Comments on: Is Money Real To You?

By: Do You Dave Ramsey?

Do You Dave Ramsey? — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:55:54 +0000

Fantastic article! As a society we are becoming decentized to everything… indecency on tv, rude behavior in public, debt, and our relationship with money… as everything has simply become another payment, we lose a connection with why we work until it’s too late and we’re trapped… more grist for the meal.

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:25:38 +0000

I have a strange disconnect with cash because I never use it anymore. So it’s not that I don’t value it, but I look at it as money that is set aside for certain things (like toll money). It feel weird to pay my rent in cash. But the good thing is that I take numbers seriously, so I do feel the spending when I track it…especially since I’ve been tracking it every day this month.

By: Kacie

Kacie — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:29:18 +0000

I so rarely use cash, that when I do see cash, I’m surprised since bills have undergone so many changes in recent years. I barely recognize them, and I certainly wouldn’t know if a bill was counterfeit.

I’m all about my debit card, and maybe that’s not such a good thing.

When it comes time to teach my child about money, I do think I’ll have him use cash since it’s more visual than just numbers in a bank account.

By: Greg / Wise Bread

Greg / Wise Bread — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:36:17 +0000

When I made the conscious decision to stop adding to my credit card debt, and to start to reduce it, I made myself pay for everything in “cash” — basically, if there’s no money in the checking account, then no spending. I don’t do that anymore and regularly use plastic for convenience these days, but those 9-12 months of cash-only spending instilled a kind of internal counter of my “cash balance”. I’ll only spend (usually) when I know I can pay off the balance at the end of the month.

By: Lise

Lise — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:39:55 +0000

Hmmm… I dunno, maybe it’s just my generation, but I kind of feel that dollar bills are LESS real to me than using plastic. If I have cash in my pocket, there’s a sense in which it’s already spent. If I take $20 out of the ATM, at the end of the month all I know is that’s $20 gone in the “cash” pile – where did it go?

I actually wrote an article about this about a year ago: http://www.frugalfruitlands.net/2008/03/18/the-mystery-cash-box-and-the-sunk-cost-fallacy/

I wonder if it’s more the “mixed medium” (cash for some things, credit/debit for others) that’s confusing us…

By: The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:06:00 +0000

Let’s force the government to pay for everything in cash. $150 billion for AIG? Fine, but you must do so in bills no larger than $50.

I only kid of course but the idea is novel. The envelop system is the best way to fix problems on a small scale. I might give it a shot for march.

By: Nicki at Domestic Cents

Nicki at Domestic Cents — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:00:25 +0000

We don’t use credit cards but we use our debit cards constantly. It’s so easy, too easy, to whip out my debit card and swipe it for a few dollars here and there (especially now that the eye-rolling for $2 debit card purchases has died down).

Whenever I go shopping for clothing though, I carry cash. It’s tough for me to resist a good deal and seeing the cash I have left in my wallet really makes me second-think my purchases.