Matt Preston on the real cost of virtual payments - Food Files

Jun 11, 2025

Cash might no longer be king, but it still pays to keep an eye on your bottom line.

There’s nothing new about being frugal in the kitchen. Your parents probably kept a firm rein on the family budget and your grandmother was probably a master at it. I can still remember my grandmother’s little worn red leather housekeeping purse with the tarnished brass clasp. When I stayed with her, the understanding was that when that purse was empty, there was no more money for treats. And when the purse lost that start-of-the-week plumpness, dinners would be far more about carbs and far less about chops.

Whether your grandmother grew up with rationing or came from a less prosperous life overseas, these things seldom leave us. Even if the time of cash itself is coming to an end. But this causes me concern. There’s no doubt that easy access to credit and the prevalence of virtual payments both heighten the risk of losing track of what you’re spending. It’s too easy to swipe and tap your way to penury.

Whether you’re at the fruiterer or the cafe, how often do you look at an itemised bill before swiping? I know I don’t. Until I get home and ask myself why that bag of fruit and veg cost almost $60. It’s almost as if someone has worked out that if you stop people thinking about what they’re really spending, they will spend more…

I know I sound like a Luddite, but I liked it when I had my cash for the week in my pocket. A personal cash economy tends to focus your mind on what you’re spending. I think it might be those early years out of home when I was living on $15 a week that still impacts on how mean I am when it comes to buying things. And why I don’t like waste – not just because it’s morally wrong when so many are forced to go without, but because it’s throwing away money. The best way to avoid it isn’t just to buy less, but also to plan how you’re going to use what you’re going to buy.

I feel that without that dwindling pile of notes in your pocket, or small red leather purse, it’s so much harder to have a sense of what you’re spending. I worry that, whereas our grandparents understood the need to go without, current generations like mine have grown up with a life lived on tick. The constant, increased social pressures, and perceived visibility, of not letting your family ‘go without’ can encourage an ostrich-like approach to rising prices. Just keep calm and carry on consuming…

And seldom have prices fluctuated so much. While rising egg prices are well known, lamb prices have also soared, the prices of broccoli and lettuce have hit historic highs, and everything from snacks and confectionery to bread, milk, fruit and breakfast cereals have also risen.

The question is, how many of us forego the broccoli until prices drop? Or do we just buy it out of habit and squeeze the household budget in other areas like holidays which, like insurance, have reportedly jumped in price even more than groceries? Our modern swipe culture makes this so much easier. Until it isn’t.