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Your Take: How Much Cash Do You Carry?
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I’m not asking because I want to rob you, though if you carry more than a grand I would be tempted (just kidding! 
), but cash seems like such an outdated way to stay financed.
How much do you have on you right this very second? I just checked my wallet and I have $142, which is far higher than what I normally carry. It’s that high because two weekends ago we took a trip to Ocean City, MD with some friends and I did one of those “pay with credit card, take the cash” moves at a restaurant (Citi mtvU offers 5% cashback and I have student loans to pay off!) so that boosted the amount.
A few months ago, I remember reading an article in a major men’s magazine that talked about how carrying a fat roll of cash gives you a sense of power, confidence, and bravado that you don’t have carrying a couple pieces of plastic. I believe the author likened it to a power suit. Anyone who has put on a nice suit can attest to this. Suits boost your confidence because you look good in them. You look professional, smart, and powerful. Does a roll of money do the same?
Normally, I don’t carry much cash on me, maybe forty or fifty bucks at any one time. I don’t really see the advantage in carrying a lot of cash. Plastic offers so many more protections on so much more money that credit cards are really my primary source of funding. If you lose cash, it’s gone. If you lose a credit card, you cancel it and get a new one. The combined credit limits on the cards in my wallet is easily over ten thousand dollars but I would never ever even consider putting more than a few hundred in my wallet.
How much cash do you have on you right now? How much cash do you usually carry on you? Why so little or so much? Do you think I need to carry more or less? Do you think I’m insane?
(Photo: refractedmoments)
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For the past month of so, I’ve been trying carrying $0 in my wallet.
I haven’t had any problems yet, and so plan on continuing to do so for the foreseeable future.
If I were to go on a trip or something, I might want to carry something in case I want to spend somethig somewhere that doesn’t take cards. But for my normal day-to-day life, I haven’t seen a need for cash for a long time.
Now that I work in the city full time doing apartment and home showings as well as lease signings, I try to have no more than $20 on me at any one time. The first thing I do when someone hands me a security deposit is take it to the bank, so I don’t have to carry it around with me. The chances of something happening are slim to none, of course, but as was stated in the article it’s better to have the protection of a credit card than carry a roll of bills around.
Right now, I have $23. Usually, though, I have $50-$75 for those times when it might be necessary to have cash. Especially since the bank error that resulted in my debit card being placed on hold. Because one never knows when something like that will happen.
Usually between $40 – $80.
$0 and I usually have just a few bucks on me. I generally spend it on coffee at work–the government won’t supply it so we have to pay $.25 a cup. I ride the bus to and from work so I don’t have to stop anywhere on the way home. Basically, I just don’t need to carry money.
“I did one of those “pay with credit card, take the cash” moves at a restaurant”
You mean table banking?
I have $5 on me right now…the only time I’d carry more than $20 on me is if we are going to a festival/fair/etc…and nobody takes cards. I have found that if I have cash on me – I can spend it and I don’t think twice about it. If I have a card though, I’m constantly aware of how much I have spent and how much I can spend on it to stay within my budget.
@Brandon: I had no idea it had a term, table banking is so much easier to say than “pay with credit card, take the cash” hahaha. It’s also funny you’re like that with cash and not with credit cards, most people are the other way around.
I have $14 in my wallet right now, though this is up from recently and down from the longer trend. I generally like to carry around $60. I don’t need to carry much, though, because I commute by bus (and use a transit pass for that) and carry my own lunch to work with me.
I like using my debit card because I use an accounting trick that builds up a reserve for me by rounding each transaction up to the next full dollar when recording it in my chequebook.
. . . So to keep a long story short, I feel justified in using my debit card and not carrying much cash.
I try to keep about $100 in cash on me, but my wife and kids make that pretty difficult (I’ve been called the “human ATM machine” at home). I agree that carrying credit cards is safer, but I still feel naked without a little green in my wallet just in case.
Right now I have $40 in my wallet — usually I only carry a few dollars, maybe around $5, for things like sodas at work. My DH and I carpool, so if we go anywhere after work, either he has money or we use a card (debit). A few days ago he had a medical procedure and I got a little extra out of the atm so we could go out to eat afterwards and it didn’t cost as much as I thought it would.
I have $3 in my wallet right now and that’s about normal. I never take more than $20, but will opt for $10 cashback if I can. Like others, I only use it to buy sodas here and there. All other expenses are taken care of by my debit card, which I obsessively check the balance on so I can see exactly how much money I’m spending and where it’s going.
I usually carry less than $20 and I usually go for a week with less than $5. At work, I bring my food from home and don’t stop around for snacks or drinks. I get my cash using my bank’s ATM.
Recently, I had to get all new cards due to theft. For about a week, I was floundering, afraid to buy anything since kept forgetting to get extra cash.
