You know you are getting old when:

[Trenchfriend]

Belly t-shirt doesn't freed from belly...

That’s no joke. In 09 I had a cashier ask me how to break a 20 dollar bill. I’m like give me four 5dollar bills. He looks dumbfounded and tells me that doesn’t add up to 20 dollars. I put my hand on my face in embarrassment and an older lady came up to me and asked what the issue is. I told her I wanted my 20 dollars broke and I told the cashier to give me four fives equals 20 dollars and he was dumbfounded. The lady broke my 20 dollars and apologized for the cashier lack of an education.

Come to Germany. Old cash-money-lovers-paradise!!

 

[Zombie_61]

That’s no joke. In 09 I had a cashier ask me how to break a 20 dollar bill. I’m like give me four 5dollar bills. He looks dumbfounded and tells me that doesn’t add up to 20 dollars. I put my hand on my face in embarrassment and an older lady came up to me and asked what the issue is. I told her I wanted my 20 dollars broke and I told the cashier to give me four fives equals 20 dollars and he was dumbfounded. The lady broke my 20 dollars and apologized for the cashier lack of an education.

I can't say I've experienced this yet, but I've lost track of the number of times a bill came to the amount of, say, $22.35, I've handed the cashier a $20 bill, a $5 bill, and two quarters, and they looked at me as if I'd suddenly grown a second head. "But it's only $22.35." And then I have to explain to them that they have to give me $3.15 in change, and we're even. Most of the time it finally "clicks" for them at that point, but sometimes the reaction is a shrug and a still-confused expression as they follow my instructions. Sometimes they hand me more change than I should receive and I have to correct them, but if they've really ticked me off I simply pocket it and go about my business; it's the business' fault if they've assigned someone to be a cashier who can't do simple math and come up short at the end of the day as a result.

My wife regularly gets annoyed when they hand you your change without counting it out. She worked retail jobs in her younger days and was always instructed to count the change out to the customer as you handed it to them. That's hardly a common practice these days, at least in this part of California, so when a cashier actually does it my wife is quite pleased.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most customer-service operations today specifically instruct the point-of-sale people *not* to count change back. It isn't because the kids are dumb and humanity is careening to mass stupidity, it's because the tills do all the calculation and hand-counting change back slows up the movement of the line. If I had a kid in the box office who was counting change back to every customer, on a night when we had a hundred people lined up in the rain, I'd put an immediate stop to it.

It annoys me when people do that extra-cash to get even-change bit and we don't have the bills they want in the till because the first jackhole in line paid with a hundred to impress his date.

 

[scottyrocks]

If I wasn't married I probably could as well, but I would have to feel some sort of connection to that person beyond a casual friendship. I do believe age is just a number, and it's difficult enough to find someone with whom you want to share your life who wants to do the same, so age shouldn't become a barrier if that connection exists.

Yeah, I can't even think about it with anyone not my S.O., regardless of age.

This is one of the reasons I've been wearing my hair much shorter in recent years. My hairline is receding and I'm developing the typical "bald spot" on the top/back of my head. Both have been slowly occurring for the last 15 or so years, and I don't want to be that guy who looks like he's leaving his hair long to hide the fact that he's losing it; to me that goes hand-in-hand with obvious hair plugs, a bad dye job, or a cheap toupee. Note to those guys: You're not fooling anyone. Also, I got tired of the maintenance involved with having long hair and spending a small fortune on shampoo and conditioner.

I came at the opposite way. Up until July 3, 1995 I had my hair tied up in a ponytail. We were at a rather lively 4th of July party, and a bunch of us with long hair decided to go under the buzzer, to the hoots, cheers, and laughter of the inebriated gathering.

It was then that noticed that the hair on the top of my head wasn't as thick as the hair on the sides (or the back).

Since then, I keep it very short, as in the #1 attachment (1/8" or 3mm) on my Wahl that I've had since a week after that party. That way it isn't quite as obvious as when my hair is long enough to look messy in the morning. No attachment is too short. I don't like looking like a skinhead.

 

[tonyb]

...

Since then, I keep it very short, as in the #1 attachment (1/8" or 3mm) on my Wahl that I've had since a week after that party. That way it isn't quite as obvious as when my hair is long enough to look messy in the morning. No attachment is too short. I don't like looking like a skinhead.

Pretty much my approach, too. I usually cut it myself whenever it gets to a length where I might consider a comb. I cut it as short as the clippers will cut it, which is quite short indeed. But I never shave it.

It was apparent by the time I was old enough to legally purchase smokes that I would be bald on top. When I reached legal age to buy alcohol I WAS bald on top. So I was well accustomed to it when my contemporaries went through their own coping with male pattern baldness. It kinda amused me.

