I had two reasons, the first is because i found it way too easy to spend on my card without thinking, and the second because I wanted to regain a bit of privacy alongside everything else I’m doing. Ive set it up in my bank that on payday, an amount of my salary automatically goes to the bills account, some goes to long term savings, some to short term savings, then the rest I take out in cash.
It really does change my perception of spending I think: Ive found myself not buying things because I didnt want to break a note and carry change. I can physically see how much I have left. I can take £20 to the pub and leave when its finished. Plus it feels really good knowing every single transaction isnt stored forever. I have a small amount of money on a contactless ring for emergencies like a bus fare or somewhere that unexpectedly only takes card.
Is anyone else still predominantly using cash day to day?
I fantasize about getting it together enough to pull off what you are doing. Good for you — keep inspiring us.
I actually started with it this week. It is partially due to privacy but also because I lost a sense for value. It is really easy to press a button online and pay say 20 euro. Not that I am irresponsible with money but the numbers on your bank account feel so meaningless.
Apparently there has been an uptick in people using cash in the UK because it helps with budgeting. Which has become more necessary since 60% of inflation started coming from corporate profiteering and four people became able to outcompete twenty million others in the market.
I regularly consider doing this. Obviously it is great from a privacy perspective. But I hate dealing with cash, especially change. With cards I just have one thing in my wallet and it just works forever. My bank account is automatically charged at the end of the month. With cash I need to keep refilling my wallet and carry around annoying change.
I would love to have something digital but also private (like Monero). But so far I have been picking convenience over privacy.
Yeah this is me.
I acknowledge the privacy issues but cash is way too inconvenient.
Change is easy to deal with. Just give it to the people begging.
This works in the US where change is worth very little but we have £1/£2 (or €1/€2) coins in EU which add up to a fair bit.
If it’s low-value change you won’t feel any worse giving it away. And if it’s so valuable to you then it must be valuable enough that you can buy something you want with it.
A small addition to the discussion - I pay in advance with cash for 10 coffees at a cafe I go to several times a week. Its an informal arrangement, and a very small independent cafe (these are common in my country). If you have a regular spend somewhere ask if they could do this. Obviously it doesn’t work for all things. I wouldn’t do it as a pay later type of tab though otherwise you’re back in credit land. It works for me as its the best coffee in my area, an indie outlet, and they threw in 1 free per 10 paid for. They get my loyalty I guess and money in their bank (or cash in the till)- also bypassing the 3 or so middle men orgs between my bank and their bank by way of visa etc. which is another big motivator for me - we are being reamed in our country with up to 3% charge for using a credit card. Maybe thats common globally?
The cash I have on hand comes exclusively from playing pub gigs in a band. That is still very much a cash-driven economy where I am. When I accumulate enough, I usually wind up spending it on music gear, so I don’t think this hobby of mine is major wealth-builder. But while many businesses are moving away from cash, it seems music stores are used to people like me and still allow fairly hefty cash transactions.
The other day I was settling my tab at the pub and the guy hands me a machine. I say, I’ll pay by cash thanks. He says really?!? Dude, you literally just handed me cash for the gig tonight. Oh yeah…
In the US, I’ve noticed several places, mostly restaurants that now charge a convenience fee for credit card transactions. Double bonus for cash. I’ve even started using checks again as they don’t have a fee.
That’s actually illegal in the UK, to charge a fee for card use. Just means everyone pays more in increased prices, although most people in the UK use card for everything so for the population as a whole its probably a money saver, if not a privacy saving policy.
Never stopped using cash. It works, is less trackable and most importantly is accepted for exchange of goods even outside of your typical store front. Say when buying hay or straw for horses and paying then and there.
I use Monero primarily
I’m interested in this, I did buy a small amount but struggling to spend it anywhere? Even when I bought a Trezor hardware wallet I had to use LTC… I know I can pay for Mullvad with it when my subscription expires in two years lol
I also can’t find any no-KYC place to buy it now LocalMonero is closed.
