At the moment when she planned to buy a hair dryer worth 500 yuan or 600 yuan online and the payment page popped up "insufficient bank card balance", Bago thought her bank card had been stolen.
Beiguo, 26, a native of Shanghai, works as a government clerk with a monthly salary of 10000 yuan, which is more than enough for her to rent a house. She has always maintained the attitude of instant gratification, buying whatever she wants, and never paid attention to the balance in her bank card.
"There should be another five or six thousand yuan". She immediately opened the mobile bank to check her bills. After a round of re checking, she found that she had bought so many things worth 180, 190, 280 and 290 yuan. It's not expensive to spend two or three hundred at a time, but what if you buy two or three hundred every day?
Bago finally realized that he spent money like water and should save money.
Where should this money be saved? The "cash saving method" of some money saving bloggers on social networks has opened her eyes: she will take money into cash every month and distribute cash in advance, such as food expenses, living expenses, travel expenses, etc., and ensure that the cash expenses in each field are within the limit when spending. After one month, these bloggers can not only guarantee the daily living standard of their families, but also save extra money.
One of the bloggers also recommended a documentary called "The culprit of unrestrained consumption", which mentioned that people's online consumption is painless. "At that time, there was no pain when the figure went out... But it was very intuitive to spend cash. There was a stack of cash in your wallet. When you took out the money every day, you saw it thinned, and you felt it," said Bago.
Indeed, mobile payment weakens the psychological pain of consumer behavior, and also increases people's transaction amount and purchase frequency invisibly. The author pointed out in the article "The Impact of Mobile Payment Channel on Consumer Consumption" published by SSRN.
Bago decided to pick up this trade method that has been despised or even abandoned by everyone - spending cash.
Since last October, Bago has taken his wallet out every day. In the mezzanine of her wallet, there are her weekly food and living expenses. Every time she goes out to the convenience store to buy food, Bago will never take out her mobile phone, but will take out her wallet to pay in cash when the shopkeeper raises her arm to scan the payment code.
The two loose leaf notebooks are the key tools for her to save cash - she pays a salary every month. According to the consumption scenario, Bago will divide the money into daily expenses and storage expenses in advance (that is, the money that will not be spent at present but needs to be saved for future spending, such as travel and beauty), and put it into the loose leaf file bags of the two notebooks respectively. This is a common method of using cash for consumption at present, which can help her better limit her spending in every field.
For Bago, her wallet, which is thinner once spent, and the intuitive numbers on cash, make her more rational when consuming; The "zero balance" in the bank card made her never see those cute gadgets that only cost 9.9 yuan in the live broadcast room again, so she spent money like water; Places like flash stores and buyer shops that need to show payment codes to pay bills also successfully helped her resist the temptation of consumption. Bago can save at least a few thousand yuan every month.
The choice of bagels is not rare. The "Houlang Research Institute" found that more and more young people, like Beiguo, began to use cash, and their original intention was the same as hers - to save money.
Can cash consumption really change consumption inertia and reduce consumption desire? After cash consumption, what is their record of saving money? "Houlang Research Institute" chatted with four young people who started using cash last year. The following is their story.
You have a feeling when you take out the money every day and see it become thinner
After working for three years, I didn't have the sense to save money.
When I lived with my parents before, I didn't save any money, but I didn't clean up the money in my card, so I didn't have a big feeling about spending. Until I moved out to live alone for three consecutive months in June, July and August last year, when I had not yet paid my salary, my card had only a few hundred yuan, and I realized that the money seemed insufficient.
For example, when I bought a slightly larger piece, I once wanted to buy a hair dryer worth 500 or 600 yuan. When I paid, I was reminded that the bank card balance was insufficient. I was surprised. The first reaction was that the card might have been stolen. I thought I should have another 5000 or 6000 yuan. I also went to check the consumption record. Later, I found that I really spent 280, 290, 180, and 190 yuan, which was like water.
At that time, I didn't want to limit my consumption or change my consumption habits. I just wanted to earn more money, so I searched the sidelines that girls could do online. But I found that it was not easy. One blogger worked in the daytime and delivered food at night, or some young girls worked in the daytime and went to the fruit shop part-time at night, If I pay more than ten or twenty yuan an hour, I may not be as good as I can solve my consumption habits directly.
Later, in the keyword recommendation (in the search bar), I saw a lot of money saving bloggers, most of whom are housewives from Japan and South Korea. They need to take care of the expenses of the whole family, distribute cash in advance every month, and put them in different notebooks by category.
