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Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 8:48 am

I resist strongly paying bills directly from my checking account and send checks whenever possible. It is getting a little harder, but I do it if I can. I make Mrs Spock use checks at places like Walmart and other stores if they will take checks.

I ALWAYS pay with cash in restaurants and for small items at convenience stores and so forth.

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:03 am

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 8:48 am

I resist strongly paying bills directly from my checking account and send checks whenever possible. It is getting a little harder, but I do it if I can. I make Mrs Spock use checks at places like Walmart and other stores if they will take checks.

I ALWAYS pay with cash in restaurants and for small items at convenience stores and so forth.

This is scary. Spock and I do things alike.

I started out using cash as a budgeting tool. If I knew I had $50 in my wallet and it had to last until the end of the week, I knew when I could splurge on a lunch a bit and when to bring in a sandwich. I never use a debit card today unless it's to get money from the ATM. I also pay with checks wherever I can. I'm convinced that a large reason why young people remain in debt up to their eyeballs is the increasing tendency to buy everything from a Big Mac up with a card. The money's there; they only have a vague concept of how much additional money is "there," and that's why they always wind up needing overdraft protection.

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:23 am

They throw their cards around everywhere increasing the odds of the numbers being stolen.

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:11 am

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:03 am

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 8:48 am

I resist strongly paying bills directly from my checking account and send checks whenever possible. It is getting a little harder, but I do it if I can. I make Mrs Spock use checks at places like Walmart and other stores if they will take checks.

I ALWAYS pay with cash in restaurants and for small items at convenience stores and so forth.

This is scary. Spock and I do things alike.

I started out using cash as a budgeting tool. If I knew I had $50 in my wallet and it had to last until the end of the week, I knew when I could splurge on a lunch a bit and when to bring in a sandwich. I never use a debit card today unless it's to get money from the ATM. I also pay with checks wherever I can. I'm convinced that a large reason why young people remain in debt up to their eyeballs is the increasing tendency to buy everything from a Big Mac up with a card. The money's there; they only have a vague concept of how much additional money is "there," and that's why they always wind up needing overdraft protection.

Cool beans.

Not really part of a prepping plan or whatever. But I do generally have a few thousand in cash laying around the house. Kind of nice to have that cushion around when you see people lined up at ATM's in a SHTF and the ATM's might not be working.

It kind of started when I set some specific cash aside-like hidden in a book-to sit on for a trip or whatever.-But is is pretty nice to have around.

Yes, I know I am taking the risk of fire or robbery. But whatever.

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:56 am

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:23 am

They throw their cards around everywhere increasing the odds of the numbers being stolen.

I remember reading a book about poker that was written in the late 1950s (I read it when I was in high school; so you can tell what my interests were.) The author recalled being stationed in Okinawa at the end of World War II and being in a barracks with a group of soldiers awaiting to go back stateside. They had been paid in some kind of "victory currency" instead of American dollars while there (probably to reduce risk) and it didn't look much like US currency other than the numbers on the bills. When they finished being processed, the GIs would exchange their victory currency for actual cash.

As the author told the story, when they were playing poker for "victory currency," they were going crazy with their bets, $20 and more easily on each card (the average weekly paycheck at that time was around $200 total). Then when the game resumed after exchanging their victory currency for cash, the betting started at a dime.

The moral: It means much more when you're spending real money instead of victory currency or a card swipe.

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:11 am

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:03 am

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 8:48 am

I resist strongly paying bills directly from my checking account and send checks whenever possible. It is getting a little harder, but I do it if I can. I make Mrs Spock use checks at places like Walmart and other stores if they will take checks.

I ALWAYS pay with cash in restaurants and for small items at convenience stores and so forth.

This is scary. Spock and I do things alike.

I started out using cash as a budgeting tool. If I knew I had $50 in my wallet and it had to last until the end of the week, I knew when I could splurge on a lunch a bit and when to bring in a sandwich. I never use a debit card today unless it's to get money from the ATM. I also pay with checks wherever I can. I'm convinced that a large reason why young people remain in debt up to their eyeballs is the increasing tendency to buy everything from a Big Mac up with a card. The money's there; they only have a vague concept of how much additional money is "there," and that's why they always wind up needing overdraft protection.

Cool beans.

Not really part of a prepping plan or whatever. But I do generally have a few thousand in cash laying around the house. Kind of nice to have that cushion around when you see people lined up at ATM's in a SHTF and the ATM's might not be working.

It kind of started when I set some specific cash aside-like hidden in a book-to sit on for a trip or whatever.-But is is pretty nice to have around.

