A Delhi woman has shared how stepping away from UPI for her everyday expenses helped her become more mindful of the way she spends money. Instead of relying on quick digital payments, she switched to using cash for most of her purchases and says the change made a noticeable difference.
The woman, who documents her experiences on social media, explained that the experiment lasted for more than two months. According to her, it not only changed her spending habits but also made budgeting much easier.
She Switched From UPI To Cash
Delhi-based content creator Sadaf spoke about the experiment in a video posted on Instagram. She said she was in the third month of using cash for most of her daily expenses instead of depending on UPI.
According to Sadaf,
the biggest change was that she became much more aware of how much money she was spending. She said digital payments made it easy to overlook small purchases because transactions happened within seconds.
She explained that buying a coffee, ordering snacks or making a few online purchases might not seem expensive at the time.
However, several small payments could quickly add up to nearly Rs 1,000 without people even noticing. Using cash, she said, created a different feeling.
Handing over a Rs 500 note made her think before spending because she could immediately see how much money was leaving her wallet and how much was left.
Sadaf added that this simple change helped reduce impulse buying. It also made it easier to stick to a budget, as she no longer had to keep checking her banking app to track her expenses.
Why She Still Uses UPI
Although the experiment worked well for her, Sadaf admitted that completely giving up UPI was not practical. She pointed out that cash payments can sometimes become inconvenient.
For example, if a bill comes to Rs 470 and she only has a Rs 500 note, the shopkeeper may not always have enough change. Because of this, she now follows a balanced approach. She keeps around 80 per cent of her money in cash while leaving the remaining 20 per cent in her bank account for UPI payments whenever digital transactions are necessary.
Sadaf said that while carrying cash comes with a few challenges, she has no plans to go back to using UPI for every purchase because the habit has made her much more conscious about where her money goes.
Social Media Users Share Their Views
The video received mixed reactions from viewers, with many saying they had experienced something similar. One user wrote, “Unfortunately most people don’t accept cash anymoreeee especially zomato/blinkit idk why they have cod as an option even. Heck even the post office said this week , maam upi please lol.”
Another commented, “But shopkeepers or malls dont return small changes.” A person shared, “I have started doing this ..cause my money disappears from my account..but stays in my purse.”
Another user wrote, “I stopped using it because of the wave of account freezes that were all over the news a couple of months ago.” One comment read, “digital payments are a government tactic to increase spending to collect more revenue and obviously track people.”