 

[Zombie_61]

Most customer-service operations today specifically instruct the point-of-sale people *not* to count change back. It isn't because the kids are dumb and humanity is careening to mass stupidity, it's because the tills do all the calculation and hand-counting change back slows up the movement of the line. If I had a kid in the box office who was counting change back to every customer, on a night when we had a hundred people lined up in the rain, I'd put an immediate stop to it...

I hadn't considered that, but it makes sense. I could still see it becoming an occasional problem when the customer stands immobile in front of the box office/counter/wherever counting his/her change to make sure they had received the correct amount.

 

[KY Gentleman]

It annoys me when people do that extra-cash to get even-change bit and we don't have the bills they want in the till because the first jackhole in line paid with a hundred to impress his date.

This used to really annoy me, too. I have had customers try to pay for something as cheap as a newspaper with a hundred dollar bill.

 

[GHT]

I like baby boomers.

They rock.

Period.

I guess they do, not my choice though. I saw them twice, in 1964, that was enough.

It annoys me when people do that extra-cash to get even-change bit and we don't have the bills they want in the till because the first jackhole in line paid with a hundred to impress his date.

There was a time when I would offer the small change as an addition. For example I might have spent £17:52. I would have tendered a twenty pound note and the odd fifty two pence. This seemed to have many a cashier confused, my fifty two pence would be returned along with the two pounds forty eight pence change.
It was something that I read here on the Lounge that explained it. The till tells the cashier how much change to give a customer, so adding the small change tends to cause confusion.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I can't remember the last time I paid for anything in cash. One of the advantages (or disadvantages, depending on your point of view) of not living in a town or city is that there just ain't nowhere to spend small amounts.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I paid with electronic-cash the last time in 2012, so, the boys from "Sparkasse" don't know what I'm doing or buying since six years, hooray. Privacy is a wonderful thing. It doesn't concern you obsolete bankster-a......s!

 

[HanauMan]

It is all 'tap and go' here with cards. Even for a small purchase like a candy bar or a newspaper. I cannot recall when I last spent 'real' money and probably have less than a dollar of 'modern' money (though I have plenty of old time silver coins and greenbacks in my collection) sitting at home. A big change to my younger days when I had a big bowl of money and a piggy bank or two to raid every time I left the house.

Still have two bill clips sitting around. Kind of miss using those.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I prefer to use cash for the privacy considerations and also because I'm extremely sloppy about writing down card transactions so I know how much money is in my checking account. A lot of random two-dollar this and three-fifty that petty transactions often add up to "Congratulations! You've got an overdraft! Fee $34!" The great advantage of carrying cash is that you always know how much you've got.

 

[HanauMan]

I prefer to use cash for the privacy considerations and also because I'm extremely sloppy about writing down card transactions so I know how much money is in my checking account. A lot of random two-dollar this and three-fifty that petty transactions often add up to "Congratulations! You've got an overdraft! Fee $34!" The great advantage of carrying cash is that you always know how much you've got.

Nay, I'm pretty good at keeping tabs on my spending. I come from an army family where mom had to make do on dad's junior NCO pay to raise her family. Thus, from an early age, I was taught what I guess could be called 'home economics', keeping an eye on finances especially. By my early teens I could cook, sew and even had a little ledger to keep accounts on my pocket money. In fact, here I am forty odd years later and I'm still using a ledger to keep on top of my money, just as my mom taught me. I still do mine in an actual ledger though many use a computer to do theirs.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My problem is that I don't see well enough anymore to keep meticulous notes -- my eyes are not what they were five years ago, let alone forty years ago, when I was doing the bookkeeping for our gas station, and even when I do write stuff down there's an even chance I won't be able to read it. The one thing I like about the gawdawful ugliness of modern American currency is the large-print denomination number on the back.

 

[tonyb]

The bank does my calculations for me. It takes a matter of seconds to call up my accounts on my iPhone, where I can view all my transactions ranging from the sandwich I bought a minute ago going back as far as I wish. And a running balance column, too.

 

[Fading Fast]

Growing up with two Depression Era parents - one whose family lost their modest home to the bank in it - not having debt and paying cash was the only approach we knew - if you didn't have the cash for something, then you couldn't afford it and you didn't buy it.

To be fair and honest, my dad did have a charge card not a credit card for both convenience and record keeping in the days of many business write offs (at one time, he had owned a small-appliance store), but he explained to me (one of the few things he ever took the time to explain was about this stuff - I'm glad he did) the risk of debt and how he always paid the card off each month.

That said, many people use debt in ways that work well for them or for many reasons simply have to or want to use it; so I want to note that I am sincerely not judging what others do, just giving the background for why and what I do.

As an adult, I've followed my father's "rules -" never had debt and have only one card (a charge card) and (early on) only used it sparingly. But, then, about twenty years ago, I started putting bigger ticket items on the charge card as the "points back" equaled about a 2% discount - so why not / not doing it was like leaving money on the table.

