We us cash for groceries. Have a food allowance.

I carry cash but never dollar bills.....hate them....use the gold dollar coins instead. Easier to retrieve, doesn't give an indication of what's in a wallet. You would be surprised how many servers don't know they exist. Then sometimes, just for fun, I will also carry a few 2 dollar bills which, along with dollar coins, helps some servers do math.

There is an author named Dave Ramsey who has been a great help to us financially. How book is The Total Money Makeover. He says that using cash fires the same neurons in your brain as being in pain. Its true! Take 20 to the store and you will put back things you would have gotten on your credit card. Even though we too used to credit everything and pay off the balance, we now have envelopes with spending, restaurants, clothes and play. Every two weeks we put in the same amount we used to charge for theses things, and now we usually have money left over at the end of the two weeks. We use the "leftovers" for things we want but don't need (bought an iPad, etc.) Still charge gas, big purchases, etc. Works for us! And we have airline miles, too, from the bigger purchases, so spending extra just to get miles doesn't make sense to us.

I like you plan - congratulations on what appears to be a great execution of said plan!

We charge everything to get Hilton points and air miles. Pay at the end of the month. The only exception is when we tip we give cash and when shopping at small, non-chain stores. The small stores lose 2% to 3% on card purchases and I hate to do that so I can get a couple points toward a free night in a hotel.

From your location, you say The Villages next. You will feel very safe. I have been here 5 years and there has not been a single instance of a person being robbed of cash in a holdup. Some home burglaries but no person on person robberies of Villagers.

I do think there have been a couple of businesses robbed at gunpoint. Sure a lot different than the Washington DC area I came from, though!

Yes, read Snakehead. You will be astounded.

Back to topic, I gave Doggie Doo Run Run $3 today and $6 last week. They accept checks, but I'm not putting my check with account number in their till box at the entrance to the park.

Otherwise it's credit cards for the mileage.

We use cash almost exclusively. The government and marketing agencies everywhere that monitor your personal habits don't need to know what we buy or where we spend our money. As one poster said, cash is still king. In the unlikely event that you're robbed, all they can take is the money you have on you at the time. Moreover, it's a whole lot more difficult to steal your identity from a hundred-dollar bill than from your credit card.

I have been leaving monthly cheques in the till box at Doggie Doo Run Run for eight years and it never once occurred to me that I was being foolish. I'm glad you mentioned about cash being safer. I always thought the opposite.
You're the smart one. I tend to be naive. I need to be more careful and less trusting.

Well, the people at DDRR are probably the least likely to be stealing your info, Bare. After all, they're dog lovers!:wave:

I just don't like to leave checks in public places. Maybe I'm just over cautious.

PS: The few times I paid monthly, I mailed them the check.

I like to tip in cash, too. I write on the tip line "in cash" so the manager does not think the server did such a poor job that the customer did not tip.

Drive-through at McDonald's for an Egg McMuffin (two for $3 special!) For whatever neurotic reason, I'm embarrassed to use a debit card at a drive through. I wouldn't be if I was inside the restaurant.

Aww !!! Memories 🌴👍😎

[emoji106] for Dave Ramsey

:BigApplause: We use cash for everyday living, that way I know what I am spending.

Probably to report to IRS. Servers can cheat by not reporting cash tips. I had a barber for many years that was getting ready to retire and told me that he cheated the IRS all his life but now was only going to get $200. per month in social security.

It sounds illegal to me as well, but it goes on. These kids all live together in housing provided by the restaurant owner. They often sleep four or five to a room. They get picked up in a van in the morning and brought to the restaurant where they stay until closing. They usually get two or three days off per month. The restaurant also gives them three meals a day.

I'm not sure, but I suspect that the restaurant owners do the paperwork to show that they are paying them the minimum wage for a server and then charging them for housing and food.

I've spoken with many of these kids and they all tell the same story. Now, it may not be the case with all of them but it is the case with a lot of them.

There is a whole network where ads are run in newspapers in China and work visas are provided for kids that sign up. In the northeast, most of them are permanently housed in New York City and there is a bus service that transports them back and forth from NYC to the cities where they work and stay in temporary residences. The bus fare is minimal and I suspect that a group of restaurant owners own the bus company. I also suspect that the Chinese organized crime syndicates are behind a lot of the restaurants. Again, not all of them but certainly many of them.

I can go online every day and see what I'm spending and what I've spent.

Me too.

And I get an annual report telling how I wasted my money.

:Screen_of_Death: