> And you didn’t have a bank account with money in it?
I had a bank account. Each month it eventually came to have the exact amount of the rent in it. Most months, anyway.
> Did you cash your paychecks at a check cashing service...
On a few occasions where utilities would be cut off in less than a day, I used a check cashing service. Specifically Ace as their fee was lowest.
> (giving them a cut?) and spend all the cash?
On those occasions I blew it on water or power.
> What were your expenses during that time that ate all your paycheck. Surely not just rice.
Not just rice, true. My expenses were rent, water, power, fuel and minimal auto insurance (until the van was stolen anyway). Water and power outweighed food because disconnected utilities were CPS threat vectors.
> The point of my comments is to acknowledge that people should seek out return for their money instead of keeping it in a bank.
For those that make more than 100% of their minimal bills sure. For the millions of us who had to live otherwise, keeping non-existent money in a bank seems unrealistic.
Sure that is a much larger issue about wage stagnation than it is about ability to save then. It sounds like you were trying to do more than the minimum when it came to keeping money.
I had a bank account. Each month it eventually came to have the exact amount of the rent in it. Most months, anyway.
> Did you cash your paychecks at a check cashing service...
On a few occasions where utilities would be cut off in less than a day, I used a check cashing service. Specifically Ace as their fee was lowest.
> (giving them a cut?) and spend all the cash?
On those occasions I blew it on water or power.
> What were your expenses during that time that ate all your paycheck. Surely not just rice.
Not just rice, true. My expenses were rent, water, power, fuel and minimal auto insurance (until the van was stolen anyway). Water and power outweighed food because disconnected utilities were CPS threat vectors.
> The point of my comments is to acknowledge that people should seek out return for their money instead of keeping it in a bank.
For those that make more than 100% of their minimal bills sure. For the millions of us who had to live otherwise, keeping non-existent money in a bank seems unrealistic.