Annoyed With Myself

~ beetleypete

This country recently changed the size and composition of its currency. The old paper banknotes were replaced by ‘plastic’ money. These new notes are slippery, stick together, and cannot be folded. I didn’t like this new money from the start. It just didn’t feel right, and had a tendency to easily slide around. But then I don’t use a wallet, never have. I have always been someone who carried his cash in a trouser pocket. Wallets are easily stolen, especially when carried around in a back pocket, and when you live in a crowded city like London.

Since moving here, I have little need for cash. I can buy everything I need with a bank card, even tap the card against devices in shops to pay small amounts without having to enter a PIN number. For many of us, cash is almost obsolete now. You can even pay for something as small as a bus fare using a bank card.

However, I wanted to get some cash out yesterday, to give to Julie to take on a trip south this weekend. She is meeting a group of friends just outside London, and it is handy to have cash when it comes to splitting bills, or giving over her share of something, like an entrance fee. Outside the supermarket, I used a bank machine to draw out fifty pounds, and that sum was delivered in five ten-pound notes. Brand new plastic notes, all stuck together so firmly, they looked like just one. I made sure there were five of them, and carefully placed them into my trouser pocket before heading inside with my trolley to get the weekly shop.

I knew I would not have to go back into that pocket, as my bank card was in another one, and my car keys were clipped onto the trolley so I didn’t lose them. After getting the ‘big shop’, I had to go into town to sort out someone to come and investigate problems with the TV aerial. I was in the TV shop for just ten minutes, and didn’t have to go into my pockets for anything during that time. I then drove home, and unloaded the car.

Not long after that, I reached into my pocket to give Julie the fifty pounds.
It was gone, all of it.

A search ensued. All the shopping bags were examined. The car searched inside and out. My steps from the driveway to the house retraced, and my clothes examined in great detail.

Nothing.

Julie phoned the supermarket, in the hope that someone might have handed in the cash. They were very helpful, and said that the manager would instruct the cleaning staff to look for the money, once the store closed. If they found it, he would call us on the phone.

By 5 pm, I was so angry with myself for losing the money, I became frustrated and very dejected. I blamed the government for their stupid slippery plastic money, but I mostly blamed myself for being careless and forgetful. Fifty pounds is not a fortune, I know, but when you might just as well have thrown it down a drain, the loss of it is very annoying indeed. And when you are living on two work pensions and the State Pension, even that small amount is a loss that is noticed.

I managed to get to sleep eventually, and to forget about it. But when I woke up this morning, it was the first thing on my mind.

I fear it is going to ruin my whole week.

87 thoughts on “Annoyed With Myself”

  1. It’s happened to me too… though less money, the plastic notes are shit. I’d been using a purse when mine went missing, I have a feeling that it slipped out when I was fishing around for my bank card and I didn’t notice. Xxx

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            1. Definitely forgetful, potentially leading to forgetting who I am. I saw so much evidence of that during my years as an EMT. People who didn’t really know who they were, or where they were. They didn’t recognise spouses, their children, or old friends. Tragic.

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  5. Sorry to hear this! Im like you, my week would be ruined, but then I get upset if I loose just a fiver lol! I hope it turns up. The problem is this new style money can slide itself around so easily, I no longer put money in my pockets because it always manages to slide itself out somehow!

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  7. Hi Pete, So sorry to hear of your loss. This new money sounds terrible. I can see when my wife and I visit the UK we will have to be extremely careful. As a matter of interest, how long before the old notes are no longer accepted???

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  10. First of all, plasticized money sounds like a horrible idea! Here in the US, they tried to do dollar coins, which are BARELY larger than a quarter – NO ONE uses them, because they don’t fit in parking meters, and everyone mistakes them for quarters! We also tried a two dollar bill here once, and that flopped as well…there’s been talk of getting rid of the penny, a worthless little coin…we will see!

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    1. We have coins for £1 and £2 as you may have seen when visiting Britain. Fortunately, they are very different in size. The main difference in notes is the colours, but the new slippery plastic notes are just horrible!
      Most parking charges in cities here now have to be paid over the phone, using a card.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. We still have options on our meters – coin or plastic. I agree with you that its easier to use a card for most things, but you still need cash as well, and that’s where it all falls apart!

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        1. In most shops now, we can just ‘tap’ the bank card for purchases under £30. It makes it very easy to buy anything, even a loaf of bread. But some shopkeepers only take cards above £10, and want cash for small items. It can be confusing.

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  11. That is really something to keep you awake most of the night. I would be devastated. We have the same problem, here in the states. The coins have changed. Each coin used to look like it had quality to it, Nice crisp edges. Now some nickles and quarters look like they were punched out of metal in someones garage. Quarters have all sorts of design. States logos stamped on them for collectors. At least they have remained the same size.

    Paper money? The bills are getting more colorful, The one dollar is about the only one that is still original. If they keep going, it will look like play money.

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    1. I’m obsessing about my stupidity in losing it, not necessarily the money. But £50 is a hefty sum to just throw away. If it had been £10 I wouldn’t have been that bothered.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  13. Now that you are talking your heart out, It should feel good. Don’t blame yourself. Things like this always happen.

    Can I cheer you up?? Now if you don’t have monopoly notes to play monopoly, you at least have plastic ones. Use them. Btw it’s not your fault, don’t ruin your week for this and I hope Julie has a good time with her friends. ✌🙂

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      1. The weather can never depress you but your sight can. Change the way you see it. I am sure you will be happy once you find it normal.