When I continued to search for similar videos, I saw a blogger recommended a documentary called "The culprit of unrestrained consumption", which mentioned that many people are consuming now, but in fact there is no pain. For example, if you buy something on Taobao and spend two or three hundred at a time, you don't think it is expensive, but what if you buy two or three hundred every day? There are still many. But at that time, when the figure went out, there was no pain. Two hundred yuan was said to be spent, and the SMS only showed how much you had spent this time. But it is very intuitive to spend cash. You have a stack of cash in your wallet. When you take out the money every day, you will feel it has become thinner.
So from last November, I decided to use cash.
Before using cash, I made a monthly account and found that my Engel coefficient was still high, so I decided to restrain unnecessary expenses when using cash.
After the monthly salary arrives, I will give some money to my parents first, and the rest is the amount of cash I own.
Take the first month as an example, because I want to pay off my house loan, although I have not yet got my house, I want to save it first, so I will put the 2500 yuan provident fund loan each month into an envelope and stick a sticker. If I want to spend this money, I need to pick it out of the envelope and deposit it back in the bank. There are many things that can prevent me (from spending it).
Envelopes and stickers used when bagels are loaded with cash
The rest of the money will be put in two "Japanese housewives of the same style" loose leaf notebooks I bought. Each book has a bill page and a zipper bag, which is just the size to insert notes. One book with orange is for daily expenses, and the other book with strawberry is for storage expenses.
Among them, the daily expenses are a little more rigid, including 1200 yuan for food (lunch in the company canteen), 1000 yuan for living, 400 yuan for transportation, 250 yuan for water, electricity and gas, and 300 yuan for two cats. The storage expenses include 300 yuan for beauty, 400 yuan for tourism, 200 yuan for waste funds, and 200 yuan for gold. This is saved in advance for future enjoyment. It may be moved once a few months, but it will be saved every month.
From the second month, I also saved an extra reserve fund of 350 yuan a month to deal with some personal exchanges, or take my parents to the mall to eat out. I will also put the rest of last month's money here.
I will leave a turnover of 2000 yuan in the bank card. In order to meet some social needs, I should deal with friends who ask me to go out. I can't give up such things as milk tea and coffee. I will use my bank card to buy some group purchase coupons first, because it will also cost much less. But how much money I spent, I would take out the corresponding cash and put it in the turnover bag, and then deposit it in the bank card.
Cash withdrawn by Beiguo
After using cash, a big change is that I used to go out with my mobile phone, but now I have to take my wallet with me every day.
In Shanghai, although it is illegal to refuse cash, most businessmen do not prepare cash every day, even without a cash register. So when we spend cash, we should consciously choose some convenience stores, Hualian Supermarkets and other chain stores, or supermarkets and stores around residential buildings. These stores that can meet our rigid needs have cash, because some elderly people are still using them.
But most of the entertainment stores, such as flash stores, buyer stores, or small markets, do not accept cash. This will also allow me to consciously reduce some entertainment behaviors, control the number of social interactions, and pay more attention to rigid needs. The existence of cash allows you to check whether this item is just needed. If you must buy it today, if it is not available in other places, I may scan the code. If it is available in other places, I may not buy it today.
But it is not easy to change consumption habits.
I think some people who especially restrain their consumption desire simply cook at home and spend 800 yuan a month without buying clothes. I can't stand this. I think if I really reach this level, I may not be happy at ordinary times. I just want to restrain consumption, but I don't want to make myself unhappy. If I don't spend money for a day, I will definitely go to the convenience store after work to buy a box of juice, an ice cream, or a bag of potato chips as my reward mechanism.
So far, I have saved a lot of cash. I haven't paid for the house loan, beauty and travel expenses. The monthly food, living expenses and transportation expenses can leave 1 or 200 yuan. When these categories have respectively saved 10000 yuan, I will open a new category and set a new saving goal. For example, I may want to raise a cat.
I feel a bit humiliated when I just used cash, but it's better to spend money than not
I have always been a moonlight clan. I can say that I have no concept of money.
As a companion mother, before the epidemic, my husband gave me a living allowance of 10000 yuan per month. After the epidemic, our business was not very prosperous, and the monthly living allowance was 4000 yuan. But my husband also sends me some money intermittently on WeChat, which is about 7000 yuan a month.
After ten years of marriage, I didn't want to save money or keep accounts, but I always ended up. I will buy a dish today, a salt tomorrow, and a soy sauce the day after tomorrow. I remember and find out why I bought so many things that I shouldn't buy? I decided not to remember, but I would still buy it.
