Uncommon Cents

This is a game I play with myself between paychecks: can I get away with less than one trip to the automatic teller machine a week?

The goal is, of course, to reduce the amount of money that exits my account. The less often I go to the machine, the more that stays in my account, provided I don’t make large withdrawals when I do go.

There were a few years when I forced myself to go without an ATM card; at that point the bank made all of their ATM cards into MasterCard branded debit cards and reissued them. While I was without the ATM card, I suspect I spent somewhat less cash, but I had to really plan ahead. I absolutely needed to make it to the bank by 1 pm on Saturday when they closed, or I was totally screwed until the following Friday in terms of cash on hand. I wrote lots and lots of checks. When the debit card showed up, I made up my mind that I had enough discipline to deal with having an ATM card. One of the ways I dealt with this was to play a game: how many days could I go without hitting the ATM?

This game was made a bit easier by my employer; not that they paid me great, but the only ATM in the building (a hospital with over 200 beds) is for another local bank. Given how much I hate paying fees, there was no way I was going to use that ATM unless the situation was dire. They also–until the last year or so–allowed employees to cash personal checks for up to $20.

Eventually I changed the game; I went from trying to maximize the days between ATM visits to targeting no more than one time a week. This could be easy if I let myself get $100 out every time, but I try to get by with $40. So far, I’ve won at this game 20 times in the last 25 weeks.

Do you play games with yourself to try to remain frugal?

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