Cash and Candy! Candy and Cash!

For the past few months, I’ve been putting varying degrees of effort into the task of switching my bank account to a bank that works in New York (my current bank only works in New York if I undertake an epic journey or pay a zillion fees). I have finally opened a new account and set up direct deposit for that account, but I still don’t have a debit card for that account because I don’t know. It hasn’t come yet and I called and it still hasn’t come. Sometimes I was going to the end of the earth to use the free ATM, but mostly I was not doing that, instead using any old ATM and getting charged $2.50 or whatever upfront and then another $2 from my bank. Which is dumb! And yet seemed fine to me until I got this new fee-less account. Even though I can’t access it, knowing that I’m so close to not having to pay those fees makes me really not want to pay those fees.

Which is why I felt like a SUPER GENIUS the other day at Walgreen’s when the swipe-machine asked: “CASH BACK?”

WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THIS BEFORE?! Getting cash back from grocery stores and pharmacies is free and amazing and great and wonderful! Sometimes you can only get $20. But then you just buy another candy bar, and you can get twenty more dollars. So that’s your sweet tip of the day: Next time you’re about to pay an ATM fee, walk a block to Duane Reade. You could even buy something you actually need (toenail clippers? cotton balls) if you’re into that, though: the candy bars are right there.

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