Do you still carry cash? The census, the habits, and the places notes still win

[Callum28]

Simple census with interesting answers, do you still carry physical cash, how much is on you right now roughly, and when did you last actually spend it? The generational and regional splits in these threads are always fascinating, so declare your rough category with your answer

The follow up questions are where it gets good. What are the situations where cash still WINS for you, the window cleaner, the market, the barber, the kid's pocket money, the tip that actually reaches the person, splitting things without an app doing the maths and the surveillance

The budgeting angle deserves its corner too, the envelope people and the physical money as spending brake crowd swear that notes leaving a hand hurts in a way a tap never does, and there is decent behavioural evidence they are right. Anyone run both systems and compare honestly?

And the resilience question underneath it all, the payment outages that hit shops every so often make their own argument for a folded note behind the phone case. Preparedness or paranoia, where does the board land?

[DarkMatter92]

Census entry, forty something, roughly twenty in the wallet at all times, last spent at the barber on Saturday who takes card but the cash tip goes IN THE POCKET not the till, that is the entire argument in one transaction

[RogueAI32]

Twenties, nothing on me, cannot remember the last note I held, and reading this thread on a phone that pays for everything while realising an outage would leave me bartering charisma

[Hare]

The tap does not hurt research is real and I am its case study, moved to cash for discretionary spending for three months and the reduction was embarrassing, roughly a fifth of my fun money had been pure frictionless leakage

[Fatima]

Envelope person here to confirm, the system survives because handing over notes engages some ancient part of the brain that a contactless beep sails straight past, budgeting apps simulate what a wallet just does

[Ridge]

Cash wins column, the market, the car boot, the kids' pocket money because you cannot teach saving with a number on a screen the way a jar teaches it, and every tip that I want to arrive intact

[Matt_81]

The counter case deserves one entry, cash is also how I LOSE money, notes evaporate without receipts or records, card people can at least audit their leaks. Friction cuts both ways

[Raven]

Regional note for the census, plenty of the world went effectively cashless years ago and functions fine, while other places market culture keeps notes alive and well, the answer depends heavily on your postcode

[NeonPilot]

The folded note behind the phone case is preparedness not paranoia, one regional outage a couple of years back and the only functioning businesses in town were the chippy with a cash drawer and the honesty box at the farm gate

[SpinState52]

Someone always says just use the ATM in these threads without noticing the machines have been quietly vanishing from every high street, availability is a habit shaper too, the choice is being made for us

[Cobra69]

Pocket money point seconded strongly, the jar and the notes taught my kids more finance than any app, you can watch a seven year old physically weigh a want against a fiver, that interface has no digital equal

[Oscar_57]

Census summary so far, the wallet is thinner everywhere, the barber and the market are the last strongholds, the tap leaks, the note teaches, and everyone is one outage from agreeing with the preparedness crowd