Stewardship of Life

The good old days before credit cards …

By Rob Blezard, October 5, 2011

‘IT’S PERSONAL’ BLOG –

For a week and a half my wallet was nowhere to be found, so I spent time in the financial reality I enjoyed in the 1970s, before ATMs made cash available anywhere at the touch of a button, and before credit cards were easy to obtain – or at least for me!

The loss of my wallet sent me hurtling back in time to those days. Now there are two things you need to know. First, I KNEW my wallet was somewhere in my house or church office, so finding it was just a matter of time. Second, I put a hold on my credit cards just in case.

Here’s how my buying behavior changed:

– I planned my purchases, and then followed through more exactly. For instance, in the grocery store I actually stuck to the things on my list. With my debit card in hand, I would have loaded the cart with stuff we’d “probably need eventually.”

– I was not tempted, as I usually am, to stop by some store just because I’m in the neighborhood. In my country town, for instance, there is no Home Depot or Dick’s Sporting Goods, so whenever I’m in a place that has one, I might just stop by. You know, just to see if there’s something we might want.

– I didn’t even think about going out and buying stuff that we didn’t absolutely need. If shopping meant a trip to the bank or depleting a finite supply of cash-in-hand, it had better be worth it.

The experience brought me back to those days when, if you wanted to have money on a Sunday night, you had to make sure to go to the bank on Friday. No weekend money meant limited fun on Saturday night. Impulse buying was limited by the number and denomination of bills in your wallet. No $10,000 credit card limit to tempt me.

After 11 days my wallet turned up (as I suspected it would) in some stupid place I had carelessly thrown it — on a chair next to my desk, where it was swallowed in a pile of stuff. I reactivated my credit cards, but I’m not eager to go back to my old habits, because here is the best lesson of all:

– I spent a lot less money than I would have otherwise.

(Photo by Carlos A. Martinez, used by Creative Commons license. Thanks!)