# What US Currency Notes Do You Regularly Carry? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 10, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911 "2013-10-10T19:13:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911/21 "2013-10-11T00:29:08Z")
I carry $2 bill for luck. Everything else are $20s or change from $20s. Once my ATM gave me a $50 and it was weird carrying it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911/22 "2013-10-11T00:44:03Z")
My bank’s ATM has a quirk of always including a fifty in the money you get if you withdraw $200. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911/23 "2013-10-11T00:50:28Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I answered for when I am in the US. Canada has no ones or twos, although I usually have a couple of loonies or twonies. Some of our bank machines give out fifties, but I try to avoid them. I pay cash surprisingly often. When I have to pay my doctor for the cost of a blood test, I have to give him cash or cheque. I never use plastic for less than $20 (and there is a Chinese grocery around here that won’t take credit under $20). And what with our new plastic banknotes, we’ll be using plastic down to the $5 level soon. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911/24 "2013-10-11T04:57:10Z")
3-5 $100’s 3-5 $20’s various #'s of 10’s, 5’s and 1’s (change from the 100’s and 20’s) plus plastic (debit and credit cards) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911/25 "2013-10-11T05:21:35Z")
I usually have a US penny or two in my change purse at any one time. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911/26 "2013-10-11T14:24:43Z")
I rarely carry anything larger than a 20. On the other hand, I absolutely love dollar coins. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911/27 "2013-10-11T14:49:49Z")
My boss is a sneaky evasion sort of mofo so sometimes I get a weekly bonus that is a $100 bill and/or a $50 bill (nothing goes on the books, you see) along with my pay check. Because he grew up rich as hell he doesn’t find it weird to have multiple benjamins in his wallet or imagine that using/breaking a $100 bill is a hassle. Unlike I, where the only thing I ever spend that much money on in person is groceries. So now my bonuses are usually “grocery money” because there’s nothing else to spend it on without making special trips to the bank. Since I get such large denominations I have to deal with, I usually have those in my wallet until I manage to break them down into nice $20s and $10s. So I usually have all the bills from $1 to $100 in my wallet at any given time. I don’t like having more than $200 total in there though. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911/28 "2013-10-11T15:19:27Z")
A couple of years ago I asked the ATM for $340 and it spit out three 100s and two 20s. I was like WTF?! It was difficult spending them. Mom and pop shops are all like :dubious:. They start marking them and holding them up to the light. Some places just don’t take them. Since it was the closest ATM to me at the time I started getting my cash as a series of $140 withdraws so they would all be twenties. ---
**Author:** ![Lowdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911/29 "2013-10-11T18:13:54Z")
Once my paychecks went direct-deposit, I pretty much stopped using cash altogether. I love it. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911/30 "2013-10-11T19:59:26Z")
Yeah, I kind of forget cash exists. I go to an ATM maybe 4-5 times a year and usually because I specifically need cash for someplace that doesn’t take debit cards. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911/31 "2013-10-11T20:14:57Z")
I carry 20s because that’s what comes out of the cash machine. As I buy things, I get 10s, 5s, and 1s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-us-currency-notes-do-you-regularly-carry/670911.md?page=1)