Sunrise host Nat Barr says she may never view cash in the same way again after going an entire week without using her credit card.
Barr took on a cash-only challenge after she made co-host Matt “Shirvo” Shirvington give up his smartphone in favour of a basic flip phone, calling the move “a little bit of payback”.
Before starting, Barr thought she would run into at least some pushback from businesses in a society that has become increasingly cashless.
But that did not happen.
“No one blinked an eye. No shop owner said I don’t want it,” she said.
Barr said many retailers actually told her they were seeing more customers choosing to pay with cash.
“So many shop owners said more and more people are using cash nowadays.”
Australia may not have gone back to the level of cash use common before the COVID-19 pandemic, but Barr said a number of business owners had noticed a definite rise over the past year in people paying with notes and coins.
She said retailers pointed to two main reasons behind that increase.
“They don’t like the fees that they’re charged, and they’re also trying to budget,” Barr explained.
The week made enough of an impact that Barr said she plans to keep using cash at least some of the time.
She found that physically handing over money made her more conscious of her spending.
“I’m going to keep doing this. It really made me think about what I’m spending,” she said.
Barr said the method would not necessarily work for everyone, especially busy parents making several quick stops during the day, but she felt it worked well with her own routine.
For her, the hardest part was not finding businesses willing to accept cash. It was dealing with coins.
“The thing I think that kind of gave me memories is constantly having coins, though,” Shirvo noted.
Barr laughed about the return of what many Australians call “shrapnel” and said the answer was straightforward.
“I don’t think that’s probably the worst thing that you can deal with in life,” she said, suggesting people throw spare coins into a jar at home.