Xmrbazaar.com is a place to request a product/service or sell a product/service for monero. Here is my store for example. https://xmrbazaar.com/user/shortwavesurfer2009/ and https://haveno-reto.com is where to buy/sell since LM is gone. Please note you need at least 0.11xmr to use it though as a security deposit you get back after a successful trade
The main question is - where would you get that deposit first…
https://xmrbazaar.com and offer to drop ship something. Here is my store for example and how I earn Monero. https://xmrbazaar.com/user/shortwavesurfer2009
That sounds like “getting money out of thin air”, have my doubts that money is guaranteed… Also wouldn’t dropshipping require some setup?
Actually, I don’t think drop shipping is the term I am looking for. What I do is simply take an order from somebody and then immediately go to eBay and ship the item to them. The main difference is that I’m doing it in another currency and I want to get rid of the dollars and get that other currency and not come back.
Ah. Especially if the exact item can be requested by the buyer - then ye, fair plan)
Use haveno
The problem is, that none of the grocery stores or street markets or supermarkets in my area accept Monero 🤷
While it is most definitely true that they do not accept it directly, they very likely do accept it with gift cards, which you can purchase with Monero. That is how I have been buying my groceries for the past year and a half.
When I lived in Europe and North America, this is also how I bought most my groceries.
Except I used bitcoin because the monero gift card vendors are terribly insecure.
Please elaborate on your claim of them being terribly insecure. It’s not something I’ve noticed, but I could be missing something.
They send the card details over email. If you know of one that doesn’t, please let me know
What do other merchants do? Because when I was still using Bitcoin back in like 2015, that’s what Bitcoin gift card merchants did as well. So what’s different these days?
They show it to you on their website.
Even if they were, that would likely require you to carry a smartphone everywhere, which is not very privacy-friendly either.
Being able to use cash is a privilege, and we should not let governments take it from us, since then they can monitor and control everything money-related.
All day, everyday! Freedom over convenience!
I’m starting to use more cash for daily spendings. The rise of surveillance pricing is terrible, better to hide qt least some of information from my bank.
Not only that. Companies are now charging people extra for using cards, passing on their processing fees to consumers.
I’m finding supermarkets locking their regular prices behind an app or loyalty card is getting out of control. Out of all the major supermarkets, ONLY Aldi has nothing of the sort currently.
Tesco and Sainsbury’s will often have a £3 item that costs £6 without their loyalty card. Of course it’s £3 in every other shop: it’s not a special offer for members, it’s a punishment price for those who don’t give away their data.
I usually ask other people in line for their loyalty cards. Or, in case there are none (which is rare) - I have found usable photos of random cards’ barcodes. It was mostly from the respective loyalty programs’ reviews, but I believe I saw a group that specifically shared theirs to get extra points.
Wow, I’ve never seen pricing that bad without a loyalty card in the US. Not saying it doesn’t happen, quite often it’s a 20-30% discount for the loyalty card, and occasionally more if you use the app (which I refuse, since I use Jenny’s number for the loyalty card).
You’re right to call it a punishment. Wonder if we can aggregate the loyalty app program somehow, like host the app in an Android VM on a VPS that anyone can then access, so the data they get is muddied.
Safeway. That’s only one of the several good reasons why I don’t shop there.
Just one example I found in 5 seconds:
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/282774907
£7.50 member price, £10.50 otherwise.
There’s nothing stopping you scanning anyone else’s barcode but I guess they’d cancel the account if it got used en masse
A nice way to understand how much your data costs
But say you only use that card for that store, where’s the privacy invasion? It wouldn’t be much right? Trying to find a downside of a store card.
two words: data aggregation.
They know it’s you. They can match it everywhere else.
