Cash-Money!

I pay for everything in cash in Sofia.  Here there is really no other option.  It’s made me realize a few things: 1. Having a debit card means that you don’t have to think about money and 2. Paying in cash is more complicated than I remembered.  This said, I think that the last time I had to pay for everything in my life in cash was when I was about 14 years old.

Back then, I had a pretty serious baby-sitting circuit and I earned something like $6 an hour meaning that I could make oh $30 in a night if I was lucky.  At at 14 years old this was a pretty big deal.  Also, my personal expenses at this point were very low seeing as my mom and dad didn’t charge me rent and they fed and clothed me.  So I saved some for summer camp, spent some on clothes and the rest well there wasn’t much left after that but I imagine it went to movies and other such things.  Back then my biggest worry was whether I’d have enough money for sales tax– I wasn’t very good at calculating this in my head.

I can’t remember for sure but I think I must have been about 16 when I got my first checking account and I was excited to be able to write checks.  Again, I don’t think I wrote very many checks but there was security in having them and knowing if you didn’t have enough cash in your wallet for something you could always write a check.  I more or less used this mentality all the way through college: don’t spend unless you have to and the only thing you can put on your credit card are airline tickets home.

And then shortly after I graduated from college, the internet changed banking and spending in America.  I didn’t have to worry about having cash or carrying around a book of checks because I could use my debit card on anything from an Americano at Starbucks, to passes for the Metro, to groceries and even bar tabs.  The only things that definitely required cash still were taxi cabs and cover charges at bars and it was easy to have cash on hand for these limited expenses and because I paid a majority of my bills online, I rarely wrote checks. It’s truly not an exaggeration to say that I wrote one a month for rent and once in a while checks to my roommates for bills.  When I ran out of the 50 free checks that my bank “gave” me for banking with them, I was annoyed to learn that the minimum I could buy was 100.  I thought I am never going to use all of these and I was right.  I shredded the reminder when I left DC.

I understand that for some people this move to electronic banking is difficult because one can loose a sense of the value of money.  The argument is that by paying for things in cash, you are forced to hand over your hard earned dollars and that this makes you more aware of how you are spending your money.  I however found it to be the opposite.  It was easy for me to track my spending because I could log into my bank account and see all of the purchases I made in a day, in a week and even in a month.  I knew when I was stopping by my neighborhood Starbucks too many mornings or when I was spending more on groceries than normal.  I didn’t have a budget per-say but I had limits and it was easy to see when I had reached them.

Now, I’ve found myself once again in a cash economy and it’s hard to get used to.  I spend a little bit here and a little bit there and it adds up but I can’t remember what I spent it on or how much I spent.  And recently, the old fear has resurfaced: will I have enough for that? This is a real fear because I don’t want to carry too much cash around but I also don’t yet know what things cost which makes it hard to determine whether or not I have enough cash for the purchases I want to make.

For example, shampoo and conditioner seem to cost about what they do in the States ($4-5).  Fruit, veggies and beer seem to cost much less and taste much better than in the US. This week among other things, I purchased 4 plums for .20 Lev or something like $0.15, a hearty chunk of cheese for $2 and 500 ml of imported beer for $1 or Bulgarian beer for $0.75.  But then I went to buy contact solution (which I was warned would cost more in Bulgaria) and was charged 19 Leva for it–or something like $16 American Dollars!! This seemed like highway robbery. The funny thing was when I got the box home and opened it inside was the contact solution and a new lens case which I’ve always had to buy extra in US so maybe it’s not such a bad deal after all.  It just means that I am still trying to figure this cash economy thing out.

But by far the most exciting thing I’ve paid cash for is my rent and my security deposit.  I don’t usually talk specifics on things like rent or a deposit but this is so good I can’t not.  The rent on my apartment is 600 Leva as was the deposit.  [On a side note: for those of you who think that this might be high I can assure that it is not.  I've learned from the Fulbright office that rents in the city center (where I am) usually start at 400 Euros and that this does not necessarily guarantee a furnished apartment (which mine is).  My rent in Euros would be something like 300 Euros a month so I think that I am getting a pretty good deal.]

So when it came to paying for my rent and for the deposit, I had to do so in cash.  Already thhis is kind of a challenge because my bank only lets me withdraw 400 Leva a day so it required some planning ahead.  What I wasn’t prepared for was that at some ATMs you get your cash in 10 Leva increments.  This is, for the record, so much cash that it was impossible for me to close my wallet after I had it shoved in.  Luckily the next day, I found a second ATM that gave me cash in 20 Leva increments.  This is much more manageable and after the first ATM, I imagined myself handing over piles of 10 Leva bills to my landlord and that was almost too embarrassing for words.

Oh yeah and there would be no way to explain to him why I was paying all in 10 Leva bills because I don’t actually speak the language yet.  I am glad though that money is money and when I handed him the inch thick stack of 10 and 20 Leva bills that he didn’t laugh at me.  Instead, he counted it, shook my hand and took me downstairs to label my mailbox.  Cash is after all just cash and it spends the same way–no matter the denomination. (That and no one ever seems to have change for anything no matter the denomination so it’s probably better in the long run to have lots and lots of 10 Leva bills and my lucky landlord now does!)

So I guess it’s official now.  I have the keys to my apartment, a mailbox and a lease and today starts the first day of my next 10 months in Sofia, Bulgaria as a Fulbright Scholar.