Always carry CASH. I broke my own rule…twice.

There have been multiple times in my life when faced with cash only situations and in almost every instance I was able to produce some Federal Reserve Notes in order to take care of business, this until recently.  Two incidents not only steeled my resolve to continue to carry (more) cash, but also to keep a stash in my truck as well as a backup plan.  I’ll admit I got a little complacent and for that I suffered, at least it was only an inconvenience and not a situation where I was in dire straights.

Mistake #1: Haircut

The place where I get my haircut is cash only, smart move on their part.  I typically roll in with enough cash to get my hair cut but on this occasion I was light in the wallet, no big deal as they have an ATM inside the place.  Go figure, the ATM was out of money but hey there is a liquor store across the way…it too was out of money (ATM).  I had to walk down the complex to a bar and thankfully found that their ATM was indeed stocked with cash, what a pain in the you know what and totally my fault for not having enough to begin with.

Mistake #2: Breakfast

My wife and I went out last weekend with the intent of grabbing some grub and then hitting home depot.  I recently emptied my wallet out of cash the day prior but was going to grab some more at an ATM while we were out running our errands, no big deal.  We get to the little mountain diner that we chose for breakfast and the sign on the door said: cash only credit card machine is down.  UGH.  I left my wife so she could order for us and I drove down the road where I found an ATM inside a gas station, this one had a ridiculously low limit so I could not make the withdrawal that I wanted to (but I did have enough for breakfast).  Talk about annoying but once again, my fault completely.

The New Plan:

I typically try to draw $100 out of the ATM at a time and while I do use a debit or credit card for many transactions I keep the cash as a backup plan.  I think I’ll increase that amount to $200 in the wallet and have a spare $100 in the truck, replenishing as necessary.  Lately it just seems that I’ve run out of cash at all the wrong times and if in a situation where it’s not as easy as missing breakfast it could be a serious detriment to be low on the Benjamin’s.  While post apocalyptic SHTF super volcano economic collapse aliens come to mind, maybe a late night stop for fuel in a remote location where cash only is the method of payment seems more plausible.  Do what you have to do just keep some cash on hand, I don’t think it could ever (mostly) be a bad thing.