30yo.
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…
Yes.
Some experiences need friction. For example I do not automate any bills. Each of them are paid manually (with a few exceptions like subscription services)
I want to see, feel, know and understand what is happening behind the curtain when it comes to my hard earned assets.
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…
We can't be that far from the facial recognition in stores/at registers building that same profile for cash customers :(
true, but laws making that illegal are also being considered at least in some places, which means awareness of the dangers does exist