Later, my husband often lent money to his parents to invest because the children went to school outside. My condition was not particularly good. For nearly two years, it was all revenge consumption. Sometimes when I lie in bed and find that I may lack a piece of clothes and a pair of shoes, I will buy them back. But when I bought it, I found that there were clothes and shoes everywhere. I didn't lack this thing at all, but simply satisfied my desire at that time.
And my family is not only my own moonlight, but also the moonlight of the whole family. In 2019, after five years of teaching and training business, our family finally made some progress, bought a house, bought a car, and saved some savings. But that year, we failed to invest in the breeding industry, and we were saddled with more than 2 million yuan of debt. Although we can pay off this debt by selling some fixed assets, we still have two boys in our family. I think they must have what they should have when they marry in the future, which can also be regarded as a guarantee for the children to stay in their mother-in-law's home in the future. So I told my husband that the child would buy a house and a car in the future, and I would try to save the three gold gifts of the child's marriage.
Occasionally, I found someone saving money in the form of cash on social media, and I thought it was good. I didn't like to procrastinate, so I quickly bought two bookkeeping books online and started to save money in cash.
Because my husband originally paid me living expenses by week, it was not particularly difficult for me to plan the quota. Just change it into cash after my husband gives me weekly living expenses.
Once the cash is available, I will set a quota of 200 yuan for vegetables, 100 yuan for daily necessities, 250 yuan for fixed deposits, 50 yuan for pet spending, 100 yuan for snacks, 200 yuan for seasonal clothes, and 100 yuan for holiday reserves every week. In this way, I can save at least 1000 yuan by the end of the month. For every 1000 yuan saved, I will go to the bank to deposit a fixed deposit and get a deposit certificate. This form can also limit my spending, because if I want to withdraw the money, I need to take my ID card to the bank to withdraw it.
Cash used by Lucy
For example, our family is engaged in business and will receive some cash before. Sometimes my husband is lazy, and if he doesn't want to save it, he will give it to me. But I'm really embarrassed to spend it, because I always think it's a shame to spend cash. I said to my aunt before, when will I find I have no money? I started using cash. So when I first used cash, for example, when I went to the supermarket to buy things, everyone was in line. I took the cash out of my pocket and felt a bit humiliated.
Later, I also wanted to open it. It was better to spend money than not. The funny thing is that when I go out and spend cash to buy vegetables, my mother and aunt will not let me pay because they think I have no money. I explained that I didn't have no money now, but I wanted to spend cash.
I chatted with my mother last week. She also said that when I was a teenager, she asked me to save money. I argued with her that money was for earning, not for saving. Since I started school, I have always liked making money. Without money, I will try to make it, but I will not try to save it. However, after starting to use cash, I saw that there was no money in the cash bag every week, so I stopped buying it and would buy it next week. The disadvantage of spending cash is that you can only spend 100 yuan if you take 100 yuan out, but this is actually a benefit. It can help me limit unnecessary expenses. And when money cannot be spent, there will be no habit of retaliatory consumption.
I haven't calculated how much money I can leave each month. But now, in more than two months, there are nearly 8000 yuan in the bookkeeping book for cash deposit. Every day when I have nothing to do, I look at my small notebook and feel happy.
I also hope that I can use this cash to warn my husband, which is actually part of the reason why I use cash to save money. Sometimes when his parents in law and he ask for money to invest, even 100000 yuan or 200000 yuan, he will transfer money through WeChat with a bang. I just want him to know that if he pays 100000 yuan or 200000 yuan in cash, he can really pay a lot.
Every night, I have to count my cash
The first time I decided to save money was in 22 years. In fact, it was not to save money, but to be attracted by my appearance.
At that time, the way of saving money by passbook was very popular on the Internet. Some people said that the passbook of Postal Bank was very beautiful, and I wanted to do one. However, the staff of the bank has been urging me to use electronic banking. At that time, there were not too many people using cash. The staff said that there is no passbook in the bank now. If I want to, I can make an appointment in advance and come back next week.
I forgot my ID card when I went to the bank next week. Later on, I became less interested in the passbook and didn't save any money.
Until the second half of last year, the salary of the company had been delayed more and more for a long time, which always gave people a sense of crisis. In addition, our company's current performance is not good, and the bonus is not paid, so the insurance accumulation fund is deducted every month, and the amount of money in hand will be more than 3000. I think that if the salary is delayed for a long time or cut off directly in the future, I should have a reserve fund in my hand to deal with the situation of no salary for two or three months, or even four or five months.
