More than half of British adults suffer from 'ATM amnesia'. On average, they lose track of £16.95 every time they withdraw cash.
Does this scenario sound familiar? You take out £50 in cash from the ATM, and three days later you’re not sure where most of it went.
If you have had this experience, the good news is that you’re not alone – new research from Barclaycard Contactless shows that this kind of amnesia affects 59% of adults. Losing track of change after breaking into a note is the most common symptom of ATM amnesia, with 32% of Brits blaming this for their missing cash.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s younger people who are most forgetful about how they’ve spent their money. Over two thirds (69%) admit that they can’t account for how they spent their last cash withdrawal.
We think it’s pretty obvious that spending in this way isn’t the best way to manage your money. If you can’t remember where all your cash is going, there’s a good chance that you’re spending on stuff that you don’t really need. And if you haven’t got a record of your expenditure, you can’t do any analysis and figure out where you can cut back in future.
So what can you do to make sure you don’t lose track of your cash spending?
1. Plastic, not cash!
One option is to try to avoid using cash completely. So you could try and use a debit or credit card for all your spending. If you do that, you can check where your money has gone via your bank or card statement – on paper or online.
What’s more, if you use your credit card, you’ll also get excellent consumer protection on larger purchases, and you don’t need to pay any interest if you pay your bill in full each month.
2. Use the latest technology
And then there’s the most modern cash-free option, contactless payments – either through your debit card or your mobile phone. Read more in Contactless payments: the end for cash?
Indeed, Barclaycard Contactless reports that 52% of contactless users say that using the latest technology has helped them get on top of their ATM amnesia.
3. Get a notebook
The most old-fashioned approach is to get a notebook and keep a note of every cash transaction. If you don’t want to carry a book around with you every day, you could just keep your receipts and then write up your spending when you get home.
4. Use MoneyTrack
This is our favourite option. We’re convinced that our MoneyTrack budgeting tool makes it much easier to keep track of your spending and hit your budget targets.
With MoneyTrack you can see all your card and bank transactions on one page, and your spending is automatically categorised for you. So it’s easy to set a monthly spending target for, say, ‘eating out’ and you can then check regularly to see if you’re on track to meet that target or if there’s a danger that you’ll go over your limit.
Here’s an illustration of what a budgeting page on MoneyTrack looks like:
If you’d like to find out more about how MoneyTrack works, check out this article: How to budget successfully.
Whether you use MoneyTrack or not, the really important point is that it’s essential to keep track of your spending. If you know how you spend your money, you’re much more likely to spend it sensibly.