* Have you ever gone a full week without paying for anything with cash and coins?

That’s a question from a recent Rasmussen poll of 1000 adults. 43% indicated that they had.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/general_business/april_2012/43_have_gone_through_a_week_without_paying_cash

At first, I thought this was not a credible survey finding. But now I think it’s probably right, although it doesn’t indicate as much about a cashless society as about certain habits and circumstances.

For example, on my one week bike trip across Utah, we had 3 meals included and our camping fees included. So, in theory, we would not have needed to spend anything on the trip (although late afternoon beers were not included, and seemed desirable).

Similarly, when I’m traveling on business I try to put as much as possible on the company credit card to make expense reporting easier. If I’m consistently sharing cabs with somebody else and we’ve decided they might as well expense them all, I might easily go through a few days without parting with any cash.

If a married couple is traveling together “old style”, with the husband paying for everything, the wife might easily go through a week without paying cash for anything.