I use a wallet. It has normal stuff it it, but not a lot. I only take what I need.
When the pandemic hit, we were all encouraged to use credit or debit cars to avoid touching money and then transferring germs via the money. And there was a coin shortage. So I rarely used the paper money in my wallet. I think in the last two and half years I have gone to an ATM only a few times. I used to go far more often. Another reason I used less cash is I was working from home so not going out to lunch as often, and when I did, I was using credit cards.
Now that all has opened back up, I still tend to use a credit card rather than cash. But I want to revert back a little since I have a lot of coins I want to use. Some places have machines to exchange coins for bills, but they charge a fee. I refuse to pay a fee.
What I used to do is try and always have enough coins in my pocket to handle any bill. I decided all I needed were 3 quarters, 2 dimes, a nickel, and 4 pennies. And that was the optimal solution. I even made a spreadsheet with various combinations and counted the coins. This is the combination that can cover any payment, with the minimal amount of coins.