Yes, I know I am taking the risk of fire or robbery. But whatever.

kroxquo wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 1:14 pm

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:11 am

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:03 am

This is scary. Spock and I do things alike.

I started out using cash as a budgeting tool. If I knew I had $50 in my wallet and it had to last until the end of the week, I knew when I could splurge on a lunch a bit and when to bring in a sandwich. I never use a debit card today unless it's to get money from the ATM. I also pay with checks wherever I can. I'm convinced that a large reason why young people remain in debt up to their eyeballs is the increasing tendency to buy everything from a Big Mac up with a card. The money's there; they only have a vague concept of how much additional money is "there," and that's why they always wind up needing overdraft protection.

Cool beans.

Not really part of a prepping plan or whatever. But I do generally have a few thousand in cash laying around the house. Kind of nice to have that cushion around when you see people lined up at ATM's in a SHTF and the ATM's might not be working.

It kind of started when I set some specific cash aside-like hidden in a book-to sit on for a trip or whatever.-But is is pretty nice to have around.

Yes, I know I am taking the risk of fire or robbery. But whatever.

Do yourself and your family a favor and make sure they know where you keep it. My grandfather was an antique dealer for more than 50 years and he had any number of stories about going in and buying out a house and finding cash stuffed in the oddest places. He was an honorable man so if he found this, he would collect the cash and contact the family, but that was not always possible. He told me one time he found almost $15K hidden in the sleeves of someone's 45 record collection.

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 1:54 pm

kroxquo wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 1:14 pm

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:11 am

Cool beans.

Not really part of a prepping plan or whatever. But I do generally have a few thousand in cash laying around the house. Kind of nice to have that cushion around when you see people lined up at ATM's in a SHTF and the ATM's might not be working.

It kind of started when I set some specific cash aside-like hidden in a book-to sit on for a trip or whatever.-But is is pretty nice to have around.

Yes, I know I am taking the risk of fire or robbery. But whatever.

Do yourself and your family a favor and make sure they know where you keep it. My grandfather was an antique dealer for more than 50 years and he had any number of stories about going in and buying out a house and finding cash stuffed in the oddest places. He was an honorable man so if he found this, he would collect the cash and contact the family, but that was not always possible. He told me one time he found almost $15K hidden in the sleeves of someone's 45 record collection.

Good advice. I could tell them it is hidden in a book, but that wouldn't do them much good-because there are thousands of books here-LOL. But seriously, I did show the Spocklette which book it was in.

In some ways, I view myself as an analog man in a digital world and I love to throw sand in the gears of the big data algorithms and tracking apps and so forth whenever possible.

Hence, big data can't figure out that I bought a chicken sandwich at KFC for cash. It is kind of fun that we have our own gas tank at the farm so my gas purchase location can't be tracked unless we drive 400 miles away.

Plus I still stick with my flip phone. No apps for me.

jaybee wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 10:41 am

I've completely flip-flopped on the cash/CC thing.

Back in the mid-80's, when I was starting all over again I would cash my paycheck, divide it up into envelopes for whatever bills I had each month and only use cash for whatever was left. But I was in debt and that seemed to be the best plan to get out of it. I remember razzing a friend who bought me lunch and paid for it on a CC ("It's going to be all digested even before you get the bill!"). But eventually I found it easier and better to control the money by using CC's. Plus there were reward points. I haven't paid a dime in CC interest in over 30 years. Probably make about $2K in cash reward paybacks annually. I still use some cash for things like lotto tickets plus I frequently prefer to leave tips in cash but I'm much better at tracking and regulating the money that goes out via CC's. On top of that, many of my purchases are now on-line - just no way to do that with cash. The biggest downside to the CC thing is that Mrs. Jaybee is a nut about keeping records. So I keep a stash of cash for whenever I want to buy her anything without her knowing about it. Or use it if I see Ruskie parachutes raining down.

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 11:26 am

Jaybee>>>"So I keep a stash of cash"<<<

I think that is the important part. As recent events have shown, it would be irresponsible not to have some around.

I just thought of a neat little trick that I am going to try.

I normally get $200 at the ATM or Bank. One fun thing about the 2 ATM's in our small town is that there is no ATM fee for our home-town bank. They put that in place during Covid to keep people from coming into the bank.

Anyway, I use that $200 until it is almost gone-then get more. My wife generally robs my wallet and so sometimes I open it to only a small amount.

Anyway, I might frontload the cash, so to speak. Get $200 and pretend I don't have it. Put some of it ($100)in a separate compartment in my wallet and just don't touch it and the other $100 in an easily accessible spot at home.

Mrs Spock will have to be told that that specific compartment of my wallet does not exist.

Could come in handy in a short-term emergency.