I used to root around in my car for coins when I knew I had to buy something small at the grocery store and didn't have any cash on hand.

Now I simply apologize for pulling out a credit card – or using my phone’s digital payment option – to buy a $2.25 soda.

The answer is always the same: You’re not alone. Even most cashiers say they do the same these days because like me, like 93 percent of Americans, they never see their paychecks.

Instead, money is directly deposited into their bank accounts, their balances growing without a single trip to the bank.

We’re becoming an increasingly cashless society, money dashing back and forth between Venmo, PayPal, CashApp and the long string of other money swapping options on the market.

Even paying teenagers, I’m quickly learning, no longer requires a trip to the ATM. A teen boy who painted some things in my house asked me to “please PayPal” him, even when offered the option of cold, hard cash in his sweaty palm.

There are advantages to going cash-free, not least of which is the instantaneous nature of digital transactions. No longer do we have to wait until we have time to get to the bank or worry about accidentally running a check through the wash in one’s pants pocket.

(Yes, it happened. Yes, I nearly cried). Money arrives in our accounts sooner, making it easier to get bills paid on time. And “forgetting your wallet at home” is no longer an excuse when you’ve got an app on your phone to chip in on the dinner bill.

For businesses, processing payroll can be less cumbersome with digital payments, and auto-prompts to tip that are included on many credit card bills in restaurants offer a reminder to pay well for good service.

But there are disadvantages, too, that we’d be reckless to ignore here in Sullivan County, where the hospitality industry remains one of our chief sources of wages.

Many who depend on tips to complete their wages have found people don’t have the funds to proffer up for services rendered, especially in situations where there’s no credit card receipt to sign – from hotel housekeepers to bellhops. People who could once count on these payments to make up for lower wages are bearing the brunt of a “cash-free” society.

Even those who work in the restaurant industry where a credit card bill typically includes the chance for customers to add a tip are facing the squeeze. Because merchants are charged a fee for each credit card transaction, some restaurant owners pass that fee along to the employee, taking a cut out of their credit card tips.

And we can't forget the so-called “cashless effect,” a tendency to spend more when you're not using cash, making us looser with money and potentially putting us into debt more easily.

We may not need to root around in the car for change to cover every $2.50 soda, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep some cash on hand.

You never know when someone will thank you for it.