Under The Money Tree we like to keep our money safe. As a general rule I tend to avoid carrying cash as I find it tends to get spent if I have it on me. Instead I prefer to rely on credit/debit cards for daily expenditure and any cash I do carry is rarely used, and only really there in case of an emergency. As a result having a small, secure wallet is required to keep our money & cards safe.
Whenever I go on holiday I tend to clear out my wallet before leaving so I’m only carrying round the essentials and have less to lose. Every time i do this I realise that there’s no real benefit to be had from carrying round most of the cards/junk that fill my wallet on a daily basis.
Prior to a recent trip away, and with my current black leather wallet soon in need of replacement, I decided to search for a new wallet solution and change the amount of stuff I carry round in it every day.
After some brief research I found a huge number of minimalist wallets available on-line, crowd funding sites like Kickstarter seem to be full of them. I really liked the simplicity of the Hu Mn wallet however the $30/£26 price tag seemed too high for me, for what is essentially a thin piece of aluminium and an elastic band. After a quick rummage in a kitchen drawer I came up with the UTMT Slimline Wallet©1:
I’ve been using this ‘wallet’ for about 2 months now and to date it is performing really well. It works equally well with just 2 credit cards in it as it does with 10-15. Any notes/cash are held securely out of the way in between the plastic cards.
In the photos above here’s what it contains:
- Work entry/swipe pass
- Driving licence
- £30 cash
- 1 x credit card
- 2 x debit cards
- 2 x shop loyalty cards
Construction
It’s made from the following components:
- 1 elastic band
Un-stretched, the band is approximately 17cm in circumference and 6mm wide. It’s the type of band our postman uses to bundle the letters together on a heavy bill day!
I tend to keep the elastic band about a third of the way across the length of the cards. This allows me to easily remove and replace the cards and cash inside without having to remove the whole band. Any bank notes simply get folded in 3 and placed in between the cards.
Benefits
- Size. This wallet easily fits in any pocket. Unlike a regular wallet it can be slipped into a shirt pocket or front trouser pocket and you’ll barely notice it is there.
- Cost. It’s free. Even better our postman delivers replacements every few days (though I haven’t had to replace it yet)
- It’s durable. See above point.
- Show me the friction baby. I’ve found that the rubber band provides some added friction that means the wallet is much less likely to slip out of my pocket than my old traditional leather wallet. This is especially useful when wearing shorts, for trips to the beach or while out running/playing sports.
- Access all areas. Unlike with my old wallet, my work access card works on all the turnstiles/door entries with this design. No more fiddling around to remove my pass for my wallet. Just swipe and go!
Wallet Workflow
To keep down the thickness of the final wallet I of course had to spring clean the old wallet and find some ways to ensure that the new wallet didn’t accumulate 3 inches of junk and place unnecessary strain on that band. Here’s how i do it:
- Receipts. These get photographed on my phone and automatically backed up into the cloud if their important.
- Loyalty cards. I keep a couple of that I use regularly in the wallet. For ones that I use less frequently I’ll discard the card and either install an app on my phone (where available) or simply photograph (again on my phone) the bar code/card number for the shop assistant to type in or scan.
- Coffee shop stamp cards. Well these are no longer needed since I implemented several methods to always be drinking good freshly brewed coffee.
If you’re interested in owning a UTMT Slimline Wallet© then watch out, I’ll be starting my crowd funding campaign soon. Feel free to register your interest in the comments below…
Notes:
1– If you look carefully you can see Lizzie looking out keeping an eye on things for me;-)
Hope you’ve got your patent application in? I’ll watch out for you on Kickstarter.
But one question, do you have a lady’s version? or does one size fit all? 🙂
Cerridwen,
Actually a ladies version is in development. Sometimes our postman uses red bands which once faded down a little are a wonderful shade of pink 😉
Excellent idea! Here is some slightly different instructions to get the same end… http://www.instructables.com/id/Minimal-Magic-Wallet/
Ok, I’m going to bite… coins?
Jal,
Coins go in my trouser pocket (or bag) and are deposited each night into the giant coin jar mentioned in this post. I never leave the house in the morning with coins, unless I’m going to buy eggs from the farmer next door! Where possible I’ll always pay on my credit cards (for the air miles) or failing that my debit card. By paying on cards all the time it’s very easy to track my expenditure.
Ha ha. I love it!
I too avoid carrying cash wherever possible, to avoid spending it. Sometimes, if we’re out for an evening I’ll withdraw a sensible amount of cash, and leave my cards at home. I won’t then be tempted to top up at a cash point or put a round of drinks on a card.
I can see myself adopting the UTMT Slimline Wallet©. Thank you for sharing it!
Cheers
Huw
Huw,
Glad you like it! It’s amazing how many people see it on a daily basis and compliment me on it!
UTMT
PS: Don’t forget to send me my royalty cheque 😉 !
Looks great but too minimalistic for me! I don’t tend to carry a lot of cash but I do carry coins (don’t stand behind me in a queue when I’m counting them out, haha!) My purse is also full of coupons and vouchers…every penny off counts!
Weenie,
I used to be coupon mad but found that they tend to encourage me to spend more and buy things i don’t really need.