Image by Diana Caballero from Pixabay
I wasn’t aware of the current coin shortage until I read about it. Have you noticed it?
We need quarters for doing our laundry, and we get them from the bank. But we almost always use our credit card for other things so we no longer have to mess with change.
What do you do?
July 28, 2020
I bring Dave and he handles what few actual cash transactions we do. Now that we have our own washer/dryer setup we no longer even need rolls of quarters. The emergency money I have in my purse has been there a LONG time.
Hopefully we have enough quarters to keep us going until it gets straightened out! Wish us luck. 🙂
Here, they are asking people to roll up their loose change and bring it into the banks. I have so many rolls of quarters, it’s not funny. I need to turn them in.
You would be doing a great service. 🙂
We do a bit of both….
We paid by cash for years, but it’s so much quicker at the supermarket now to not have to mess around with change.
Same here, everything is done with a credit card. Under “normal” circumstances, we would save any excess of coins and then cash in for a special treat:)
I wonder what the “normal” will be in a year or so. It’s crazy. I think your saving for a special treat was a great idea.
We don’t seem to need any coins. This shortage puzzles me. We are all using credit cards more than ever, so why the coin shortage? I know there must be a good reason.
Part of it was the mints weren’t operating at full capacity because of the pandemic, but I don’t understand why the circulation problem if people aren’t buying as much with cash.
We don’t shop much, period, anymore so I don’t ever need change. On those rare occasions that we go to the store, I usually write a check. That’s another habit from ancient civilization, it seems. 🙂 Love, Andrea xoxo
Oh, yes! I completely forgot about that. Thanks for the reminder. 🙂
We use our card for almost everything and pay it off every month. Not getting out much, I still have cash in my wallet from March. All of our change goes into a large piggy bank — it’s so heavy now, there is no way I can pick it up — except for quarter, which go into a couple of plastic containers for use for laundry when we travel, which we are NOT going to do this year. We plan to start exchanging our change sometime soon, probably to help pay for Christmas!
The bank will be thrilled to see you. 🙂
Actually, the banks around here don’t take coins. Coinstar coin kiosks are widely available, though. Many people are reluctant to use them, though, because they charge a HUGE amount to change the coins for cash. However, you can opt to get a printed out gift “card” for the entire value of the coins you drop into the machines till.
I mainly just use my card.
It’s so much easier.
I rarely carry cash.
I carry some but haven’t used it in a long time.
In the past before debit cards I always had several jars of coins because I always save my change so that I would have coins when I needed them but now there’s no need for coins except of course in a laundromat. But last time I went to the laundromat a couple years ago it wanted $5 not coins but you did have to have cash. I’m 100% debit card. I keep a little cash on hand but now that we’re short on coins they’re saying that we’re going to be short on the dollars and $5 in tens and twenties in other words cash because nobody’s using it and if you go into a store it’s hard to pay in cash because they don’t have any money to give you back cash
I hadn’t known that about bills. Thanks for the heads up!
I guess people are hoarding their Money now like they did Toilet Paper when the Panic began? I try to give Stores Change now when I have it since they are grateful for any due to the Banks limiting their supply!
Good for you! I also love your blogger picture, with the mask. 😀
Thanks for coming by.
When I asked my Dave about this he said he saw a sign recently that said “credit card, debit card, or exact change, please.”
Our grocery store last night asked for exact change for people who use cash. If you didn’t have it you could contribute the amount they owed you to charity or else apply it to your loyalty card. It would be applied to your purchase the next time you come in. That seemed reasonable.
I looked into an empty wallet the other day and wondered how long it had been since I had carried any cash. Plastic seemingly handles everything these days.
We still carry some cash just in case something comes up. I haven’t touched mine in a long, long time. I do have a store of ones and fives in a special place at home that I dip into when we’re going somewhere like Subway and want to tip.
during our Level 4 lock-down, things started to change…and instead of using a few coins to pay for something, you could only use your card…
bus transport has no change or even a cash box, everyone had to have a card (inAuckland) part of that was to do with contact tracing but also drivers didn’t have to handle any “germs” and also you couldn’t access the driver or the front door of the bus, all taped off – you had to enter/exit via backdoor (unless bus had only one door…a few like that here) AND since we got to Level 1, it’s still no cashbox although we can enter/exit front door…
I finally ran out notes in my wallet and I now I’ve about $2 in change in my purse…just about everything I buy on a card! And of course most of my household bills the same way, including my online shopping…
I’ve been to the eftpos machine once…and then I had to change the large $20 note and before I knew I had spent the money!
Some people here want to go to a cashless economy, and it looks as if the pandemic has pushed NZ and us in that direction. It is easier than messing with change.
Did not know this, about coins.
We used to use money (folding and coins). And mostly checks.
But this miserable Wuhan Virus Pandemic, has turned us (Old Folks) into credit card users, instead.
We always have had cards, but used them for needed big items, and for buying on line. And we always pay the credit card bills, when they come.
We continue to do the same, pay when come.
But this situation, has made a major change, in our habits. Interesting….
It hasn’t affected us that much because we switched from cash to credit cards a long time ago.