What up, what up! Welcome to the debut of our new series on the site we like to call “Wallet Crashing.” Where I go around and take a peek at the contents of people’s wallets, purses and murses, and then report back all the findings to you fine folks. Equipped with pictures and all or of course it never really happened!
Just one more thing keep all you voyeurs coming back to this site time and time again… Daddy knows what you like deep down inside, no need to be ashamed – you’re in good company here ;)
And to start the series off right, I of course snagged the one, the only, Mr. J. Money Bearded Man himself!! Ooooooh.. Ahhhhh…. The crowd goes wild!!! (I bet you didn’t know I’ve been growing a beard for the past 2 months did ya?? DID YA???) Today won’t be the first time he showed y’all the inside of his pants money clip, but times sure do change and you’ve always gotta make sure you’ve got your system down pat. There’s nothing worse than a sloppy pile in your pockets, I’ll tell you what…
So without further ado, I present: the insides of J. Money’s money clip!
1. Three $1 bills — No, I’m not preparing for the strip club anytime soon ($3.00 won’t get you very far there anyways, from what I’m told?), I just happened to have gone through my usual $200 in cash I take out every month for *extra* expenditures. And I blew my last $10.00 bill at the auctions this week picking up my new, and not-so-shiny, 1868 three-cent piece! A $18.00 score at almost half the price – I was pretty satisfied with myself… And was totally all Auction Kings up in there – raising my card at the last second before the dang fast-talker kept trying to sell it to the other bidder going against me. Never mess with a sexy budgeter! ;)
2. A Virginia Drivers License — Because, well, I now live in the great state Commonwealth of Virginia. Where I hear it’s named after taking all the “wealth” from the “commoners!” Haha… but so far I’ve been able to keep most of mine from the state ;) (Also – you should ALWAYS carry ID on you no matter where you’re going, or what you’re doing… You never know when you’ll need it! (And that also goes with cash too, btw. Forgot to mention that up there at #1)
3. My “Gold” Starbucks Rewards card — Which really I don’t know why I carry around anymore since I only go there like once a month these days… I used to go every single work day back in my startup days since we got unlimited coffee and snacks for free there, and because we went all the time, Starbucks gave us even more killer perks like more free stuff and discounts off, haha… Being the smarty pants I am, of course, I volunteered to put the card in my name as to one day take this with me in the unlikely event our company ever shut down ;) Which, not surprisingly, happened a couple of years later (wha wha). On a side note, you may be happy to know that if any of you still have those “free drink cards” they used to give out on your birthday and for swiping that card oh so often, they still accept them even though it’s been literally YEARS since they’ve expired. I just tried it last week :)
4. Credit Card #1: USAA World Mastercard — My one and only “personal” card where all our expenses go every single month (even our rent – can you believe that??). And which we pay off at the end of every single month too. We can all agree these tools aren’t the best for everyone out there – esp those without any self-control/love for money – but for those of us who can manage them well, those credit cards sure do come with a lot of perks! And I’m all about using someone else’s money to (legally) bring in even more of my own every month :) Between cash-back rewards and the simplicity of budgeting , it sure makes a sweet life even sweeter
5. Credit Card #2: American Express “BLUE” card — My one and only “business” card I have for all my online and blogtastic expenses… Which is like $100-$300 a mo, all depending on how many domains I’ve been suckered into buying from the biggest sucker of all time – myself. (I have a problem, what can I say?). This card SHOULD be a USAA card too btw to continue with my “all accounts under one roof” policy. But sadly they haven’t gotten around to offering such love to the small business folks out there… So for now I make due w/ the Amex. Which really isn’t that bad to be honest. They’re the rock stars who solved my $75.00 United Airways Fiasco of 2011, if you recall that nightmare. So I really don’t have anything back to say about them, they’re pretty decent.
6. USAA Debit Card — Our one and only debit card for any expenses we ever need. Which, because of our credit card, we only ever use to take cash out of ATMS once a month. Which kills me cuz it takes up more room in my clip and we hardly ever use it! And before you say to just take it out and the put back in when you ARE going to need it, it never works that way. I end up forgetting to grab it 99% of the time thinking it’s still on me, and then I get pissed at myself when I’m standing in front of the ATM without it, ugh…
7. Random note I found on the ground — No joke, I found this note yesterday on one of my walks… It’s not as good as finding money, but it definitely made me smile:) For those who can’t make it out, it says: “The number 1 thing people post on Facebook is about food. What is the number 2 thing they post? A = Workout”. Gotta get this over to the folks at Found Mag.
