Switching Back to Cash

Mailed on June 29th. Still no acknowledgment.

Upon receiving donation requests from charities to which I want to make a token contribution, I'll throw a $10 or $20 bill into the pre-addressed mailing envelope.

Gone are the days when this former auditor would write checks for even small amounts; the cost of printed checks and the additional bookkeeping weren't worth the money and time.

But what if the cash gets misdirected? Well, if the charity doesn't return an acknowledgment then I'll never donate to them again, but for the record all of them have returned a letter, and it's comforting to know that their cash receipts systems appear to be working.

I also now pay cash for magazines that offer very low starting rates.

(I made the mistake of registering online with two periodicals, which I couldn't do without giving them a credit card, and, you guessed it, they automatically renewed the subscription at a much higher rate. They did so once, I cancelled after the renewal period, but they got me.)

Recently Wired started mailing its issues after being sent $10, but Forbes hasn't acknowledged the $10 that was sent in June. In fact Forbes just sent another request yesterday, July 18th.

I'll give Forbes a few more days to initiate the subscription before concluding that this venerable icon of capitalism has leaky internal controls.