The Wallet That Reminds You To Stick To Your Budget!

Money and how we use it has certainly changed a lot in recent years. Although I’m still a big fan of carrying cash, most people I know use debit cards (and sometimes credit cards) for their purchases. When we use cash, it’s easy to know if we are staying within our budget. After all, when all our cash is used up for the day or week, we know we have hit our budget. It’s that simple.

On the other hand, when we use plastic for everything, it isn’t as simple. Do we ever know exactly how much money we have when we pull out that debit card? It’s easy to just swipe it and make a purchase without even thinking about our budget. Unless the machine says, “decline,” we assume we are alright and go about our merry way. If you ask me, it certainly creates a false sense of security. As hard as we work for our money, it seems like we would be more conscious of how we spend it.

John Kestner, a product designer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, is on a mission to change that. Known as a “cheapskate,” he was inspired to create these Proverbial Wallets because he felt like he never had all the proper information at a moment’s notice to make buying decisions when using his debit card. These wallets will access your back account online via bluetooth technology and then physically give you a response as to how you are doing with your budget. There are three models of his concept design wallets.

The first is the Peacock design, which is a wallet that actually gets bigger or shrinks, based on how much money is in your account. The second is the Mother Bear design, which comes equipped with a hinge and becomes tighter and harder to open as the money in your budget gets close to being all spent. And the third is the Bumblebee design, which vibrates each time your money is spent. In other words, it alerts you to how many times during the day you are spending money. I wish there was a more feminine version of these wallets because I think it would be a fun way to monitor my daily spending.

[via ABC News]