And that’s it! Only 7 items – not to shabby, right? And three of ’em I can get rid of if challenged to a minimalism duel at some point down the line ;) But for now, the 7 it is. The exact same number as our last money clip pop-in two years ago, though slightly different.
(We used to have personal accounts and cards set up for both the wife and I for our “do whatever” funds back in the day, but eventually we just merged everything to keep things nice and simple going forward… we still have our “own” money to do as we please, but it turns out we rarely need it now since we KNOW we can do it whenever, if that makes sense? Kinda like how we used to sneak beer into our mouths any chance we could growing up, but once we hit 21 and it became OK to do, we’re no longer in a rush to do it anymore … Well, after that 21st year bday bash, of course ;))
So that’s that.
What do YOU guys have in your wallets, purses, murses, or money clips right this second? No cheating!!! Take a look or snap a pic, and then jot it all down in the comments below. And if you’re a fellow blogger yourself reading this, feel free to copy my idea here and share your goodies with all your voyeuristic readers too ;) We can never have too much wallet spying, if you ask me…
Stay tuned for our next adventure in Wallet Crashing… If anyone has contact info for either Mike Tyson or Allen Iverson, I’d love to have ’em. I hear their wallets look quite differently than they used to…
———-
PS: I’ll also take Warren Buffett’s, Dave Ramsey’s, or any other celebrities you may know ;)
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I don’t carry too much in my wallet compared to what I see other women lugging around but I do have more than you. I have my health card and my drug and dental benefit card from my employer.
What I don’t have is every receipt from every purchase I have made in the last 6 months. I see wallets bulging with receipts all the time and I am convinced that people can never find anything when they need it anyway.
I know, right? Esp Wallets! How do people SIT on those receipt-heavy things?
They don’t. They burst and blow into the wind. (Think George Costanza on Seinfeld.)
In my wallet: DL, photo of my family, two library cards, Starbucks gold card, Panera rewards card, 3 personal credit cards, Target store card, health ins, prescription ins, $5.16, HSA credit card, Costco membership, grocery store savings card, zoo membership, state park 2013 permit, a local museum membership, a jiffy lube gift card, my ID to get into the university recreation facilities.
In my small purse: lotion, Chapstick, ibuprofen, cell phone, collapsible hair brush, garage door opener, a pen, punch card for the 6-week biking program I’m doing, a rubber band, a bandaid, my wallet.
I pay off all the credit cards every month, so I’m not concerned that I have several of them.
@IndianaAnna
Panera can look up your account with your phone number. Once I found that out, I kept my Panera card at home :-)
I need to get a picture of my family in there – I’ve always liked that idea :) And other than my money clip, the only other thing I carry in my pocket is chap stick too. There’s no wallet/clip that can hold that for a guy! Haha…
My purse is packed full of everything. I even have a smaller purse inside my purse for whenever I don’t feel like lugging the whole thing around!
I need to get myself one of those… a money clip, within a money clip! ;)
In my clip. 2 dollars. DL, Debit card. Chase CC, Health Insurance card, Library card, best buy rewards card, national amusements reward card, free movie ticket voucher, Costco membership card, BJ’s membership card.
My credit card has $1000 limit and we only use it in true emergencies and cash from emergency fund is not available.
I don’t get why people carry their health insurance cards around? Do you frequently need it in a given day/week? :) And don’t your places already have the info??
With 3 kids, you never know when an emergency may pop up. I’ve gotten the call while at work a few times, so I like to have it on me just in case.
My wallet has:
6 Credit Cards: 2 Chase cards which get 5% back on certain categories each quarter (I only use one of them, but I’ve had both for so long, they both were bought out by chase, I don’t want to get rid of the credit history), an Amex Blue to use at Costco, A citi card and a capitalone card that only get used for month bills to keep them active (tolls, and netflix respectively) and a Wells Fargo card that I get 1% back and it gets applied to my principal balance on my mortgage. All of these get paid off every month
1 store card – TJMaxx/Marshalls/Homegoods – I get 1% back for purchases in the store and once I have “$10” accrued they send me a voucher to spend at the store
2 debit cards – one for my physical bank which is in a completely different state so no ATMS here, and one for my online bank. I only use these maybe 3 times a year when I really need some cash
Drivers license – cant get anywhere without it!
Old insurance cards, new insurance card, prescription card
Safeway club card (no real need for this i suppose, can just punch in my number)
Old Sams Club Card & new Costco card
Loyalty card for Eddie Bauer (never shop there, why I have this I don’t know)
2 Metro Smart trip cards – I don’t ride metro all that often, but I keep them in here so I don’t lose them, and I always have a spare for when someone comes to visit or a friend that rides even less frequently than me doesn’t need to buy a paper ticket and get charged and extra $1 per swipe
A gift card to TJMaxx – I don’t even know if there is any money on this thing….
