The day has come – I’ve discovered cash is no longer king

WE recorded another first in our house this week when we decided to order a takeaway for lunch – and get it delivered. As we were all busy we opted for something that my gymtraining friends would not approve of but was absolutely delicious. The real novelty was having it dropped round by someone on a bike, which apparently most people have been doing for years, but we never have.

With our order placed and paid for on my phone, I was then able to watch the progress of our meal through the restaurant’s kitchen and to the delivery rider. The app then tracks the chap on his bike and you can watch as he gets nearer and nearer your home. Brilliant. I felt a bit sorry for the chap having to peddle up the hill from the city centre so as he got close, I thought I better give him a tip, so started to look around for some money. It was harder than you might think. Neither the wife or The Boy had any cash, and nor did I. Some frantic scrabbling found some loose change in a pot, and with the poor rider suitably tipped, we enjoyed a very easy lunch indeed.

It made me realise that completely without me noticing cash has almost completely disappeared from our lives. I always used to carry a bit of cash but lockdown life has made the need for coins and notes completely redundant. Every now and then over the past year The Boy has returned from a day’s work with a small handful of cash and asked me if I would put the equivalent amount in his bank account. I would then walk around with 50 quid in my pocket for weeks. With all the pubs shut, and with all our food, drink, clothes and books delivered direct to our front door, I had nowhere to spend it.

Mrs Martin has gone a step further in the last week, after finally being released from the house and being allowed to go and meet some of her girlfriends in the great outdoors. One of them has shown her how to put her cards on her phone, so now she pays for everything with that. Apparently that’s old hat too, but it’s new to me, and I’m keen on it. The thought of me not having to spend half an hour every day looking for my wallet is an attractive one. The day has come when cash is no longer king. I wonder if we will ever need it again.

When I was a student an inter-railing ticket took me all the way to Marrakesh one summer, and in that incredible city I ran out of cash. That was quite a thing back then because cashpoints didn’t exist, and food stalls in the middle of souks weren’t that keen on accepting cheques. The inter-rail ticket at least meant I could get home, and with no other option that is where I headed, enduring a two-and-a-half day train journey with only my walkman for company.

Half way across Spain a train guard offered to swap a ‘bocadillo’ he was selling for my headphones. I turned him down as I thought I could cope with the hunger, but not the boredom. It didn’t pay off because the walkman was nicked from my rucksack at a station in the south of France. I’ve always found food on the cross channel ferries pretty good, but the breakfast I had on that crossing back to England remains one of the best I have ever eaten. Ever since, I have always feared being totally without cash, up until now.

Cash was definitely king when I first started work. The payroll lady would come into the newsroom every Friday with a wicker basket full of brown envelopes with people’s wages in. She was such a wit she would shake mine and laugh “this must be Bill’s” because most of it came in coins. Trainee reporters’ wages have never been great.