Change

Whereas I might carry a new banknotes on me occasionally, I rarely carry loose change. For one thing, it has a habit of falling out of my pockets, as modern pockets are not as deep as they once were.

The people who suffer from this, in my estimation, are window cleaners and barbers, although this has been addressed by myself and my barber. 

My window cleaner has charged £15 for the last 6 years and I used to pay him in cash, ensuring I had £15 in notes somewhere in the house at all times. If he were to increase his fee to £16, I'd have a problem sourcing the extra change, and he knows that, which is probably why he has been reluctant to increase his prices. Once I started working away from home, and given he only calls once a month, I started to do a bank transfer, which does allow me to give him sums of money not divisible by 5, but he hasn't twigged yet. Perhaps he's waiting to increase the fee to £20.

My barber has always charged £10, and I noticed every time I visited that customers kept saying; "I don't  have any extra change for the tip." A tenner is easy - £11 is difficult if you only have notes. Yes, you can proffer £15, but the barber himself generally doesn't have change either. The barber solved this by recently facilitating card payments, but he has to pay a fee to obtain this facility...