What was your most expensive cash purchase?

[Jangles]

Couldn’t resist and in memory of a forum friend, low-key.

 

[Magical2017]

Years ago I bought a used car for $1,000 and brought the owner cash and he gave me a receipt. I was in college and this was the 1980s. I did not have a credit card and remember withdrawing the money from my savings account.

 

[amcnj]

Tough question if thinking solely of only actual bills and coins in hand. Probably not a large amount. I was an early adopter of reward credit cards, and checks were big way back when too.

 

[tvguy]

Strange remark.
You seem to understand that I am not from the US and that I have a different definition of cash. So, why do you wonder if I mean that you are a crook for buying a house?

The OP gives an amount in GBP, so likely it's a British definition of cash. As the Oxford dictionary says: Cash = money in the form of coins or notes

Yes, different country, different definition. In the U.S. the Internal Revenue Service requires you to report any cash transfer of $10,000 or more. The law is designed to prevent money laundering.
Here is the legal definition of cash, under U.S. law.

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/cash-payment-report-helps-government-combat-money-laundering

"What’s cash​

For Form 8300 reporting, cash includes coins and currency of the United States or any foreign country. It’s also a cashier’s check (sometimes called a treasurer’s check or bank check), bank draft, traveler’s check or money order with a face amount of $10,000 or less that a person receives for:

• A designated reporting transaction or
• Any transaction in which the person knows the payer is trying to avoid a report.

Note that under a separate reporting requirement, banks and other financial institutions report cash purchases of cashier’s checks, treasurer’s checks and/or bank checks, bank drafts, traveler’s checks and money orders with a face value of more than $10,000 by filing currency transaction reports.

A designated reporting transaction is the retail sale of tangible personal property that’s generally suited for personal use, expected to last at least one year and has a sales price of more than $10,000. Examples are sales of automobiles, jewelry, mobile homes and furniture.

A designated reporting transaction is also the sale of a collectible, such as a work of art, rug, antique, metal, stamp or coin. It is also the sale of travel and entertainment, if the total price of all items for the same trip or entertainment event is more than $10,000."

 

[easyas123]

A boat.

 

[Adelle Dazeem]

I think the most expensive purchase that I paid with actual cash that I took out of the bank was my dog at $3500. All of our other expensive purchases were done with a cashier’s check.

 

[2letterwords]

Wedding, and honeymoon to Italy.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Cars at around $40000 or dvc points for over $35000.

 

[tvguy]

Eliminating things paid for with checks, and debit cards which I consider cash versus credit purchases, only major thing I can thing of I paid for with paper money was a new driveway. Contractor quoted a price of $1,250 if paid by check, $1,000 if paid by cash. He didn't take any other form of payment. And he didn't expect payment until the job was complete and he gave me a receipt. Otherwise I might have balked because I would want an electronic or physical paper trail of my payment.

 

[barkley]

strictly in cash monies (paper bills and coins)-in a single transaction, just shy of 8K. cumulatively over the course of 2022 it has been close to 30K. when certain credit cards offered double warranties on items, and merchants didn't have a surcharge for using a credit card (very common around here now) i would use one of my cards and turn around and pay it right off. now i pay in cash and between the surcharge savings and the discount offered i tend to save around 10%.

p.s. i always get invoices and signed receipts (often a signed receipt along with them signing the bank withdrawal receipt as well b/c i withdraw the amount to the penny).

 

[ronandannette]

Not sure if this counts, and it's definitely an e-transfer, not paper money, but we pay our annual property taxes every year in "cash".

 

[dvcgirl67]

Our house over15 years ago is the largest cash purchase that we'll likely ever have. As for "cash money"....probably when we go on vacation. My husband likes to carry cash for tipping, etc. At home it's rare that I ever carry cash at all.

 

[Robber Baron]

I was in sales and it was unbelievable to me the number of people that would hand me large amounts of folding money. Largest one I had was 35k, but I had many ranging from 5k to 25k in cash cash.

 

[superme80]

Actual bills, a $700 mattress.

 

[ChristmasElf]

Our house , and then last year, our RV.

 

[whiteness]

I bought a condo for about 300,000 RMB in Shanghai. The seller wanted cash, as in actually paper yuan notes. I withdrew the entire amount from the bank. As I recall, the largest note was 100 RMB, so there was 3,000 or so physical paper notes which fortunately came in bundles from cashier, but it was still a lot of paper.

We took it over to the government office, and in the presence of a local official, the paperwork was signed and the money bundles counted and handed over.

 

[gmi3804]

2001 Mercedes-Benz S430. About $80,000. Well, it was a check. But still.

 

[TCRAIG]

My daughters wedding…