How much on contactless payments a week?

[Crocsandshocks]

So the bank now tells me how much I spend on contactless payments per week. Currently I spend about £300 which seems a hell of a lot to me (I have 2 dcs for context). Given the cost of living crisis I'm going to try and reduce this by half. Can I ask what you spend on contactless per week to see if my ammount is excessive or not. I know it depends on salary etc., but I feel that I'm using my card way too easily and should get out cash instead to spend. Say £150 per week. It does include food if course.

Easiest way I’ve found is to increase the proportion of Chip and Pin purchases. So if you want to reduce contactless by about 150 quid, just use chip and pin for 150 quids worth, and your contactless will reduce by about half.

it’s a totally painless method.

I spend between £600-800 a week on contactless, but that does include our food shopping, Costco runs etc.

Mine’s about £150 and I thought I was quite spendy!

But unless I've misunderstood, OPs problem is the amount she's spending rather than the way she's paying for it? So changing to PIN wouldn't make a difference, as at that point she's already at the till paying for whatever she's bought, she's unlikely to turn around and say "oh actually I won't buy it," just because the transaction will take 5 seconds longer.

OP my contactless use varies a lot - it can be a week with only 1 or 2 if I do a big shop and don't do much that weekend (or do things I pay for in other ways e.g. an outdoors picnic, theatre trip with tickets bought in advance, gym etc). Or it can be 10 plus in a day if I go into town to go shopping/out for drinks etc. I went to London for a weekend and I used it absolutely loads there. Personally it makes no difference at all if I paid via cash, PIN, or contactless.

This doesn't make any sense

About £50 in Lidl. I don't buy coffees etc, petrol is chip and pin. Everything else is bought on line 😆

Indeed.

Just switch to cash and re-establish the pain of payment.

i'm in canada where almost all purchases are contactless since covid (who wants to touch a pin pad?). my daily budget is $100 per day so easily 200+ purchases a month.
i don't understand your question are you buying too much stuff? because how you pay for something doesn't change needing toilet paper and paying for parking while also getting coffee and a date square (3 minor transactions all routinely done contactless).

Surely you just buy what you need and it all comes from the same account whether it's contactless, chip and pin, cash from the ATM or if really retro - a cheque.
It's all the same pot surely?

I had a similar lightbulb moment last year- having depleted my savings getting on the property ladder. I was horrified at how much I was passively spending via chip and pin or contactless. So now I take out the cash I intent to spend over the month on things like food shopping/hobbies/clothes/makeup/self care/gifts etc. If I can only get things online I buy it, but take that amount out of my cash & pay it into my savings or save it for the following month. I’ve saved an extra £3500 on top of what I regularly save. I find using cash resonates better with me- using a card doesn’t feel like spending money.

I think people are being obtuse. OP knows all her spending comes from the same pot. She's realised how easy it is to use chip n pin without really thinking about what you're spending.

Hahahaha!

Tbh OP it's all I use my card for so it's all the weekly shop etc. It's a lot.

Ha! Yes I mean contactless or chip and pin. Basically all those really easy payments where you flash your card, or pop in a pin and it's done!

@Edgarj7674 I think you have totally misunderstood what the OP is trying to do!

This is why I prefer cash, easier to keep track of things, in my opinion anyway!

certainly envelopes and cash is a great way to learn budgeting.

You can lower your contactless spend limit. A small thing to do, but it does make you think about your purchase. Works for my Dh. If you don’t want to carry cash, you could use a monzo card and transfer a fixed amount for small spends only, per month.

I put the money that I’m willing to spend each week into my Monzo account and then when it’s gone it’s gone. It’s like the modern equivalent of getting cash out, except with budgeting tools built in.

Put your contactless card in your shoe so you have to take your shoe off every time you want to buy something?

Thanks I really should investigate monzo. I'd be scared of it snapping in my shoe!

I agree with needmorelego i have my debit & credit cards on my phone, so it is just a finger recognition required for all my payments. I don’t think my spending habits have changed over the years, just the way I pay.

No, no I didn’t.

Thank you

This.

How you pay for things is irrelevant, you need to look at what you're buying and not buy it if you don't want or need it, can't afford it or it's not worth the money.

Changing to another payment method achieves nothing.