Times I have needed cash this fortnight

[marymarkle]

I know there are some on here who say they never ever use cash. I don't know how they manage. Like most people I use a mixture of bards and cash.
So in the fortnight the times I have had to use cash are as follows.

Buying the Big Issue. I assume those who never use cash never buy the Big Issue.
Paying for drinks at a cash bar at a wedding. Very posh venue, but cash bar only, no cards.
Getting the bus into town. I live in a City where the buses only take cash or a bought bus card. I hardly ever use the bus, so no point buying a bus pass, so I used cash. You can not use a card.
Went to a local vintage fair today. This is a small fair and the best stalls are always some people who do this as a hobby/to make a bit of extra money, and none of them take cards. I assume because of the cost of taking cards.
Paid a tip by cash in a restaurant. I always pay tips in cash so servers get the whole amount. Even the best places take an admin fee.

By refusing to use cash I would have negatively affected my life this fortnight and not supported someone who is homeless.

Although I rather suspect that just as cash is about to disappear, hipsters will suddenly decide to start using it. Just as has happened with records.

It's entirely my choice where I shop.

Which is fine in cities where you have a real choice. At attractions and in smaller towns/villages, you may not have such a choice and find yourself caught out when you have chosen to put reliance on your card.

My 75yr old dad must be down with the kids then.

The obsession with using cards being “hip” and “trendy” is utterly bizarre.

What is bizarre is all these trendy types making it some kind of badge of honour that they don't carry any cash. Then those same people expect others to pander to their choice to do so.

You don't find many "cash only" people doing the same thing and virtue signalling about not having any cards at all.

Any normal, sane person would have both to cover all eventualities. Just why wouldn't you carry a small amount of cash "just in case" - it makes no sense at all not to and end up relying on others to help you out when you're caught out.

I have cash once in a blue moon, I live rural and the nearest cash machine is a bit away and not always full. I use bank transfers for tradesmen and buying things like hay, lpg bottles. All the shops I use, have card readers. No big issue sellers around here, or a bus I could jump on, so cash is never really something I need to have on me incase I need to use it spontaneously.

Although I rather suspect that just as cash is about to disappear, hipsters will suddenly decide to start using it. Just as has happened with records.

HaHa - yes, you're probably right. Some people just have to make themselves stand out - it's some kind of attention seeking.

Betty I don't care if we end up using all cards. But I do worry about my mum. She has early stages of dementia. Bills are all paid by direct debit, online food shopping delivered. But she does like going to the local shops and buying stuff like newspapers, flowers, etc. We give her a small pot of cash to do this, she can't manage a card. Cards only would take away a little bit of independence she still has.

Kazzy Yep. Maybe I should put a bet on that by 2030 there will be at least one London hipster bar that is cash only? It will only happen though when everyone else has stopped using cash.

I hope we don't become a cashless society. There should be a choice.

As we've seen on this thread everybody does what suits them.
It's not that one way is better than the other.

It's what is more convenient to you.

Our local town has gone from having 4 banks and 7 cash machines to 0 banks and 2 cash machines at opposite ends of town. Very rare that they both have cash in.

I do what I suspect a lot of people do, get out cash for specific things...log deliveries, trips to fairs etc and then use the change until it runs out. Then use card, and get cash out for the next instance.

I hope we don't become a cashless society. There should be a choice.

Rather skips over the bit where were weren't a cash society, but bartered. That choice went ....

I think we will become almost cashless, but not quite.
So 30 years ago nobody would have predicted that records still exist, but they do.
We still have cheques after all, something that few writing about cashless societies 5 years ago would still think we have. Yes very few are written, but they do still exist.

My DM uses cash for everything. She has little envelopes with her pension split into bill money.

Rosetti Bartering does still exist, in small amounts, Plenty of farmers still barter with one another.

Businesses which are reliant on payment in cash are doomed: the number of people who do not carry cash is rising, volumes of cash business are falling. If your current business relies on a large supply of passing trade who carry cash, you're going to go bust.

One of my clients is a convenience store with a turnover of close to a million per year. Their sales are currently about 50:50 between cash and card. It'll be many years before cash sales are a small enough minority for them to stop taking cash, if ever. Ironically, when I first started acting for them 20 years, their sales were split roughly 50:50 between cash and cheques, so whilst nearly all the cheque customers now use cards, the proportion of cash sales is virtually unchanged.

Do people's kids schools never have a bake sale or a jumble sale?

Or their Brownies/Cubs never have a coffee morning?

Tuck shop at the school disco?

Give your kids money to spend on a school/club trip?

Put something in the collection at church?

Rather skips over the bit where were weren't a cash society, but bartered.

Of course, if you go back into history far enough. But coins were in common circulation in Roman times, so we've had many centuries when cash was the common currency.

Rosetti Bartering does still exist, in small amounts, Plenty of farmers still barter with one another.

I'm still waiting for HMRC to accept 3 liters of homebrew for my last return.

I think the only time I've used cash this year is when I had to put £5 in for a colleagues leaving do!

I genuinely have no need for it the rest of the time. I don't have a cleaner, I don't have children, my hairdresser is my SIL so it's free. I even pay the dog walker by bank transfer! I don't have parking costs and I just put everything else on my card.

I use card for most things these days but in the last week have used cash for

£3 each Charity pub quiz entry, raffle tickets and drinks at the bar
Zumba classes
Odd purchases in shops of less than a couple of quid
Cash only parking machine in nearby town

I tend to carry a fiver and some change .

Do people's kids schools never have a bake sale or a jumble sale?
I don't have children, like lots of people.

Or their Brownies/Cubs never have a coffee morning?
Again, lots of people don't have children or children that age.

Tuck shop at the school disco?
See above

Give your kids money to spend on a school/club trip?
And again.

Put something in the collection at church?
Like the majority I don't go to church.

Rosetti Why do you need to be so sarcastic?

What is bizarre is all these trendy types making it some kind of badge of honour that they don't carry any cash. Then those same people expect others to pander to their choice to do so.

But... how would you know anyone around you who only uses card or cash? Literally nobody I know even speaks about it. If we are at a restaurant it’s a mix of cash or card, but no-one ever loudly proclaims they only use one or another.

How does one have to pander to someone else for using cash or card....?

This thread really is bizarre