It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

YorksLass

We've always dumped our loose change into a dish and bagged it up every so often, taken it to the PO and paid it into a savings account.  Our PO closed last month so that's not an option any more (no bank branches locally either), although I did manage to pay in what we had at the time.  Since then, of course we've accumulated more shrapnel.

What I now do is to keep about £1-£2 worth of loose change in a bag, separate to my purse, so when I go shopping I can fish out the required odd coins rather than changing yet another note.  If I use say £1-worth, then a £1 coin goes into the dish, then the £1 coins get changed for a note and eventually there's enough notes there for a week's grocery cash.  The cash (notes) I would have taken from the ATM is then transferred into the savings account.

There's always a way round things and it seems to be working well - although I confess my brain sometimes hurts!     

Auntycaz

I usually take my spare change in a bag and use it at the cash only self service till in Morrisons rather than the cashier having to count it out. Our local pub took over our post office when our local post office shut down. Its also nearer the bus stop for me.

EssexHebridean

Almost never use cash here now - in fact on going to get the tube for travel into London for a meeting on Wednesday evening I realised I’d not even picked up my purse - and so had no Oyster card. No problem though as the phone works perfectly well, and I already knew the pub we were meeting in was cashless anyway so no issues there, either! I actually noticed earlier on that the glass dish we use for coins which was last emptied a couple of weeks ago has precisely nothing in it! 

newlywed

OH gives me any cash he gets as since Covid he doesn’t like handling cash (or making trips into town).

so I either bank it, or use it to top up prepayment keys (depending on how much it is), I keep emergency chip shop cash (they only just started taking card payments over £10 and sausages and chips isnt that much), and I keep a bit of emergency cash as well for when I go on long walks as some small newsagents and some local taxis prefer cash.

other than that, even our local bakery is cashless. 

I don’t really miss cash. I would fritter it away and not know what it had been spent on! At least with cards, I have a record of where it frittered to!

Floss

Auntycaz said:

I usually take my spare change in a bag and use it at the cash only self service till in Morrisons rather than the cashier having to count it out. Our local pub took over our post office when our local post office shut down. Its also nearer the bus stop for me.

I've done this too, or I use it to pay for my weekly quiz night drink.

YorksLass

newlywed said:

I don’t really miss cash. I would fritter it away and not know what it had been spent on! At least with cards, I have a record of where it frittered to!

Admittedly, we don't use cash as much as we used to do but I wouldn't want to see a totally cashless society.  It's only over the last year that I've got used to contactless!  And even then, it's only for a couple of things.  I really couldn't be doing with tapping my card for every small payment as I think it's far too easy to get carried away and all these little things soon add up.  At least with cash in your purse you can see it disappearing.  Each to their own, I guess.

London_1

I don't think I have carried more than a fiver in change in a tiny purse since before the first lockdown.I only use it for any odd very small amount I buy under a pound ,but as I only shop about twice a month I feel sure I still have some small change for at least a year or so ago in my little change purse at the bottom of my handbg.I use a card all the time

JackieO x

RobM99

Rehearsal rooms, lower league football admission, markets almost exclusively cash. 

boultdj

As a small business I admit I would rather have cash because of the % the card machine firms take.
But I do have a card reader, as well as paypal and some people pay by BACS, but they are regulars and house bound.

Scrimps

A few of my frugal plans seem to have been thwarted. The airfryer I ordered of amazon never arrived and the order was cancelled by the supplier, I guess they miscounted and ran out. 

We asked the solar panel installer to come round for a site visit to see if we did actually need a new roof (can't recall if I discussed it on this thread or another), we arranged a time but they didn't arrive so I think we've had the brush off there. We think spending on a new roof is just too much at the moment and would rather pay down the mortgage before the fixed rate ends and keep a close eye on our energy usage. We're considered low energy users but we're being a bit more careful anyway.

I think for the moment, we're going to stop 'spending to save' and just hunker down. ...On mass, I guess its the things recessions are made of.