Hey y’all, not a long post because I’m still on the work travel thing. Did I mention I’m in another country this time? Uh, I am. In case you are wondering, it is a lot of fun. 🙂
I decided to try something pretty novel for me: instead of controlling my spending with a cash draw, I decided to exclusively use a credit card here. I had to apply for a new one, because my existing cards had foreign transaction fees on them, and it occurred to me that instead of doing what I usually do (take out cash in currency of foreign country; spend it all; take out more cash; spend all of THAT) I could try something new, the idea being not to end up with either overspending to get rid of extra foreign currency or having to bring home currency I can’t spend and then wait four or five years til I’m back in the correct country.
It’s working quite well so far! I’ve been able to swipe for everything except a tip for the washroom attendant yesterday (I felt really bad about this, but I apologized to her and said I just didn’t have any currency — it’s now occurring to me as I type that I probably could have left her a U.S. dollar and she’d have figured out something to do with it. Oh well.) And I think it may even have been preventing me from over-doing it on spending. I’ve bought a few gifts for family members, and food, but other than that just a cheap theater ticket; when I have to pull out my card I have to think about entering the transaction into YNAB, instead of just handing over random amounts of cash from my wallet. So far so good anyway!
Good idea for preventing the “need” to spend all foreign currency before leaving!
Yeah, that’s what I wanted to avoid. Of course I did have a total YOLO moment yesterday and bought a $75 4th-row seat at the last minute for a play, but it was really good and I think totally worth ponying up rather than spending more like $20 for a seat at the back of the balcony 🙂
Using a credit card works for me for spending. I like seeing what I spend and where. I suppose you could keep a log of cash spending, but using a car is more purposeful for me as well.
At home, I like having my cash draw, but I will definitely use the card on overseas trips again — I loved not having to deal with foreign currency.
I prefer credit over cash any day. Putting everything on credit creates a paper trail that I can use to track things!
Yeah, and it was really convenient not to have to convert anything to USD in my head — the card did all the work 🙂