My Two Wallets

Japan is still a cash based society.  Sure many big chain restaurants and shopping centers do take credit card now, but for almost all of your daily transactions you can and sometimes must use cash.  This has provided me with many advantages one of them being that it's hard to go into debt when your using cash.  One day, however, I noticed that I do all of my grocery shopping at a particular super market and they were offering a credit card... with rewards!  Of course they are always offering some incentive or perk to help you rack up some debt and pay for some rich guys Ferrari.  Knowing that going into this game however gave me a leg up I thought.  I told myself I'd use this credit card only for this super market and only for groceries.  That's it.

This mantra went smoothly for the first couple of months.  I racked up some points, and paid the credit card every month (you have to actually but more on that in a future article).  But then I would be out with my buddies and discover I had run out of cash (I try to keep no more than JPY5,000 on me in case I lose my wallet or get drunk and lose my mind) and have to put things on my card.  This started a new trend.  Pay day would come and it was like I was being robbed twice!  First taxes, and then my credit card.

Of course I needed to be more responsible but we all know how that goes 99% of the time.  Nope instead I needed a more permanent solution.  What I eventually decided was to have two wallets.  I actually started this by accident but was surprised how effective it was.

You see other than credit cards, Japan is fanatic about having "point cards," or "members cards."  Go to any karaoke, electronics, big chain restaurant, convenience store,  etc., and they will try to get you to sign up for their members card.  It's usually free or very cheap (maybe JPY300) and the savings using it the first time will cover the cost of the card.  So, I have a lot of these cards.  Putting all of these cards into one wallet and carrying that around, although convenient, just wasn't working.  George Castanza's wallet had nothing on me.

So I decided one day to split my wallet into two.  The first would be a wallet with all the essentials.  It covered 95% of my transactions.  Cash, ID, ATM cards, Costco card (always forgetting this), library card, and train pass.  I settled on a Saddle Back Leather ID wallet.  This worked out perfect, fit in my pocket, is convenient, and didn't bust the bank.  The second wallet would be my store house.  In this I would keep all of my members cards, insurance cards, business cards, coupons, and of course credit cards.  This wallet is a Lamaree long wallet.  Full discloser: the wallet I have is not the one linked but they no longer sell the one I bought but it's very similar. 

I was surprised how well this system worked.  If I was running out of cash it was a reminder that I was going to have to dig into my bag.  This had a profound mental effect on me to either stop drinking, really think about my purchase, and in many cases not buy the item I was looking at or not order more food/drink. 

My monthly credit card bills fell like a satellite coming out of orbit, and my money was mine once again.  I also stopped using it for groceries as I discovered they want you to use it for small purchases to get you used to using your credit card to buy things.  I don't really save any money if I end up spending an extra JPY10,000 that I normally wouldn't have, no matter what the rewards points would have been.

I still get some use out of it.  For example my work pays me cash for my train pass and I put that purchase on my credit card then pay it off with the cash.  Plane tickets, or any major purchases also go on it once I have built up the cash to pay it off.

Both of these wallets will last me the rest of my life as they are well built so I justify the price as it will be depreciated over the next, hopefully, 70 years if I my predictions are correct.