I happened upon a listing today for a wallet called the Jimi, which is billed as an anti-wallet. It holds 4 cards on one side and on the other side just 1 card and 3 bills double-folded. It got me wondering if I could reduce what I carry around enough to meet the Jimi standards.
My essentials:
Primary credit card
Business credit card
ATM card
Driver's License
Commuter Rail Pass
Usually about $40 worth of cash
My non-essentials:
AAA Card
Health Insurance card
Mass General Hospital card
Secondary credit card
Car/Home Insurance card
Stamps
CostCo AmEx
Commuter Rail Schedule
Pictures of Grady & Liam
Address/Phone List of friends & family that I typed in tiny font
So, I technically could "qualify" to carry the Jimi anti-wallet if I just stuck with the essentials. The main benefit being that I could fit in my front pocket. I find myself taking my fat wallet out whenever I drive and sometimes when I'm on the commuter train because it's just uncomfortable to sit on for a long period of time. My chair at work is cushy enough that my wallet doesn't bother me there.
But, I have a nice leather wallet that is just a year or two old, and I would rather keep a few of the non-essentials handy, like the kids' pictures, the adddress/phone list and the AmEx. So, for the cards that I never need to swipe, and just need the information from, I typed out in tiny font the info and taped it onto the back of the address/phone list. So, I eliminated the stiffness and width of 4 cards from my wallet: AAA, Mass General, Health Insurance, Car/Home Insurance. I took the book of stamps out, and threw out some old receipts, and now my wallet is about 1/2 the size it was.
Thank you to Jimi, the anti-wallet, for inspiring me to downsize.
Oh, and I also found a scrap of paper in my wallet that had an 800 number and PIN number on it. I had no idea what it was, so I called and found out it was long-distance minutes that I had purchased at CostCo via an MCI Card several years ago before we had unlimited long distance through Vonage and now Verizon. The balance was $33.49 (or 11.5 hours of talk time), so I posted an ad on Craigslist offering it to the first person who responded. It took May about 10 seconds to e-mail me. I hope May and her friends get value out of my find.
5 comments:
Excellent post. I have been anti-wallet since my college days. I've used everything from just elastic band to a single clip. And have been a front-pocket guy for many years. I'm tempted to give the Jimi a whirl. I've had an Oakley wallet for a couple of years now. It's thin enough and soft enough to not bug me in the front pocket. But if I can go slimmer yet keep essentials, I will. But the Jimi looks kind of uncomfortable. But if it's no bigger than my phone, what's the dif?
Thanks Curtis. Please let me know if you get one.
Just ordered it. Ha! I'll let you know how it is.
What color did you decide on?
Black - or, as they call it, "stealth".
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