I carry $30 in my wallet, but I don’t replenish it regularly.
Currently 0 in the wallet. I usually don’t carry any cash unless I for see a need in the near future. It seems I’m actually more apt to waste cash if I carry it around so I try not to.
Generally I’m a $20 or less kind of guy. Right now I have $340 in my wallet – but then again I’m depositing it at the bank during lunch today.
Besides that, I’ll have a couple hundred if I’m on my way to the grocery store. But everyday… $20 or less. No sense carrying around too much – I’d be ticked if I lost it!
Right now I have all of $5 in my wallet. I rarely carry much more than $20, and mostly only use it for cheaper lunches at work (if it is over $5 I will usually put it on my credit card.)
I am surprised to see most of the comments here with such low numbers… my boyfriend almost always carries $80+ on him, and I thought that was more of the norm!
I used to carry like 100-200 in highschool. Never had a CC and debit cards weren’t around.
Now i have a couple cc’s for daily purchases and usually get about $60 cash out every 2 or so weeks.
I start every Monday with about $40 in the wallet. About half of that is used for paying for lunch at our cafeteria at work, which doesn’t take plastic. So cash is the only option. The rest of the money is just for small spontaneous purchases or to keep on hand for the “just in case” item (stopping at a roadside produce stand, see something at a garage sale, etc)
I have $20 in the wallet – cash back from my last debit card purchase at Wal-Mart. I usually carry about $20-40, mainly so I’ll have some cash handy to give my son as he’s leaving – he’s 17 and doesn’t have a credit or debit card.
I don’t spend more by carrying cash because I habitually use my debit card for nearly everything. If it’s under $5 and I have cash I might use it. The only place I can’t use debit/credit is a local bakery where we buy bread. They only accept cash for purchases under $20.
I have $15 on me now and I usually start off the week with around $60. Anything over that amount goes on the debit card and that doesn’t happen often. I prefer using cash over credit because cash makes me more hesitant to spend foolishly. I also recently paid off all of my creditors and I will never again make the mistake of abusing my credit. Call me paranoid but I also have trouble with the fact that the banks and card processors have records traceable to me; cash affords me a degree of anonymity.
Yep, I don’t have much: I get about NT$5000 per month for spending (US$165)… it usually lasts pretty well.
Right now I have $94 in my wallet. I almost always get out $100 from the ATM. But I’m not one of those guys who has the cash burning a hole in his pocket and has to spend it.
Living on the West Coast I used to listen to Mark & Brian’s morning radio show. They would play this game with their guests where they ask “How much do you have on you right now?” It was amazing that sometimes the celebrities on there had $0 and sometimes they had $2000. I always want to play this game with the random people I meet at the golf course but never actually ask them.
I carry at most $100 with me at any one time. I use my credit card for the rewards as much as possible. I think it also depends on if I will be anywhere near an ATM for my bank to avoid fees. If i’m traveling away from where my bank branches are I will take out more than $100 for the trip to avoid those ARM withdrawal charges.
I almost never carry cash with me, although at one point in our lives we strictly doled out every expense from envelopes of cash. I think it is much easier to lose track of your spending when you strictly use credit and debit cards. At the moment I do have $19 of which my son just took $10 for a trip he is going on today.
About $50.
I have $2.50. When I make a purchase with a debit card, I religiously enter that amount in my checking account register. At the end of each day, DH and I do the math to see what the available balance is in the checking account. At the end of every week, I reconcile all of DH’s and my purchases with the online account summary on our banks website. When cash has been taken out of the checking account, we have to subtract it from the available balance in our checking account. As a result, we tend to view cash as having already been spent and we blow it pretty quickly.
DH and I both carry $2.50 as an “emergency lunch fund.” If either of us forgets to bring our lunch, it costs $2.50 to buy lunch in the cafeteria. Since we don’t keep cash in the house or in our wallets, it is a hassle to replace that $2.50 if it gets spent. We must then own up to each other that we forgot lunch and must go out of the way to get a new lunch fund.
Basically, DH and I are playing psychological games with ourselves to reduce spending and make us accountable to each other. It has made a difference in the amount we spend each month.
Zero point Zero. 90% of the time, I have no cash on me at all and it’s been that way pretty much my entire adult life. Gotta love the debit card. It used to be embarrassing to buy a coke for under $1 on the card, but I got over that 10 years ago.
$1.
I need to buy two stamps at the end of the month. Everything else goes on the credit card and gets paid off EVERY TIME!
$46 on me right now. I generally carry something in the $0 to $100 range. I use my CC for most things and the cash is there if I need it or to make change at dinner with friends. When I go out with friends sometimes they pay with CC and I pay with cash and sometimes its the other way around. So we end up trading some cash back and forth between ourselves every week or two.