My CPR certification Card
A bunch of stamps and business cards
Key fob for my car – push button start, and I leave it in my wallet so I don’t forget either of them in the morning!
$2.77 – 6 quarters, 11 dimes, 3 nickels and 2 pennies (I only have change because I plat Mahjongg which a group of girls every week and we play with change)
and last but not least: a 10 cent Euro – ha ha, where this came from, I have no clue!
Wow that’s a lot of plastic! No way to leave some at home for when you need it, or do you have the same problem as me where you’ll forget on days you DO want ’em?
Also – how the HECK does all that fit in one wallet?? Haha….
Awesome to see though for sure – thanks for playing along today :)
It’s a rather large wallet. But honestly not much bigger than a typical “checkbook” wallet and it’s layed out nicely so everything is visible and easily accessible. It’s got a strap on it so I can wrap it around my wrist and not forget it someplace. (Which used to happen with my old wallet that didn’t have a strap, did I mention I hate purses?)
I’ve thought about leaving some at home, but I’m an impulse stopper (not shopper, these are always stops that I’ve planned to make but save up for times that I need to take some time and get them done) Usually hitting up costco or TJMaxx on the way home (to break up my sometimes insane commute) so if I didn’t have a card with me, I wouldn’t be able to do that.
True true… makes me miss TJ Maxx too – we don’t have one anymore where we moved :( Though on the plus side, I also rarely spend money for clothes now, haha..
Wow I have a monster purse. Right now it has my laptop in it, makeup, tons of papers to grade, my wallet, and probably a partridge and a pear tree.
You need to snap a pic and then put all that on your blog too – Including the partridge and the pear tree ;)
Only 7 things! That’s super lean. I probably have 15 things in my wallet.
That’s very slim compared to my wallet. I shamefully admit I keep way more receipts than necessary. I try to clear it out monthly, though it has come in handy when I’ve had to return some random item. My purse also always has a bottle of Zyrtec, epi-pen, makeup bag, and usually some food item like almonds or granola bars to keep my blood sugar stable throughout the day…
My question is how do you pay your rent with your credit card?! I had always wanted to for the rewards points, but can’t figure out how to do it to pay my mortgage now. Any tips would be great!
I’m afraid I have no tips on paying rent w/ the card – I just got super lucky with it in that our rental company offers it!! Maybe it’s a rental company thing?? Since they deal with tons of clients? An idea for your receipts is to just dump them all into one shoebox or something to deal with later – that way everything’s in one spot and you save room in your wallet/purse :) I keep stuff like that in my bedroom and sometimes near my bed since it’s where I unload everything at the end of every day – a tip for all lazy people ;)
Use a reward earning debit card and load money on an American Express bluebird card and they will send a check to your mortgage company or buy Vanilla reload card (there is a fee) with your credit card and load bluebird card with the reload card value and bluebird will send a check. There are several Vanilla product so do some research on the Internet. There are lots of postings on miles and points blogs regarding this process.
I was recently able to get 2 round trip ticket for my parents’ 50th anniversary trip from Delta points partially due to paying my mortgage with my bluebird card loaded from my delta points Suntrust debit card.
Nice work!
Thanks J$ and Lynn!
I should do the shoebox idea, and I’ll be definitely looking into those options! Getting some good rewards for paying my mortgage sounds AMAZING!!!
Don’t all the receipts go directly to wherever you record your spending?
If I need to keep a receipt for warranty purposes I scan it as a back up, then staple it to the manual/warranty info and toss it in a box we keep for all household manuals/warranty info. Otherwise, any purchase needs to be recorded on the spending plan – typically within 24hrs. If it was a planned expense I replace the estimated placeholder number in the spreadsheet with the actual number. If it was an unplanned expense I add a row and have that much less than expected on Friday when I’ll transfer the weekly excess out of the account and either make an extra mortgage payment or contribute to our retirement accounts. Just can’t imagine tossing receipts in a box to be dealt with some day. How would I know on Friday exactly how much has been spent and what is truly “excess”? A delay in getting that recorded means a delay in getting the excess out and workng for me somewhere else. Our normal weekly spending is gas and groceries. So even if I only updated monthly rather than weekly, that would only be 8 receipts. Last week there were also a couple of hair cuts and dog food from the pet store, but that happens only every few months.
You’re a lot better at that stuff than I ;) I honestly don’t touch the receipts unless something comes up – I only keep them on file in case I need them one day, not for recording purposes. Since I use my credit card for everything, I track it all online making it nice and easy for us (and I double check the receipts as I’m in the store to make sure they’re good right away).
