We spend a lot of time shopping for bargains and secondhand treasures on sites like Craigslist. This means we wind up handing over cold hard cash a couple times each month.While no one wants a check, you rarely find people who are comfortable counting out stacks of bills in front of you. And when I'm selling something, I always feel awkward counting and recounting to make sure the payment is correct.
Well, I have to thank Barry the Mechanic for this awesome tip. We sold him our '93 Jeep Grand Cherokee this weekend for the low price of $1000. He didn't hand us a bank envelope with lots of 20s and 50s. Instead, he asked the bank for all 20s. He then sorted them into 10 stacks of 5 each so that each stack amounted to $100.
The genius move: Barry then folded each $100 stack in half. After all 10 stacks were folded, he stacked them one on the other.
You may not see the genius in this, but I've been raving about it all weekend. I didn't have to add anything or separate 20s from 50s from 100s. Instead, I picked up each little packet, made sure there were 5 20s and moved on. It took less than a minute to count up the payment and I was 100 percent confident that the amount was correct.
This is my new favorite method for organizing cash. Try it, you'll be bowled over, too.
This is an organizing tip that works for me. What works for you?
If only I had cash to organize! ;)