What’s For Lunch?

I am probably like most of you, each work day I have a routine.  I get ready in a certain order, deodorant, brush teeth, shave.  Same is true on my way out the door.  I have all the things that I need to take with me sitting together.  Keys, wallet, watch, cell phone.  I don’t even really think about what is there, I just grab them one by one and put them in or on.

Well this morning I decided to buy my breakfast and lunch at work.  I got in and after settling in I got up to go to the down stairs cafeteria.   As I was walking I did a ritual that I normally do just after leaving the house, before getting to the vehicle.  Well apparently I didn’t do it this morning.  The ritual is to reach down and see if I have my phone, then to touch where I carry my keys and then touch the rear right pocket of my pants for my wallet.

I managed to get everything today but the wallet.  As I realized this on my way to the cafiteria I stopped dead in my tracks.  Turned and started walking back to my desk.  I was trying to remember if I have taken my wallet out at my desk for some reason.  Certainly nothing I could remember.  I thought that I’ll just have to wait to get home to get something to eat.  Then I got to thinking that maybe I had dropped my wallet, so I called to check with my wife if my wallet was where I thought it was.  She confirmed it was there.  Well that was a relief, but what am I going to do for food today?

I started thinking about how I could go about getting money or another way of paying for my breakfast and lunch.  I couldn’t come up with a way that didn’t involve borrowing some money, or going to a local bank branch and writing them a check for cash.  So I mean there are ways, just non that appealed to me.  Naturally driving home was a possibility, but I drive about an hour to and from work.  Adding 2 more hours to that was very unappealing.

Finally I decided that I would just wait and eat when I get home.  It started me thinking, and I guess we’ve all thought about this before, but what would I do without my little card that allows me to buy things?  I even thought that I would use a credit card, but then I remembered it was in the wallet also.  That little debit card is an amazing piece of technology, or rather links us to amazing technology.  I mean I could have cash, but where do you think that would be?  Yep, wallet.

So the question is where would be a good place to have some emergency funds, credit card, etc…?  You don’t want to leave it in your vehicle, and if you carry it on you well that’s just another thing to forget.  I guess I could have a spare something (cash, card, etc…) at work, but that is imperfect because you can’t guarantee that it will be a workday that you lose your mind and forget your stuff.

I’m going to keep thinking about this and come up with a reasonable answer, or not.

Take a moment and comment on this.  What would you do if you didn’t have your debit card, and out of checks (if you even carry checks any longer!)