cash question

Ahhh, that makes sense For me a small purchase is an individual fro fro coffee drink at $4.50 - $5.00 plus tip, so less than a dollar is ridiculous and I would never even think to do that! Several of the coffee stands don't even have anything under a dollar and do charge to use your card so I go to the places that don't. I rarely get a single drink since I usually have my dd and her boyfriend with me 

We mostly use a credit card that gives us cash back. However, we do take out some cash each week for things like the farmers' market, weekly dues for clubs or sports, library fines, garage sales, ice cream stands, etc. We use far more cash in the warm weather months than in the winter.

We use cash on vacation as well.   We budget a certain amount of money per day to keep ourselves from going nuts.  

I tend to not have many $5 bills so instead I started saving all of my $1 bills. I won't spend them (even if something is $1 at the store I had over a $5 or larger) and then when I get home I drop every one of the $1 bills, along with any change, into my large jar. Right now I have close to $1000 in my jar (in bills alone) that I'll use as spending money for my trip to New Zealand later this year. I did this last year, too, for my trip to the Galapagos and Machu Picchu.

I have heard of that, but don't know anyone who has tried it. If I carry cash I try to get small bills. My Credit Union ATM issues $5 bills, so I always have them! I don't know if I could save them!

It wouldn't work for me. I pay most everything with my credit card. Its an automatic payment from my checking account to pay in full on the due date. So I'm still watching and being accountable for how much I spend. Plus I get cash back.

That said, just today I found a five in the front pocket of my gym bag and one in the "key" pocket of my workout pants.

I try very hard not to spend less than $5 or $10 at a small business since I do almost always use my debit card (and while I prefer to use it as 'credit' since my CU gives a nickel back - I do ask at small business which they prefer debit or credit). At a chain like WalMart? I have no qualms about swiping my card for a small purchase. The LSS here is cash-only - I'll be honest, between the limited hours and the fact I have to remember to get cash, I probably don't shop their as often as I might otherwise...

Most businesses try to. The problem that I was dealing with (and that the recent credit card processing laws have somewhat addressed) was that merchants were stuck in the middle of a huge catch-22. You NEED to be able to accept cards (debit and credit) because so many people use them, so I got a merchant account and agreed to all their crazy rules such as no added fees to accept cards, agree to accept payment for any amount and so on.

Problem is, the rules were the same whether it was a credit or debit card, but many people used them differently. People using a credit card tended to spend more to make it "worth" putting on the card. But when debit cards became popular people were much more careful with their purchases so they wouldn't get overdrafts and would spend as little as possible when using debit. As a business owner I got charged the same fees either way.

Okay, I totally get that. BUT, as a business owner if everybody charges their $1 purchase on their debit card, my *average* credit sale drops to a very low amount. When that happened, the credit card processor would jack up the discount rate fees I had to pay and there wasn't anything I could do about it because I was forced to agree to it. When you start a business, all you can do is guess what your average sale will be because you have no sales history to base it on.

So on the one hand, I was obligated to accept any card for any amount but on the other hand I was being penalized for doing so! I couldn't even put up a sign *suggesting* a lower dollar limit for card transactions or I could risk losing my merchant account. A business selling $500 tvs will have an average credit sale that's much higher than a business selling $5 cups of coffee, and the coffee business will end up paying credit card fees almost 3-4 times higher than the tv business because of it. And then when the rates and fees DO get raised by the card processor and the coffee business raises their prices to offset those higher costs (factoring it in, as noted above), people then complain about that too and say that the small business is price gouging.  

Saving every $5 note or $1 or $2 coin etc just wouldn't work for me. I don't carry much cash, just enough for an emergency. If I were to put all of my $1 or $2 coins into a money box, then the next time I needed to buy something small I'd have to break a $5 or $10 note to buy it. Then I'd put the $1 or $2 change in the money box, then next time I had to buy something small I'd have to break yet another note and so on and so on and so on..... So in the end I've had to get more cash out of the bank and break lots of notes just to save my small change. 

Don't you have ATM machines all over the place? You don't have to actually go to a bank to get cash out do you? (General you'd )

There are ATMs all over, but they generally have fees if they aren't attached to a bank. If I need cash, I usually use my debit card when checking out at the grocery store and get cash back. 

ETA: There are also generally fees if you are a customer at Bank A and use your debit card at Bank B's ATM to get cash. 

I get mine at the grocery too, usually, for weekly cash.  We have WF and they have offices everywhere, so no shortage of machines.  The account I do have with them allows you to go outside their network once a month, and they will reimburse you any fees.  (But again, between going to the store, and the abundance of branches, I've never had to do that.)  

I need/use cash so little that I've never even used an ATM. I don't even know what my PIN is.

yes and no - there are ATMs all over the place but unless I use one belonging to my credit union (or bank), I get charged fees (sometimes by the ATM, sometimes by my CU/Bank, sometimes you get super lucky and get both).  My CU is local - there's one branch in the town I live outside and I think 3 or 4 others in nearby towns - their only ATMs are at the branches. I can get cash back with purchase using my debit card for free (no fees) at bigger merchants which is usually what I do if I need cash (rarely).