Tesco now even has stores in the UK where you scan your loyalty card on the way in, pick up items off shelves, and walk out and it charges you accurately. The amount of cameras and sensors on the ceiling was uncanny. So not only do they have your purchasing profile but they now know what you look like, your gait, and any other identifying information they use to make that work
(OK it might be just lads in the Philippines following you on CCTV like Amazon did but still)
Cause I’m looking at signing up for an REI credit card and haven’t found much downside researching it online. I do find it sus that all the employees are pushing it though. Asking if we are members and have the credit card and stuff.
Because then REI gets to be the one selling your purchase history and credit report.
I should start using cash too once I find my wallet. And that means I will be able to give some money to the homeless
I love the occasional “thanks for not requiring change!” that comes from it.
I visited the UK back in 2022 and I was pretty baffled at how you can universally “tap to pay”. We even visited a pub on the coast of Dorset where they wouldn’t even accept cash as a mean of payment. All in all it was nice, because it meant not having to deal with a foreign currency at all, we spent 10 days just using electronic payment, so as a tourist I think it was a good experience.
In Germany, where I live, you’re basically getting nowhere without cash, it’s still very difficult to eat out or buy small food items like bread or a sandwich. There’s also a culture of paying cash for many things, including pricier items like a second hand car! Shop cashiers usually don’t even blink if you try to pay with a 100€ bill (except if you’re coming at super early and they don’t have change available yet). It’s not unusual for me to end up drawing a quarter to half my monthly salary in cash.
I first disliked it when I moved from France, but now I think it’s actually good for the society. You always have some change to tip a waiter or give to a beggar, a coin for the cart at the supermarket, get something from a vending machine… Also I live in a very quiet area so getting mugged is very unlikely, making it not so scary to carry cash around.
Canada has universal tap to pay also, but what surprised me about the UK—at least in the London area—was how quick it was? The payment processing was near-instantaneous. In Canada, I think the machines make a phone call behind the scenes to a bank or something? There’s a significant delay before it goes through.
They use mobile data over here so it can be very slow in spotty areas, but most populated areas in the UK have full 4G/5G.
Ah that makes sense.
I think another thing that might be uniquely Canadian is when you’re paying at a drivethru and you see the machine emerge from the pickup window taped to the end of a hockey stick. That was a big thing during the pandemic for social distancing. I guess more recently, they’ve been moving to less improvised solutions, which is a shame. I really liked the hockey stick!
Yes, even the buses and vending machines and car park meters and public toilets have tap to pay. It is certainly very convenient but I think it does encourage spending more, and of course it means literally everything you do is tracked. Luckily I’ve found that most places still do accept cash but there are definitely a few who don’t.
I agree, cash is fun in Germany. I think it really helps that the 1 and 2 euro coins are available and used in circulation. It was so nice going into the Späti and buying a beer with a single coin.
Change feels unnecessary in the States since the highest denomination that’s widely circulated is the quarter dollar. There are dollar coins, but they are hardly ever used.
€1-2 for a beer? Germany truly is more advanced than the US
Some are only 30 cents! At least they were…
Haha don’t get me started with US coins, I also have a fun story there: we arrived fresh off JFK Airport in NYC and headed to our rental apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn. It was pretty far from the a subway station so we got a connecting bus to get us closer.
The next day, we thought of taking the same bus line to head to Manhattan, except our party of four ended up being expected to pay 4x $2.75 in a machine inside the bus… in coins. That’s 44 quarters. Yup, don’t have that on day 2 of my stay. So we walked 6 blocks.
I find it interesting that Germany is so far behind when it comes to IT and modernization. It’s like you’re stuck in 1990, even though you’re surrounded by countries that have used chip payment cards since the early 2000s and contactless payments since the early to mid 2010s. Nobody here in Denmark has touched a fax machine in the last 15-20 years, and apparently Germans still fax things sometimes to this day??
hey don’t belittle technological advancements in germany, people here at are the forefront of innovation: https://simple-fax.de/fax-ki
:'D
I live in Germany too without using cash for a few years now and it’s no problem at all.