Only $40, but all in a wad of $1s. If someone belittles your financial status, you can just chuck the ball of $1s in their face and laugh. Plus you’re good for an impromptu stripper outing.
I always carry $20-$100 in cash on me…every paycheck i pull out $100 so i always have cash
ya never know when you’ll need some, right?
I carry virtually no cash. The prevalence of ATMs makes obtaining cash relatively simple (and usually at almost no cost). I find that I spend less when I have to figure out a way to pay for something. And, if I really need to pay someone, an ATM card or credit card can usually get it done.
Usually between $20 and $100 bucks, depending on whether or not I’ve been to the bank recently! Rarely more than $100… that just makes me nervous!
I have $12 and that’s a little high for me. I carry very little cash as it’s harder for me to track my cash spending. I also tend to spend more when I use cash. My experience is that men tend to carry and use cash more then women do. I wonder if a survey of your readers would prove or disprove that theory. Good topic!
On work days I carry enough for transportation/parking/bus and one meal (even though I brownbag-it’s an emergency thing). On weekends, I try to carry what I need for what errands I’m running, plus an extra $20. When I go out of town, even for a day trip, I carry a bit more, but the amount varies $40-60. I have an older friend who recommends carrying enough for a tow truck and one night in a hotel–for emergencies. But i haven’t done that–most hotels take plastic.
I don’t keep enough cash at home, yet. Post-Katrina experts recommend keeping anywhere from a week to a month’s worth of expenses in cash–in case a disaster takes the ATMs off line. I simply can’t afford that, but think it’s probably a good idea.
This morning I have $563.00 in my pocket, this is only because I had a good night of gambling last night. I usually don’t carry any cash, just a Chase Freedom, Amex Blue Cash, and an ATM card.
I am a $0 girl. Unless I am going out to dinner with friends, I don’t bring any cash. And even when I go out to dinner with friends, I table bank if possible.
I try to keep as little cash on me as possible. I’m very good at controlling spending when I use credit cards, but if I have cash on me it flys out of my pocket.
I carry zero cash unless I’m traveling. Everything goes on the credit cards, which get paid in full every month. This way we earn a little back plus the detailed monthly statement make it easy to keep track of what we’ve spent.
When I travel, I take maybe $100 or so in case we need something from a store that doesn’t take cards.
cheers,
Ken
$310 a month goes in. So I usually have $100-$400 in my wallet at any given time. That $310 is for groceries, gas, grandkids, gifts, and gadabout money. That’s how much I give myself per month – cash.
I’m just a cash kind of person. I don’t like having a credit card bill hit me at the end of the month, nor do I like having to keep track of a debit card. Cash works just fine. My utility bills & insurances are paid with a check. And that’s usually all my bills to be paid
I tend not to carry any cash. I seem to spend cash a little easier than using my debit or credit card.
Using my debit card also lets me track my spending more than if I am just using cash.
Cash sitting in my wallet is a very rare thing though I’ve been debating attempting to use cash instead of debit as a means for helping me budget. I’ve gotten so used to just debiting everything that I can forget how much money I have or haven’t spent.
I’m a student, so I’m new to the whole managing my own finances thing. This blog helps me out a lot with that. I usually carry between $10-$30 in cash for “just in case” situations. I wouldn’t want to be out with friends and have to go to an ATM in order to pay for my share of a meal or something. It is also considered embarrassing to pay for small food purchases (soda/snack) with a debit card, especially if you’re on a date.
I find that if I carry a lot of cash, I’m prone to spending it. The reason is because it has already been withdrawn from my bank account, it’s as if I have already spent it, so I don’t feel as bad spending it as with my debit card. It’s silly I know, but that’s just how it is in my head. This is also why I don’t carry more than $30 bucks.
Right now, about $12. I generally keep it under $20 at all times. Sometimes it’s only $2. This is a habit from way back in the past, before debit cards — if I ever got robbed, I didn’t want to lose too much money.
I never got robbed. The closest I ever came was in line for the subway, when one of a trio of teens behind me flipped a lit cigarette into the canvas bag I was using as a purse/carryall. “Hey, lady, he put a cigarette in your bag, lemme get it out,” one of them said, trying to pull the bag away to “help” me.
My wallet was in that bag, and although it held only $3 or $4, tops, I wasn’t giving it up. That teenager had probably never been pushed that hard by a pregnant 20-year-old woman before. “HANDS OFF, I GOT IT!” I bellowed, yanking the bag back in front of me. People turned to stare and the kids took off. I pulled the cigarette out myself. Punks.
Still don’t carry much cash around.
I carry about 1100 dollars cash. you never know when you have to buy some plants, white, black, or some ease.
i usually carry between $500 to $1500 on me… it’s alittle higher than most, but i did win the lottery two years ago! lucky me!
I have no cash on me. LOL Use debit card only.