I’m downsizing my wallet again, but I’m not ready to completely stop carrying cash. Why? No idea. Only thing I use cash for is non-restaurant tips and lemonade stands. What’s the most utility you can get from the smallest number of bills?
I can make a case for $47 (20x2, 5x1, 1x2) or $26 (20, 5, 1). But I’m not sure I have any justification for either.
Are you assuming that the recipient can’t make change and you don’t want to overpay?
Similar for me, except it’s usually bake sales at school. I generally assume they can make change for a fiver, but a twenty is iffy.
I would carry enough cash to fill up your gas tank [this is the only gas station around and the card processing system is down].
In this economy?!
Agreed. I keep a folded $100 hidden in my wallet. There have been a couple times when I had to hire a tow truck and they didn’t take cards, and some times when I needed gas and the gas station couldn’t take cards. That emergency $100 came in handy in those situations.
As far as bills, my method has been to have 2 wallets. In my wallet I carry on me in my pocket I have the emergency $100 bill and I also have several $20s and $50s. If I need to buy anything they can usually break a $20.
But in my car I keep a second wallet that only has cash in it. That one is full of smaller bills $1s, $5s and $10s (I also have a large coin collection in my car of quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies). That way if I’m ever in a situation where I need smaller bills or loose change I have them in the car, but I don’t need to carry them in my wallet that I have on me.
Anyway, thats kind of off topic. I guess if you want the most utility I would keep a $20, $10, a $5 and 2-3 $1 bills. That’s about 5-6 paper bills but that will give you a lot of flexibility.
Same question for me. Because otherwise the answer seems pretty straightforward: it’s 20s all the way down.
It’s a good question, and I think the answer is “I don’t mind overpaying or overtipping as long as it’s jot awkward.” Since this is an emergency fund, if I tip a 20 on a $15 meal it’s not the end of the world.
Maybe a range would be helpful? How much cash do you use in a “splurge” week, a typical week, and a “lean” week?
I guess I’m not understanding what is meant by “utility” in this question. If the question means “which set of N bills allows you the maximum purchasing power?”, the answer is obviously N $100 bills. If the question has a different meaning, it’s not clear to me what it is.
Right, I wasn’t expecting this much confusion. But I basically don’t use cash at all anymore. I still carry it, and sometimes it gets spent, but not regularly enough for any patterns to emerge.
I don’t feel comfortable not having any cash on me, but I don’t have the foggiest idea of what I might need it for next. So I’m crowdsourcing the problem – what feels generally useful in a largely post-cash society without feeling like I’m a wallet prepper.
Ok. Three twenties, three fives, five ones.
I keep 3 20s in my wallet primarily in case I need to fill the gas tank and the cash price is cheaper than the card price (which is common in NJ). Sometimes I use about $10 of it if I need to make a run to the dump with a couple weeks of garbage.
Yes, I agree. This is the mathematically correct answer. If you want to add some whimsy to someone’s day, replace a couple of the ones with a $2 bill. If you feel it’s too much money, then deduct a twenty (or two twenties). Scales beautifully.
The OP only mentioned non-restaurant tips and lemonade stands. So wouldn’t several five-dollar bills be sufficient? That is assuming you’re giving five bucks as a tip.