In October last year, I accidentally swiped two certificates of deposit with the 12 certificate of deposit method (for 12 consecutive months, I deposited a deposit in the bank in the form of a fixed deposit for one year, and then deposited the principal and interest of this certificate of deposit and the principal of the deposit for the second year into a new certificate of deposit after the maturity of one certificate of deposit every month in the second year) And 36 deposit certificate method (a deposit is deposited in the bank for three years at a fixed time for 36 consecutive months, and the principal is deposited in a new deposit certificate after the fourth year expires). Bloggers who deposit money will withdraw the money every month, and then go to the bank to deposit a deposit certificate. I also want to use this method to save money. In the process, big data started to push cash to bloggers. I saw that they used calculators to calculate money every day, and then it was fun to save cash in loose leaf bookkeepers, so I officially started using cash.
But there is no way to learn from those bloggers who save money for cash distribution in each field. Because, like me, I only need to eat breakfast and dinner, and sometimes I don't even go out to eat. I just need to cook an egg or drink milk powder at home, and I can't learn from other people's car loans, housing loans, and child support costs, so I will allocate my money according to my own situation.
Before using cash, I first closed all the password free payments on all apps. In order to calculate the average monthly expenditure, I first went to the bank to withdraw 3000 yuan in cash, and used one month to eat all the food I could eat outside to see how much it would cost at most. The next month, I withdrew 3000 yuan. This time, I tried to eat at home to see how much it would cost. Then I calculated an average and set the monthly food expenses.
Every time I pay my salary, I will take an integer. For example, if I pay 4460, I will take 4000 cash, because I like to round up. The rest of the money will be used to charge the phone bill with 100 yuan first, and then all the money will be withdrawn and put into WeChat. But if there is money in WeChat, I can't help spending it. I can spend only a few dozen yuan in WeChat every time, and the rest is used to go out of the parking lot to scan the payment code, because there is no way to pay with cash.
My rule is to deposit at least 1000 yuan in my notebook every month. Every week, I will put the rest of the cash into a small bag. Every time I save 100 yuan, I will move it into the savings book and paint a 100 yuan color card on the book. The feeling is very good, because this is not my savings, but my extra money.
Wooden customized color card
When I save money in the notebook every week, I also take videos to record it, not for fire, but for fun, also to supervise myself. In order to make the video look less dry, I also bought an acrylic eye shadow plate for 3. 8 yuan, and a black 9. 9 yuan organ clip. I also found the calculator I bought for about 50 yuan and the envelope I bought when I made the account. In addition, I think the process of putting money into the file bag is very similar to the process of my hand account. This process is very decompression.
When I first started using cash, I was a little uncomfortable. I often forgot to take my wallet while holding my mobile phone. Now I have taken my wallet but forgot my mobile phone. One morning when I was on the night shift, I went to buy a breakfast on the way. When I got to the bottom of my house, I didn't realize that I had forgotten my mobile phone. It was not until I got home that I found that I didn't take my mobile phone home and returned to the company again.
There are many old people in our family, so every time we use cash, the merchants change money very smoothly. Every time when I spend cash, I will "show off" with others. In the past, I said to others that I don't use Alipay to make cash. Brother also said, OK, I can find it for you. And sometimes, when I buy something with cash, it will be wiped out by the merchant. For example, when I buy something for 22 yuan and 30 cents, the merchant will say 22 yuan when he sees me take out my wallet.
Another advantage of cash consumption is that it can force me to think about whether this thing is just needed. Sometimes I see something on Taobao and want to buy it, but I don't have money in Alipay, so I think I will wait and see if I want to buy it when I get my salary next month. If I want to buy it, I leave some money in my card. But when I got paid, I found that I didn't really want to buy it.
In addition to the fixed deposit of 1000 yuan each month, I have some cash balance, such as 1500 yuan in November and 1652 yuan in December. I brushed a short video saying, "You should like money, touch it often, and put money at home to attract it." So now every night, I have to count the cash in my hand. I like counting money.
The speed of using cash is really slow, because they don't charge when you want to spend money
I decided to save money because I wanted to repay the debt.
When I was young, I didn't know what to do. I spent money and made investments indiscriminately. I owed Internet micro loans and bank credit loans, and the interest was rolling. After eight years, I owed 470000 yuan.
Until last year, I read a book called Poor Women in Tokyo, where many women were poor because of various situations. Their lives were actually very painful. As women grow older, their life is full of uncertainty, I think I have to be alert. No one wants to live a painful life, so now I have to prepare for a rainy day and make plans in advance.
I intend to make an attempt to live with the least money. On the one hand, I want to have the ability to spend the least money, so that even if I only have 2000 yuan or 1000 yuan of salary, I have the confidence to live. Second, it's hard to earn money because it's really tiring to work. Seeing someone on the Internet saying that the speed of using cash will be slower than the speed of online payment, and can save money more effectively, I decided to give it a try.