Then again, we’re also not tracking all the budget categories down to the penny either. We used to track it all pretty hardcore, but over the years we’ve gotten good at hitting the numbers or coming in lower (for the most part), so we don’t worry about it too much. We usually only get hit when bigger, more random, things occur over the every day stuff. But I don’t recommend that for everyone :) If your system’s working well, stick to it!
I don’t know how to put photos into comments… but I’ll tell you what’s in my purse.
Lip gloss
My pen/stylus
A mechanical pencil
Another pen
Ear Buds
A small blue notebook
2 Hair clips
Drivers licence
Insurance card
Business cards – Church credit card, church Sams Club card, Sams club ID, and various tax-exempt cards
Debit card
Barnes and Noble membership card
Target Pharmacy card
Business cards (I have waaaaay too many cards btw…)
About $20 in cash and change
Other membership/discount cards
If I was a chick I’d carry some massive amts of lip gloss too – so damn sexy!!! :)
(And I don’t know how to include pics here either – I think I need new code or a plugin to do that for me. Just put it on your blog and then drop a link here for all us to see ;))
There is not enough room on the internet to write down everything in my purse. It’s not even a purse, really. It’s a satchel.
The worst part. I just checked – no cash. Boo.
Haha… And the bad part about the internet is that it continues to get bigger and bigger and bigger! There’s no end!!
My money clip is very similar to you. I have a small amount of cash, a few credit/debit cards, a drivers license and a membership card (to Sam’s Club). I don’t like carrying around too much, so I keep it as minimal as possible.
And a money clip is the perfect way to force you to do so too :)
I recently cleaned out my purse. Extra stuff is sitting on the dining room table.
I have too much in my wallet.
1. CA drivers licence and ID
2. Transit Card
3. 6 Cards (debit, credit, work credit, foreign credit)
4. Health care ID
5. Cash
Could probably thin down the cards a bit…maybe a weekend project
DEFINITELY a weekend project ;)
Just came back from Colorado so only have a small wallet with stuff in–right now ha!
Debit card
Driver’s License
$100 IKEA gift card I won
$7 cash in $1 bills
Rubber bands for my braces
pink lip gloss
one quarter (long story but I have to have it for work lol)
Do you have different colored bands to match the different holidays coming up? ;)
That’s a pretty sick looking 3 cent coin! I never knew they had such a thing. Anyway, I’ve got way too much in my wallet:
$10 cash
A couple of restaurant receipts I’ve been holding onto in case they increase the tip on me
Insurance cards
A couple of pictures of my wife (originally taken with her ex-boyfriend, but she looked so good in them I just cut him out :)
2 credit cards
1 debt card
Voter registration card
Driver’s license
Sam’s Club card
Sports passes to my wife’s high school (she’s a teacher. Don’t think I’m robbing the cradle)
HAHHAAHAHAA…. OMG you are too much…. At least you cut the ex out of it! That would be pretty freaky had you not ;)
Hmm…to figure out how to get a picture on here! I carry just a wallet usually – have ever since I started in this career.
So what do we have….
$2 cash
Driver’s License
First Responder card, CPR/AED card
Insurance cards
Debit card
Credit card
Work/Membership ID cards
Super America rewards card
Cub rewards card
Few misc. business cards
And I always have a chapstick in my pocket! Typical girl :)
I may have to do a little blog post about this…
Do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope you don’t mind if I post a link here, as I went through the contents of my wallet just over a year ago. I think I may do it again next week :)
http://www.iheartbudgets.net/2012/08/whats-in-your-wallet/
No problem at all – going over now to sneak a peek :)
sunglasses
two work id badges
bunch of receipts
coupon for $5.00 off O’Charley’s
Paystub
Lottery Ticket
Ring
Sharpie
medication
two fruit rollups
fruit gusher
Protein bar (see something healthy to counter the sugar junk food)!
date book
cellphone
lipstick
more coupons..
Wallet
Lottery ticket
free movie coupon
driver’ license
Discover Card Cashback bonus card
two debit cards one Bank of America, One Credit Union
Health insurance card
FSA card
State Farm Insurance card and mini Calender
stamps
subway gift card
Ok, make that one fruit roll up. LOL and going to check these lottery tix!
Haha… if only there was a way to sneak in some snacks in a money clip!
WOW only 7 things? It must be nice to be a guy sometimes, like seems so simple. I guarantee that no lady walks around with only a money clip in her back pocket. No, no. We need a wallet and a whole bag to carry around all our stuff.
