Life Without Cash-Part II

Never to shy away from a challenge I started my first day without cash, with just 4 Rs 50 notes in my pocket for any emergencies.

Day 1.

• Went to petrol pump and got the tank filled, paid by my Credit Card (2900). As there is no surcharge on this credit card I was happy to pay by credit card.
• Wanted to get the air checked in the tires of the car. But did not have change in pocket to give to the pump boy, so skipped it. (Is this cheating on the challenge? I guess it is only postponing something not urgent)
• Went out for cup of T with my colleagues at the famous T stall. He accepts only cash and Sodexho coupons. So allowed my colleague to pay as I am on a cashless existence. I am sure he believes this is one of my cheap tricks and not a true experiment with life and money.

Day 2

• The maid’s salary was due. She accepts only cash. I tried to convince her to take check and promised to give her 100/- more if she takes check. But she informed me she does not have a bank account so will take only cash.
• Then came the car cleaning guy again cash only transaction. On my explaining to him that I do not have any cash today and may not have for a week. He looked at me with horror but offered to accept in form or some old T Shirts, and shoes provided he likes them. So I parted with some really nice barely worn T shirts which were too tight on my 80 kilo body, but are now hanging on his lean frame J. Long live the barter system. You clean my car and wear my T-Shirt in exchange. "Bloggers of the world Unite, you have nothing to loose but your Shirt"
• Took Sodexho coupons to the T Stall. (Technically they are not cash so I was ok with the same). The lady of the house thinks I am not taking the challenge in its true spirit.

Day 3

·         Bought some groceries using Credit Card, at the supermarket.

Day 4

·         Dinner with some visitors at a nice restaurant, wanted to add Tip in the Credit Card slip. But remembered what one of my friends in food business told me, a lot of staff do not receive tips given in this form. So reluctantly parted with 2 Fifty rupee notes. ( Hey I go there often and do not want to discover a roach in my soup)

Day 5

·         Princess wanted to buy some potato chips from the grocery store in the basement of the building and this guy is a cash only business, coming after office I just did not had energy to fight with a kid who can scream on need, with no regards to the gazals being played at full volume at our neighbor’s house. So parted with another Rs 50 note.

Day 6 and 7

·         “Hey did we not talked about the work week? Oh I did not mentioned that in the beginning?, well I am mentioning it now!… thus went the argument with Mrs. P. Never seen her grinning this wide not even on the day when her dad agreed for our marriage.

        

Thus my little experiment with Life and money ended. With Mrs. P smiling and telling me “ Told you So” .

But guys in all fairness if you see wherever I got stuck for cash was small transactions less than 500/- except for the salary of maid, and that poor women does not have a bank account, due to not having an ID proof. That topic needs a blog post of its own..

Thanks for reading, would love to hear from you.

Life Without Cash

One of my colleagues challenged me that my wish of a cashless society mentioned in this post is nothing but a mirage. Then they also challenged me that I should try and live without cash for a week and then talk again on the topic

My defense was that I never said I want a cashless society, I just want big currency notes for 500 and 1000 to be banned and government should encourage and incentivize use of check, credit card or debit card.

Any ways I decided to accept the challenge being a sucker for challenges related to money matters.

So I decided to live for a week without cash, and decided to use only credit or debit card or check to make all payments.

At this stage I would like to share my experience in USA almost 10 years ago. I was out on lunch with a colleague in a mall near Los Angeles. It was a self service place and we have filled our plate with food, when we placed our order at the counter he gave his VISA Platinum card to the cashier. The cashier mentioned that they are cash only place and we need to place. My colleague a fairly rich guy had all of $ 5 in his wallet but the bill was around 12 dollars, I offered to pay cash as I had cash with me. He was actually very surprised that the cashier did not accepted credit cards, to this the cashier mentioned that they have recently opened and the place still did not had capability to accept cash. Then he pointed us to a small notice that boldly displayed “CASH ONLY”. As I had already taken some bites from the chips and had a few sips from the cola standing in the queue, returning the food was out of question. All my please to pay were not accepted by my colleague and he wanted to meet the manager of the joint. The manager promptly appeared and on hearing our plight and trying to save my colleague embarrassment in front of a visiting Alien he offered a solution that he would accept a personal check provided my friend can show him a valid ID. This saved the situation as my colleague was carrying his check book in the briefcase with him. So he promptly showed his California Drivers License and cut the check in name of the food joint.

We had our lunch and I listened to a big lecture how stupid for the joint to open without having capability of accepting credit cards.He mentioned that he uses credit card for almost every thing and pays on time thus having no need to carry any cash. 

This was 10 years ago.

Thanks for reading, would love to hear from you. In one of the next posts I will write about my life without cash for a week in India.