When the new convention of paying for even small items with a card of some sort took off, I initially thought it silly, "what, pay for a $2 coffee with a card, that's crazy," but as it became more common and I thought about it, I said, why not - I'll get the 2% discount which will add up over the year.

So now, I put almost everything on the card - even if I do feel silly sometimes. But I don't feel silly when I'm using those points to make purchases. And many Millennials only seem to know that world. I've seen - no exaggeration - a young man or women leave a store without their item when they get to the register and learn it's one of the few cash-only businesses left as they didn't have any cash on them.

I added Apple Pay a few years ago. Basically, it links my phone to my one charge card and allows for, effectively, a faster swipe at the register: it's all but seamless, they ring it up, you put your phone near the scanner, you hear a bing, you take your item and leave (the receipt, effectively, is on your phone immediately).

I'm surprised Apple Pay and similar services are not taking off faster. It cost the user nothing (I know, the tracking, but I'm tracked anyway as are most of us), I still get my 2% off and it makes the transaction smooth as heck.

 

[GHT]

The reason that I pay in cash is the same as Trenchfriend, no one can amass a profile on me. I refuse store loyalty cards for the same reason. The result is, I'm only hassled by random unsolicited mail, and they all get the return to sender treatment.

There was a difficult time once when I was calling an insurance company for a competitor quote. The young lady asked me for a lot of pertinent details, when I asked why she needed them she that it was to run a credit check. When I asked why she needed a credit check if I was paying the full amount in cash, she said that they only accepted card payments and wanted to be sure that there was no default. I said that she had just talked herself out of a potential sale.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Growing up with two Depression Era parents - one whose family lost their modest home to the bank in it - not having debt and paying cash was the only approach we knew - if you didn't have the cash for something, then you couldn't afford it and you didn't buy it.

To be fair and honest, my dad did have a charge card not a credit card for both convenience and record keeping in the days of many business write offs (at one time, he had owned a small-appliance store), but he explained to me (one of the few things he ever took the time to explain was about this stuff - I'm glad he did) the risk of debt and how he always paid the card off each month.

That said, many people use debt in ways that work well for them or for many reasons simply have to or want to use it; so I want to note that I am sincerely not judging what others do, just giving the background for why and what I do.

As an adult, I've followed my father's "rules -" never had debt and have only one card (a charge card) and (early on) only used it sparingly. But, then, about twenty years ago, I started putting bigger ticket items on the charge card as the "points back" equaled about a 2% discount - so why not / not doing it was like leaving money on the table.

When the new convention of paying for even small items with a card of some sort took off, I initially thought it silly, "what, pay for a $2 coffee with a card, that's crazy," but as it became more common and I thought about it, I said, why not - I'll get the 2% discount which will add up over the year.

So now, I put almost everything on the card - even if I do feel silly sometimes. But I don't feel silly when I'm using those points to make purchases. And many Millennials only seem to know that world. I've seen - no exaggeration - a young man or women leave a store without their item when they get to the register and learn it's one of the few cash-only businesses left as they didn't have any cash on them.

I added Apple Pay a few years ago. Basically, it links my phone to my one charge card and allows for, effectively, a faster swipe at the register: it's all but seamless, they ring it up, you put your phone near the scanner, you hear a bing, you take your item and leave (the receipt, effectively, is on your phone immediately).

I'm surprised Apple Pay and similar services are not taking off faster. It cost the user nothing (I know, the tracking, but I'm tracked anyway as are most of us), I still get my 2% off and it makes the transaction smooth as heck.

Several years ago the LA Colliseum (home of the Rams) spent $8 million for a new sound system. The person on the LA Colliseum Commssion in charge of purchasing made the payments through his own credit card and accumulated some $100,000 worth of rewards points!

 

[Fading Fast]

Several years ago the LA Colliseum (home of the Rams) spent $8 million for a new sound system. The person on the LA Colliseum Commssion in charge of purchasing made the payments through his own credit card and accumulated some $100,000 worth of rewards points!

Most companies got wise to that game years ago, which is why most don't allow you to use your personal credit card for business and, instead, they issue you a "company" card to be used for all business spending. Effectively, what happens is that the companies negotiate with the credit card companies and, basically, the companies keep the economic value of the points. (Some companies don't do this or let the points flow through as a benefit of employment, but that number is shrinking.)

Did the LA CC take the points back from the person? At that level of spending, most companies - like the one selling the sound system to the LA CC - offer discounts if you don't use a credit card, work out a payment plan, etc., as they don't want to loose that $100k. Hence, the real question is if the person getting the points while acting on the LA CC's behalf violated his/her fiduciary responsibility to the LA CC by not negotiating the best deal he/she could on its behalf.

 

[scottyrocks]

My spending rules for myself are fairly straight-forward.

<$10 is cash. >$20 is credit. Between the two is a toss-up.

I never use my bank debit card to shop. And I pay off my credit card in full every month.