We went cashless at the Great Yorkshire Show but I couldn’t help but feel that we’re losing something as a society - Sarah Todd

There have been a couple of times recently when cash has been on this correspondent’s mind.

One was at last week’s Great Yorkshire Show. A childhood habit that had continued into adulthood and for decades beyond has been to put to one side some cash for shopping at the show.

Back when these new-fangled things called card readers came in, signals were always hit-and-miss so being able to hand over a few crisp notes always meant a certain amount of queue jumping.

There also always used to be the Arthur Daley sort of stall holder who, perhaps on the last day, would do a bit of a deal for cash.

Anyway, this year was the first time we didn’t have any cash on us for the show. It was just circumstances really, that a cash machine hadn’t been passed in the day before and no stray fivers had been put to one side for safe show keeping in the kitchen drawer.

The sad thing to report is that we managed absolutely fine. Everywhere we went took cards and it was hard not to ponder that the end of an era has been witnessed.

Those that come to mind straight away as having missed out are the waitresses and other staff that no longer get a few pounds tip left for a good and smiling service.

One morning we ate breakfast in the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s farm shop Fodder and felt awful that we didn’t have so much as a pound or two to leave the smashing girl who had served us in such a cheerful way on what must have been one of the busiest and most difficult days of her working year.

Eating out in Harrogate the night before, the card machine was shoved at us by some sour Susan with that question that can pop up these days on the screen asking about adding a tip on.

‘No’ is always pressed in these situations as it’s just too hard for a luddite like yours truly to imagine it filtering its way through.

Also, perhaps it’s just coincidence, but the staff in these digitally tipping places never seem to be quite so cheery.

Others that maybe miss out are children. It always used to be the case that if a young relation was going away on a school trip or a special day out a bit of effort might have been put in to call around and drop them off some spending money as a treat. Now, they would doubtless look at you like they had been given something from a foreign planet.

Rose-tinted spectacles fully on, memories are flooding back of our own children turning piggy banks upside down, just like their parents, grandparents and no-doubt great grandparents used to do.

How do today’s youngsters go on for money for the likes of sweet shops, fairground rides and seafront arcade games now?

When The Daughter was at university her miserly mother used to send her a certain amount of cash for each week. Otherwise it was tap, tap, tap on her card and the only way she started to learn about managing money was for her purse to be empty.

In her defence she is much more financially aware these days now it’s her own money she’s spending, telling her mother about some app she has on her phone that puts into categories all her transactions - so she can see where she is blowing it. Fuel is the biggest, along with socialising and clothes.

So there are plusses in our digital world, although thinking aloud how different does this app sound to the scribbled notes about spending the generation before maybe trying to try to keep in the back of a diary or suchlike?

With a new government in place, let's hope - for the country’s financial future - that room is found in the classroom curriculum for teaching some simple life lessons about money management.

Figures from the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) show that less than half of UK children have been taught about money either at home or in school.

Yes, it shouldn’t strictly be the job of teaching staff but any politician that pushes to widen learning to include life skills such as money management deserves credit (no financial pun intended).