        Just like the 50-pound notes’ issue. Don’t think you lost it, think some needy person found it.
        No offence for giving free advice.
        Best wishes, Suzan.😉

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  15. Sorry it ruined your day! I just hope it won’t cost you the rest of the week. Who knows, you may find on the pavement 100 pounds someone else lost the same way! Hey, maybe easily losable money is the government’s latest way of narrowing the income gap? I can only imagine the jabs if Corbyn were in power…

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  16. I would have been so angry, too, Pete. I would have been fuming at the government for making such a stupid move. What was the reason? To foil counterfeiters? They take the money they want electronically anyway, so what’s the use? Try not to let it ruin your week. On my trip to Florida, I lost my driver’s license going through the TSA checkpoint. Luckily I discovered it or I would have been in real trouble trying to get back home. It was lodged in the conveyer belt. I felt really stupid, too.

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  17. I would be furious too – that is a lot of money. Occasionally I find a note, 5 or 10,I didn’t know I had, hiding in my purse between receipts..
    I always keep my receipts. Our greengrocer still takes only cash.

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    1. It was more about feeling so stupid for not securing it in the zip pocket of my fleece. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t done that, and got so angry it gave me a headache!
      Thanks, Janet.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  18. I know how that feels! Though I’ve never had money lost from a pocket I’ve lost my purse several times in the past, and had to go through the rigmarole of replacing bank cards etc, very stupid and it affects you for ages.

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  21. That’s annoying Pete, but I can see how it could happen. I don’t understand why men slip their wallets into a back pocket, I always think how easy it would be to pinch one and the OH has lost his wallet several times on a train with it slipping out of his back pocket whilst seated, so I understand why you don’t do that. He bought a small, discreet bag in which he can keep his wallet and phone and camera and also sometimes wears a gilet with lots of zipped pockets. Not the most fashionable item but does the trick. They have used ‘plastic’ notes in Australia for years so I got quite used to it when I used to go over a lot. I think it is much cleaner to use, but agree that the new ones from the machine do stick together. Like you I rarely use cash these days.

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    1. Thanks, Jude. I was actually wearing a fleece with a zip ‘safety pocket’. (Supposed to be for a mobile phone, but I had left that in my car) I was annoyed even more because I didn’t put the cash in there. Old habits die hard, but I have learned a lesson now. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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  22. I hate the new plastic money. When I fold a note into my purse it springs out as soon as I open my purse again. They are horrible and I’m sure many people must have lost some of them. I can understand your annoyance – £50 is a lot to lose.

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  23. I would be very upset if that would happen to me. I guess the euro coins haven’t been “updated” yet, because I haven’t seen any “plastic” notes. Have a nice day, Pete.

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  24. I feel your pain, Pete: losing money, by whatever method, is never a pleasurable experience. I’m ambivalent about this whole ‘cashless society’ aspiration – I’m worried that the digital trail left by electronic transfers etc. (the ‘money’ is only pieces of digital data anyway) makes it too easy to control people. I’d like to see the end of money completely (as in Star Trek TNG), but that’s not going to happen in my lifetime: too many people are still turned on by money, and the power it brings.

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    1. I have written before about the ‘cashless’ society, and my concerns about how that will affect poorer people who have no bank cards. But if I am going to start losing cash as I did yesterday, the attraction of using my debit card instead is growing. As long as I don’t lose the card next! 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  25. I only got to see the new five pound notes before I left and they didn’t look like real money to me, and they felt fiddly as well… It’s easy done but annoying, for sure. I’ve sometimes handed in money I’ve found at a supermarket wondering how likely it is that the person will have any idea where they might have lost it, and how they would be able to identify it but… Mind you, you’ve made me realise I still have some old paper money I thought I’d spend whenever I went back to the UK for a visit but not sure when that might be… (My mother recently lost one of her hearing aids and that came with a hefty bill for replacement and not covered by any kind of insurance, and not covered by the NHS here). At least it was only money. Take care.

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    1. I believe that the old paper notes have to be exchanged at a bank now, Olga. They are no longer accepted by any shops.
      Yes, it was ‘only money’, but my annoyance is at being stupid enough to lose it. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  26. Pete, it’s so easily done, or you might have been targetted by a pick pocket. I too would be very self-annoyed but I’m trying to develop a f- ’em attitude: if someone is so desperate as to either pick up or pinch or swindle me out of a small(ish) amount then f’… It helps. £50 is water off a duck’s back (almost!). I still use cash whenever I can because I object to banks getting a percentage of almost everything everyon spends.

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    1. Thanks, David. I don’t think a pickpocket was involved. Tesco was very quiet, and I was the only person in the TV shop. But you never know. £50 isn’t the end of the world, but I could have done without losing it, especially as that is almost the same amount I have to pay for the TV aerial repair. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  28. Luckily for me I’m never allowed more than 10 zloty 🙂 Still I feel your pain. I would not be happy at all. In saying that I believe something will come back round to repay you soon, so hang tight, keep calm and carry on.

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  29. Even here, they always change the designs of our coins. A five peso coin is as large as the ten peso one. You won’t be able to distinguish them unless you take a closer look.

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      1. I’m sorry for your experience, Pete! So it seems true that you forget things if you don’t practice them all the time. I should also pay with cash again. 😉
        In my opinion. The new banknotes are looking nice. Only the symbol for the monarchy somehow does not fit in anymore. LoL Best wishes, Michael

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