Re: A Suggestion Or Two......................
A reasonable stash of cash means you are immune to payment issues when shopping (so long as establishment takes cash).
Being a wage slave, I do majority of shopping at the weekend, visiting a few shops to give an overall "big shop".
I always take more than enough cash to cover the shopping costs, & a few times that has been very useful due to various payment issues over the years and paying cash has enabled me to buy stuff (much to the irritation of some other frustrated shoppers).
Always keep a decent "float" of cash at home, taking some when I shop, (cash "float" for same reason, only visit ATM at weekends, and sometimes ATM is broken / out of cash, so need to have a cash reserve to cover that scenario of no cash available at the weekend).
So, I always enjoy reading about payment system screwups, as it pisses off those "cashless society" people who look at me with scorn / contempt when I pay cash instead of using card, app, smart watch etc.
Plus cash has other benefits - e.g. when we go out for a meal, cash tip to waiting staff all goes to them to be divvied up between them, a tip by card is reliant on the manager / owner to fairly distribute the cash (a place my daughter briefly worked at was terrible, owner kept all tips and used it for staff end of year party - a party which cost far, far less than all the card tips that came in over a month, never mind a year.)