My family's monthly living budget is 5000 yuan. Every month, I will put 1000 yuan on my mobile phone WeChat to pay the rent, water and electricity, and charge the phone. I will also transfer 1500 yuan to my husband online because he has to pay parking fees and gas for his car. I will go to the bank to withdraw the remaining 2500 yuan, and give my mother-in-law 1000 yuan first, because she will help us buy vegetables, and the elderly also think it is very convenient to pay cash. Then I gave my husband 500 yuan in cash and left 1000 yuan for living expenses.
For me, the advantage of using cash is that every time I spend money, I need to open my backpack first, and then take out my wallet. For example, if I take out 50 yuan to buy something worth 25 yuan, the other party has to take out loose money from the bag and give me 25 yuan, Maybe I regret it during this process, so I don't want to buy it. There is a buffering process.
And every time I pay in cash, I will remember to take the small bill, because if I don't take the small bill, I can't remember where the money went. Once my daughter wanted to buy a cotton slipper, and the supermarket offered a special price of 9 yuan and 9 yuan. After I paid 10 yuan in cash to buy it home, I felt that the money should not be spent, because I still had a pair of cotton slippers at home, so I immediately returned them with a small receipt. If I scan the code to pay, I will definitely not take this small bill, and this 9.9 will be forced to be consumed.
In fact, I don't have many places to use cash. I only use it when I buy vegetables. Because it took me a while, I felt that cash was not particularly convenient.
First, after I used the cash, I couldn't remember where the money went. Sometimes I am very tired when I go home. If I don't want to take notes, I may not remember where the five yuan was spent when the three day accounts were put together. But if we use WeChat Alipay, I can know that the money is for bread.
Second, cash withdrawal (mainly small denomination cash) is not particularly convenient, For example, if I want to withdraw 20 or 50 yuan, I have to make an appointment in advance at the bank, and I must go to get it at that time, otherwise the bank will have no cash. Sometimes I can get cash only after three or five trips to the bank.
Kakaka ran to the bank five times before withdrawing the money
In addition, there is no way to consume 100 yuan of cash in many places. For example, if you buy a dish or steamed stuffed bun on the road, they will say that they can't find it, including many stores, which also let you pay online. Even my company doesn't accept cash. A customer offered a wad of money that day, which was 1400 yuan. Although the company didn't have explicit regulations, our staff refused to accept it, which was very repulsive. Because she received cash, she had to spare time to go to the bank to deposit the money in the company's bank account.
This also proves that the speed of using cash is really slower than your online payment, because they don't charge when you want to spend money. But I think this disadvantage is not the disadvantage of cash, but the current social system makes cash difficult to use and circulate. The society hopes that more people will consume, and it will be painless. You can sweep me and I can sweep you, and it will be over at once.
However, in our place, we can basically spend small amount of cash. So my suggestion is to withdraw some small denominations of cash, 10 yuan, 20 yuan, 50 yuan. If I can't find it, I bought a second-hand one that day and gave the merchant 20 yuan. She didn't have any cash, so she scanned the code and returned 5 yuan to me.
I now use cash to train my children's financial thinking. Since she has been paying almost all the time by mobile phone, she has never seen the money. Since this year, I have taught her how much the face value of money is. I will also ask her to set a goal. For example, if she wants to buy an electronic watch, I will give him 5 yuan or 10 yuan of pocket money every week, and ask her to put the money in the storage tank. When she takes it out at the end of the year, she can use the money to buy an electronic watch.
Since last October, I have used the painless saving method to throw 20 yuan into the money jar every day. By the time of the New Year, I had already saved 2000 yuan. When I opened the box, I watched the scattered money fall down, and then numbered it neatly with my hands. Then I counted and watched the piles of money. It was so comfortable. Later, I transferred the money to my parents, 1000 yuan each, and my mother praised me, saying that if I had known it would save money, I would have been a little rich woman now.
Kaka's piggy bank
My brother is going to have a wedding at the end of this year, and I promised him 5000 yuan as a gift. Plus the fare for our family to and from, it's almost 5000 yuan. So at the beginning of the year, the money I lost in the storage tank every day became 30 yuan, so that by the end of the year, I could save and buy more than 10000 yuan. Otherwise, if I am asked to give him 5000 yuan temporarily and spend 5000 yuan on the bus, I will really feel pain and I can't take it out.
(The pictures in the text are provided by the interviewees.)
This article is from the WeChat official account "Houlang Research Institute" (ID: youth36kr). The authors are Yang Xiaotong and Weiweizi. 36 Kr has been authorized to release.
