Cash only ...

I'm terrible about having cash on me. Somehow I consider it to be "free" money that I can splurge on anything. This probably stems from not having to write it in the checkbook where Paul can see it. (As if Paul would ever look at the checkbook ...) Anyway, because I am more likely to splurge on something I don't need with cash, I don't carry it. It probably saves me a lot of calories, too, because otherwise I might stop often at 7-11 to get a Slurpee and a chocolate-covered chocolate donut. I LOVE those!

Most of the time this is just fine. Almost everywhere we go takes credit or debit cards. If not, I always have my checkbook handy, even though it still has our Washington address. (We just don't mention to them that we moved three years ago! Same account, so who cares ... we usually just pay bills with them anyway. :)

Then there is the rare time that you need cash. I went to my niece's softball tournament on Monday and forgot you have to pay to get in. I had my purse (which I had considered not even bringing), so I started digging through the bottom to see how much change I had. They were very nice and told me I could just go in. However, I wanted to pay what I could (the cost to get in was only $1!), so I dug and dug. Turns out I came up with 92 cents. Yeah! The little teeny-boppers sitting at the table were almost just laughing at my lack of having only $1. Hey, if I can be honest AND give someone a laugh, why not?

There has only been one time when I was really sad about not having cash. It was when Shayla was just a few days old. I had to take her to the hospital everyday since being released to have her jaundice checked. For whatever reason, on the way home I decided I needed one of those chocolate donuts mentioned above. I stopped at 7-11 and went inside. I was sure they were 69 cents, and I had something like 80 cents. Turns out they were 89 cents at the Provo 7-11.

I didn't remember them costing that much, so I thought I'd stop at the gas station in Spanish Fork to see if they were any cheaper there. They had to be! But they weren't. Somehow I felt like I deserved that chocolate donut. I'll blame it on the post-pardum hormones, but I totally started bawling that I couldn't buy my chocolate donut. No worries, that was more than two years ago and I've had several since. :)

Anyway, I'm so glad that technology makes me not have to carry around cash. Otherwise I wouldn't know where half of my money went! In fact, that just reminded me about a story along those lines: As a teenager I just used cash and wasn't good about monitoring where my money went. Several times I thought I had more money than I did, but when I went through my desk drawer to find it, I couldn't. I figured I had spent it somewhere and forgotten about it. Then a couple of years ago -- 15 years later! -- when Becca had the desk she pulled out the drawers that aren't supposed to be pulled out. What did she find? $60! She was very sad when I told her it wasn't hers ... but she sure enjoyed the groceries it bought. :)

Long live debit cards!