I think that I have more than 7 receipts in my wallet right now. I also have some change, all my membership cards to book stores, Sephora and The Body Shop. I have one credit card and my debit card. I also have like 20 business cards.
Thank goodness my wallet is as big as my two hands put together :-) Gotta love those lady wallet sizes.
The nice thing about being a lady though is that you’re always prepared! I’m constantly asking my wife for stuff on the road and she’s always a life saver :)
There are a few too many cards sitting in mine but that isn’t really the problem. Right now I have been slacking on checking Mint so there are a lot of receipts in my wallet. I mainly keep to track sales tax that I’ve paid. I don’t plan on being able to actually deduct it come tax time, but I’m curious to see how much of my income goes to sales tax.
Hey, that IS pretty interesting! Are you doing it just for fun, or to try and curb spending or something? I’d imagine it would make for a good blog post on your site :) And also that the number is MUCH higher in total than we probably expect.
I rock this wallet:
http://www.amazon.com/Regatta-Series-Front-Getaway-Pocket/dp/B00080NYU0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380397646&sr=8-1&keywords=dopp+wallet
With the following contents:
-Driver’s License
-Charles Schwab Debit Card
-Chase Sapphire preferred card(my go to card for spending, no foreign tx fees, good rebates for travel)
-Chase Hyatt Visa
-Metro card
-Work ID
-Chase Ink Bold Business card
-Health Care card( you never know when you’ll be in an accident)
-Any cash I happen to have.
It’s pretty simple compared to what most people have. I know I’m a bit heavy with the CC, but with the lack of cash I rather have a back form in case one card gets rejected(unlikely to happen) since I maintain excellent credit.
It’s actually really interesting to see too from someone who’s a master traveler. I may interview people’s wallets from all different types of careers to see how it changes from one to another :) Like, checking out a plumber’s, and then a CEO’s, and then over to a bartender, etc… I’d imagine half would all be the same, but it’s the other – more juicier- half that would be the interesting stuff!
My wallet:
– Discover It credit card
– Chase Freedom credit card
– Medical card
– Driver’s license
– CVS Pharmacy card
– Sam’s Club card
– Car insurance info
– Supercuts frequent hair cut card
– Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt card
– The emergency medical card for my “Little Brother” in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program
– Two $20’s, one $10, and seven $1’s.
– 33 cents
The rest of my purse:
– Mio Fruit Punch
– Mentos gum
– Altoids
– Ibuprofen and caffeine pills for my husband’s migraines
– Loratadine
– My asthma inhaler
– tons of trash like receipts and used shopping lists and lint
Only two credit cards, eh? For some reason I thought you’d be one of those rate chaser chicks moving from one card to another, haha…
LOL, nope. It seems like it takes too much time and stress. I’m full on things to remember, hahaha. I always have my trusty Discover and a Visa of some sort…I just left PenFed because they started a $25 annual fee (bye-bye to my gas 5% cash back). Now it’s a Chase Freedom (hello to all of the same benefits as Discover plus a 10% bonus at the end of the year for having a Chase checking account). :-)
My kind of woman!
Fun idea! I’ll snap a pic and post it on my blog for tomorrow! For now here’s a list of everything I’m keeping…which is minimal for a woman! I carry a wristlet, which is smaller than a large woman’s wallet. I don’t know how other women carry around heavy purses, my shoulder always gets sore.
-Driver’s License
-Debit card
-Health Insurance card
-Costco Amex Card
-Chase Freedom Card
-small cut out card with credit card 5% categories on them, need to keep track so I can know which card to sue for the max cashback!
-Discover card is also sometimes in my wallet
-Starbucks Gift Card-which has 0 balance and I’m taking out now
-$70 cash
Other stuff
-bandaid
-visine for contacts
-check for deposit
-Souplantation receipt
-Altoids
-Hand lotion
-Chapstick
-Floss
-Aspirin and stomach medications
-Hair tie
-smart phone
And that’s it! Everything is as small as possible but I still cram a good amount in here
Cool! I’m digging the post – well done :)
At this very moment, I have a few coins, 2 debit cards and a few pictures of my kids.
Can’t really call it a wallet – I use an old metal business card case with:
DC driver’s license
USAA credit card (spreadin’ the love!)
USAA debit card (turned upside down because the thicker/numbers part of the two cards together wouldn’t fit…)
A couple of business card.
If I have any cash (which is rare), it’s folded together and loose next to the “wallet”. Currently that’s one whole Washington.
Nice. I tried a business card case for a few months myself (one of those old vintage-y ones) but it looked much cooler than it worked. And was also a lot more bulkier so I had to give it up… I’d be down with trying another slimmer one though – I love the idea of it.
i am wont too be millinaire please help me