I try to not use cash at all, because then I have a hard time tracking what I spend it on. (I loooooove expensr or MM because they will analyze where I spend all my money-it’s scary but cool 
)
Of course, when I do get cash, which is maybe once a month, I feel compelled to take out as much as I can to “save money” by making the fees a lower percentage of the total. (Yes, I know that saves me no money - but I feel like it does!)
About once per week, for $40.
Once a week or so, usually $40. Unless I know I want to rush a Broadway show, then I’ll take out an extra $40 since student rush is usually cash only.
I don’t know how you can go about without using cash. Does no one buy coffee in the morning, or a sandwich from the deli? What do you do if you’re at a place that has a $10 minimum and all you want is a $1 soda? I like spending cash because once it’s gone, it’s gone. There’s no waiting for the bill to come and paying the whole lump sum at once.
I go to the ATM roughly every two weeks. I prefer not to use credit cards, and my lack of a car means I walk more than most and thus need more “walking around” money. I used to go every few days to take out money, but BankAmerica charges you a dollar fee if you use an ATM more than once a week. So much for free ATM service they always advertise.
About once a week, for $60 a time. This is so it comes out in convenient 20s. If I get cash from a supermarket or whatever, they tend to give it in whatever annoying denomination they’re trying to get rid of, which is usually 10s and 50s, so ATMs are good for me.
I’ve just been for my usual weekly Friday afternoon run to the ATM.
I always withdraw whatever the max is, usually $500, and almost always use no-fee ATMs. Then I eat through that cash & do it again whenever the supply runs low.
That lasts 3-5 weeks depending on the breaks. I never use a CC for anything below $20. Some weekends have ten $15 purchases, others have zero.
Amazes me to watch people pay $3 to withdraw $20 & keep doing it. In an emergency, sure, but on a regualr basis? That’s pure stupid.
Very rarely. I deposit my paychecks at the bank (small employer, no direct deposit) and take out cash there when we need it, which is usually for a specific purpose like a trip or paying for the neighbor kid’s girl scout cookies or something. I hate to use ATMs, mostly for the fees. Whenever we do go, I make it a point to take out as much as we’ll need so we won’t have to take multiple trips.
We’ve been trying to start the habit of withdrawing cash for our discretionary money, but we often just forget that we have it unless it’s for a specific purpose. I don’t like cash, because I can’t track it. It seems to vanish. I also hate to carry around more than $100, because if I lost it, I’d be screwed. Debit card purchases, I can track. It always surprises me how people have the same complaints about debit cards and cash, but they’re directed differently depending on their preferences. One makes me feel like I have more contol over my money, and the other makes me feel like I’m spending like crazy–but for some people it’s vice-versa.
It has always amazed me too. I infer that if they have it, they’ll spend it, so they get it out daily to prevent over-spending. That is the only way I can make sense of it.
Not all ATMs have fees. My account is with Citibank, which there are roughly a million of all over NYC. It’s free to use their ATMs as long as you have an account with them.
I buy groceries, gas, and fast food, and pick up a pizza now and then. All those places take my debit card. I pay the kids’ school lunches online and if they need field trip money I write them a check. The only time I need cash is when I get hit up to contribute to an office birthday party or something.
You and robardin both said the same thing about delis and coffee on the way to work. You both also live in New York.
The rest of the country (except Chicago and DC) commutes differently. Breakfast is either at home or at a drive-thru on the way for most of us, and McD’s and Dunkin Donuts and all the other drive-thrus take debit / credit cards. You’ll get your breakfast walking past a bagel cart or a deli on the way, but we’re all in our cars. If we get dinner on the way home, it’s takeout from a restaurant or stuff from the grocery store, and they take cards too.
As much as I enjoyed my visits to New York, I always disliked the need to carry as much cash as y’all do.
Hey, I’ll gladly take the minimal burden of visiting ATMs (which at last three fee-free ones are available to me within three blocks of my office) twice a week and using cash currency as the cost of having many more food choices, in terms of variety, price and location, than if I were stuck visiting drive-through windows or fast food joints.
I don’t even see how using a card is saving much time compared to forking over cash; most of my efforts in conserving my cash reserve is so I don’t have to visit the ATM to replenish it more often than about twice a month. Most card-taking places I go to still require me to sign a slip of paper or on a digital pad; very few places are completely “swipe-and-go”. Gas station self-serve pumps, Starbucks and… well… That’s about it. I guess McD’s too, but I try to avoid going there as I hate all the food on their menu except for the Chicken McNuggets and French Fries, which I in turn avoid for nutritional reasons.
I also hate drive-thru windows. If you got out of your car and went inside, there’d be three or four lines to choose from, instead of waiting in a single-threaded line to go past the order box and pick-up window, especially if one of the cars ahead of you is a mini-van with a youth soccer team in it or something. Almost every time it’s faster to duck in, get your food and get back into the car.
Looking at your location reminds me that I too often look at the world through my own experience. It makes a little more sense to me that people do this in the city. Here in the more rural parts of the US, I have to go out of my way to get to an ATM. Not THAT far out my way, but enough so that I could not be bothered to do it every day, even though it might be free.