A Delhi woman shares how stopping UPI for 3 months brought drastic change in her spending.

An experiment led to a change in management and to the wise management of cash outflows.

Online transactions have largely replaced cash transactions, significantly impacting people’s spending. Many people don’t even realize what expenses are taking place due to online transactions. A Delhi woman shares her experience on Instagram about not using UPI for 3 months and what it did to her!

In her Instagram video, user Sadaf explained why she swapped back to using cash for almost all of her daily expenses and how the change affected her spending habits.

The woman shares how using cash helped her realize how to spend it wisely and avoid unnecessary expenses. We generally do not realize this with UPI, since we are not handing over cash, and online expense transfers often lead to higher spending.

She says it was her biggest accomplishment in the last 6 months. She said using physical money made her more conscious of each purchase and helped her control gratuitous costs.

While sharing her experience, Sadaf said she had been in the third month of avoiding UPI for most of her daily payments and was largely using cash.

“The major variance is that I’m way more mindful of my spending now. UPI meinkyahota ki it’s so easy to make 5 small payments, and it doesn’t feel like much. Abruptly I spend ₹1,000, deprived of even realizing it,” she said.

According to her, cash fostered a stronger connection to spending because she could physically see the money leaving her wallet.

“Every time I hand over a ₹500 note, I feel the money leaving my wallet. I know how much I spend; how much is left with me. That alone has nearly stopped my desire to spend,” she clarified.

Further, she explained that using cash made budgeting easier because she could immediately see how much money was accessible, rather than having to check an app frequently.