Stopped treating cash as backup, now it's my main steering wheel

I used to carry $80 in my wallet just for emergencies, but after my card got skimmed at a gas station in Denver and I had to live off that cash for 5 days, I realized I had the whole system backwards, so now I budget my whole month in envelopes and keep the card locked in a drawer, and honestly, has anyone else found that using cash makes you notice how many stores secretly price things higher for card users?

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the_charlie7d ago

The gas station near my shop charges 3% more if you tap, but that fee disappears when I hand over twenties, and nobody blinks when I ask for the cash price on a $40 filter. My rule now is anything under $100 comes out of the wallet, and it takes about two weeks before you start seeing which places are actually ripping you off. That skimmed card in Denver was the best thing that ever happened to my monthly budget, because now I catch the hidden surcharges before they catch me.