PSA: Cash only is the ultimate spending discipline
rickdugan
Verified and Certifiable Super-Reviewer
IMHO and IME the best spending discipline is always cash and carry. The surest approach one can take to avoid overspending is to only spend out of existing cash flows and never, ever, finance anything. Bring what you're comfortable spending and when the money's gone, you should be too. The road to long-term PLville (lol) is littered with the corpses of dudes who lost their heads and put themselves in big holes because they were using plastic in the clubs.
If you don't have the cash to hit an ATM prior to your club visit and fortify yourself sufficiently, then you can't afford to be in the club that day/night. There is no shame in that. Clubs are expensive places and we've all been there.
Now this is not aimed at your salty vets who have ample cash flow, pay your cards off religiously every month and club in places that don't add credit card service charges for bar tabs. I know that some of you like to use your cards for the rewards points and/or airline miles. But we all know that most guys who pull plastic out in clubs aren't sitting on fat bank accounts at that moment.
Anyway, normally I fucking hate smarmy PSAs coming from anyone, but lately I'm seeing stuff that leads me to believe that a reminder doesn't hurt, especially as we enter increasingly uncertain economic times.
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My bank refunds my ATM fees as a high-tier customer. The other day, I was at a club that charged a $30 ATM fee. It was no problem because my bank refunded me the $30 within a day. I'm not too sure how many banks do this for their clients, but in a typical year, I will be saved $500-600 in ATM fees. Yes, a legitimate strip clubber will rack up those kind of numbers in a year of ATM usage. My biggest beef with strip club ATM's is their withdrawal limits. Some only allow $200 per swipe which is nothing; $200 might only get you fifteen minutes of VIP time. At least set the withdrawal limit to whatever one hour of VIP time costs so I don't have to make four swipes to get the cash I need.
Due to what, continued riding costs, or the end of govt handouts? Don’t say both. This has been the most predictable recession in history, as the fed never has been this aggressive hiking rates in this short of period, including Volcker days. The past went from 3% to 6% in one year(short end), and recently we went from 0.25% to almost 5% in the last 12 months. Anyone who is used to borrowing $$ has less discretionary income, and monetary policy hasn’t even been fully felt. We are seeing drops in housing prices just starting to show up on a yoy gauge and food and energy will also come back to balance with pending recession(officially) looming. In real time, the recession is here because total deposits have dropped the money supply , some say by as much as 5% total on circulation the past 12 months.
The young spending strip clubbers don’t think about this, they’re just looking for their next nut. Macro wise, they’ll have plenty of broke friends to cry in their beer to keep company, and then I can tell them “I told you so!”
So you with SOs, start paying for stuff with cash. Tell her you tip waiters in cash to make sure the restaurant doesn't skim some of it. That's a bullshit line, but explains why you always have cash. And when you get a couple of hundred from an ATM, stick a couple of 20s somewhere safe. You don't want her to see that you pulled $300 out of an ATM and have only 13 left the next day.
For people who are employed by others and share a joint account with the Mrs., that's what a side play account is for. Most employers allow employees to break their direct deposits up into more than one account. It's a simple matter to open a personal account on the side, use your employer's address for mailing purposes and, for added security, choose the paperless account option, and have a modest % of your salary diverted elsewhere. Cause as a practical matter you're not going to be able to hide large amounts of spending otherwise.
Cash is King!
I don’t mind spending money in da-club if I’m having a good-time – I do mind wasting money and why I avoid SC-ATMs and avoid using CCs in-the-club.
Every now-and-then I *have* used a SC-ATM; sometimes b/c I can’t make it to one of my bank-branch’s ATMs; or more-commonly b/c I was having a great time in-the-club and wanted to keep the good-times-rolling – but these are the exception and not the norm and I will usually hit the club w/ the cash I need.
Leaving the club when the money you-walked-in-with is gone is good-advice – but I’ve never been one to be an over-spender in life in general and it’s never really been a big-battle for me w.r.t. controlling spending – thus over-the-years there have been times I’ve hit the club’s-ATM b/c I was really enjoying myself; and looking-back after-the-fact/years in-my-case I was glad I did it b/c I did enjoy myself so in *my case* it was a good ROI but then again I didn’t have a family/kids that depended on me.
I get the fees refunded for a certain number of withdrawals. But I avoid fees even if I don't explicitly pay them. The customers of the financial institution will ultimately be the ones who, as a group, pay the fees.
I've posted over 200 reviews and 459 mostly topical discussions on this site over 13+ years. I'm hardly a troll. I posted what I posted for one reason only, which is because you seem to be struggling to finance your fun with cash. It is an object lesson worth sharing. Either that or you're the one person on this board who can never seem to locate a bank ATM in his travels. 😉
Sorry if that got your panties in a bunch. I try never to tell another grown man how to carry himself, but perhaps next time put your man pants on instead of melting down like a whiny cupcake. Just a thought.
pm Scrub instead. Thanks founder.
It's not my fault that you lack the finances to spend in a strip club without pulling out a credit card, or that you cannot handle the slightest whiff of criticism without melting down like a fucking sissy.
This is the way.
There’s a Wells Fargo ATM right between SR and Synn in COI. There’s a ATM in every convenience store or grocery store. I only club when traveling for business and I can always find an ATM ahead of time even in a new city. There is no excuse.
The fed is raising rates to raise unemployment numbers. It will hit a lot of us if they get their way esp younger dudes.