Money Money Money

I don't think we've ever had to handle as much cash as we have to handle here. It seems we are constantly doling out cash for one thing or another. Consequently, we're always searching for an ATM machine. With the exception of the grocery store, we use cash for just about everything we buy. We pay for our water, electricity, internet and propane with cash. We pay for the laundry with cash. We pay Ibu Aisah for her cleaning and transportation with cash. Every time we turn around we're forking over cash to parking lot attendants and people who help us back out into the traffic. Ronnie's swim lessons are paid in cash. Of course we pay for things we buy along the street or at the market (pineapples, bananas, papayas) with cash as well.




The rupiah (Rp) is the official currency here. It is issued and controlled by the Bank of Indonesia. The conversion rate to US dollars right now is 8785. Of course this rate is always fluctuating. Since I try not to buy anything without having a pretty good idea of what I'm spending in US dollars, this means a lot of calculating on my part. I'm constantly whipping out my hand phone and dividing whatever the price is by the number above. A few times I have made huge errors in my calculations - usually from putting in too many 0's or not enough. For example, I refused to buy lettuce one day because I thought it was $11. I was relieved later to discover it was only about a dollar! 

Before we got a car/driver, I was always with Ronnie when we went out so I didn't have to learn to handle cash as quickly as he did. I prefer carrying only my camera in crowds vs trying to manage a purse with cash, credit cards, etc. in addition to my camera. I am usually distracted by what is going on around me (read photo ops) and I feel quite vulnerable when I am carrying both. But now that we have a driver and I'm venturing out a lot more without Ronnie, I've had no choice but to learn to handle and carry cash. Ronnie is happy about that, as he was getting really tired of my asking "is that the blue one?"

The thing that is tricky about handling Indonesian money (besides the constant need for conversion) is that it FEELS like you have so much more than you actually do. Last week I handed Dadang (our driver) some coins for parking lot attendants. He got so tickled when he saw what I handed him. Apparently it was only a few pennies. HA!

You’re looking at my change from our laundry bill here. I gave him a 50.000 rupiah bill  (approximately $5.50 US). This is what I got back - around 22.000 rupiah. A 2000-rupiah note is worth a little less than 25 cents! Hopefully this will give you a visual of why it always feels like you have more money than you really do. Actually, I am a millionaire many times over here! One million rupiah is roughly $114. Oh, and one more thing...I'm not sure what their coins are made of, but they are so light in weight, they feel like children's play money!

To further my point, the amount shown below is approximately $16US. I counted it to be $4US but Ronnie pointed out that the bill on the left was 100,000, not 10,000! See how much difference one little "0" can make? It's very easy to make a mistake! A few times I have handed a clerk a bill and was surprised to get back a huge amount of change (I gave her much more than I needed to) but the other day at lunch, I got confused and handed the cashier maybe a tenth of my bill total! Over or underpayment, it is still embarrassing. I'm just so thankful I can use my credit card at the supermarket. I think my brain would explode if I had to count out that much in cash!

approximately $16US

By the way, we are loving our new Capital One cards. We got them before we left because they supposedly are the only credit card company that charges no international fees. Not only does it save us in that way, but on my card alone I've already earned enough airline miles for a free ticket (within US). Woohoo!