Apparently, my money is no good here.

Today marked our beginning of the month shopping. In order to keep on our budget, we’ve instituted an envelope system and have gone cash-based in all of our purchasing as of late and something happened today that really irritated me.

Two stores gave me trouble when trying to pay with a $100 bill.

First, we went to the Pekin Hallmark and were paying off Tasha’s ornament layaway. I presented my legal tender, and the girl behind the desk kind’ve paused and looked at it then asked whether I had any smaller bills explaining that they were running out of change. I told her that I did, but I was hoping to get it broken so I had some change of my own to go with. At the prodding of my wife, who thinks I’m being mean, I relented and paid them with a lesser bill and we moved on.

We eventually ended up at Sears, where I purchased many Christmas gifts. My bill ended up being around $100, so I asked the girl at the register if I gave her an extra $100 bill if she could change it for me. She paused and looked sideways and me and mumbled something, and Tasha (who used to work at Sears) told me they usually had to do that at the service desk and whisked my bill out of my hands up to the service desk before I could get indignant.

They ended up changing the bill just fine for me, but I have to seriously question why it is my job to manage the cash drawers for two major national companies. I don’t really give a crap where their security cameras are most concentrated, whether their store manager had the foresight to stock the right amount of change, or any other excuses they might be willing to give. My $100 bill has LEGAL TENDER printed right on it next to good ol’ Ben Franklin, that should be enough to keep me from getting looked at skeptically and given a hard time.

If I had used my credit or debit card and asked for $100 in change back, they would’ve given it to me happily. For that matter, they could’ve called a manager to bring change and handled it for me LIKE I WAS A CUSTOMER.

Tasha didn’t really get why this annoyed me so much. Its a matter of principle: I should be able to pay in cash and get change. I shouldn’t have to be inconvenienced in order to do this. That’s my point, and I’m sticking to it.