conveniently dependent

Several Michaels crafts stores in our area were recently hit with a massive PIN-stealing scheme, including the store that's just down the road from my office. In the last week, there's been a rash of people reporting fraudulent charges on their bills or being notified by the fraud department of their bank of attempts to charge, including several people in my office. I've certainly visited the same store multiple times in the period mentioned in that article, so I've been monitoring my account closely. But while I was fortunate not to be hit by any illicit charges, I discovered yesterday that my debit card had been cancelled by the card company.

It was done as a preemptive measure across all their accounts that were on the list of compromised cards (which means my card was cancelled but Sal was unaffected), but just the sheer number of accounts involved meant that notifications are taking longer than they would normally.  Which meant that I discovered it when I tried to renew an online account and called the bank.

So grateful that what could've been Very Bad has become nothing more than inconvenient, with minimal hassle on my part. But yesterday was definitely a lesson on just how dependent I am on my debit card. I never carry cash and the couple of credit cards I carry are emergency-only. I don't really purchase much except for semi-regular trips to New Seasons for groceries, but it would be no hardship to curb those until my new card arrives.

Or so I thought. On my way to an appointment yesterday, it suddenly occurred to me I'd have to use my credit card. Annoying, but whatever. But then at the parking meter, I was stymied. I did just happen to have cash (one of the rare times I do) but it was a $20, which the machine wouldn't accept and I didn't have enough in coins for the length of time. Did I really want to put that couple of dollars on my credit card? I didn't really have a choice.

Even Sal had a hard time making the adjustment. Upon my relating the unexpected challenge of being without my debit card until a new one arrives, he suggested just getting cash back the next time I was at the store. "Um...I don't have a debit card...?" I said. "...oh, right," he said.

Funny how incorporated into our lives this convenience has become, that we would be so challenged when it disappears, however briefly. And a good lesson that maybe I need to make it a habit to carry at least a little cash more often.

breakfast, bento colors mini green:

• oatmeal with maple syrup and raisins
• blackberries and half a red grape (trying to make a sort of flower), with more grapes underneath
• mandarin sections
• molded egg half, with more mandarin sections underneath

lunch, deli club:

• mini sausages (with carrots underneath)
• steamed string beans as "grass" and carrot flowers for garnish
• molded egg half, with more carrot pieces underneath
• grapes on picks
• mandarin sections

Comments

[Tara]

Your bentos look so pretty!!!

[Bitty]

Thank you! It was a particularly colorful and diverse day of food yesterday, which makes it easy to put together a pretty lunch. Which made it easy to tuck right into it, too! :)