You might be hard-pressed making her learn the lessons now, some things just won't sink in til the brain is ready to accept them no matter how hard you try. Like you I tried to drum this in hard from when they were tiny (they each got bank accounts around their 5th birthdays, we tried teaching them how to divide up pocket money etc) but the urge to spend was completely overwhelming especially in the case of youngest who simply had to spend the money and would often look for things to buy (unlike the other two who at least had things they wanted in mind). And even so it took til the teenage years before they finally worked out that stashing is a good idea and youngest at 13 has only finally clicked that debt is a bad thing as the instant gratification of going into debt to get what you want right that second isn't worth not having money available to get more things you want because you have to give it to someone else (he used a chunk of the Christmas money his grandparents gave him to pay me back for a sword which in fairness he may not have had the opportunity to purchase again).
I'm not saying don't stop trying, definitely keep trying, you might be lucky and it might just click for her, just saying it might take way longer than you want it to, and worst case scenario she just doesn't get it til decades later and then she'll be like oh THAT'S what Dad was on about.
Who carries coins these days?
Me I carry coins XD when I get change from a note. I prefer using cash because I can track it better (unlike my kids who prefer using their cards because they can check their bank accounts and see in an instant what's left). We've been trying to encourage cash use more because banks don't seem that trustworthy, especially when it's been proven time and again that it doesn't matter who you are, they can just turn things off or take things out on a whim. But people still pretend as hard as they can that such a thing couldn't possibly happen to them and everything must have been some bank glitch or the person must have been doing something wrong, there can be no other option, otherwise their entire world view will shatter.
Prices will drop after things collapse. Pity people are greedy and stupid.
A rare sword or another reason? :D
Smallsteps doesn't really have anything to buy, she gets so much stuff handed down to her from family and neighbors. She is also super impressed with small random things. in her Christmas sock, she got a fridge magnet - super happy! :D
She doesn't get the idea of saving though...
We would all spend less if we used cash I think. It is so rare in Finland though and has been for many years. No fees on card transactions since I have been here and that is 20 years already. It means that Finland is "well trained" to be cashless.
I suspect that at some point, it will come back to bite - when there is the need for a run on the banks...
Another reason (we were at a con, there was a weapon stall, that sword was there).
When youngest was that age he didn't have anything to buy either, he just wanted to buy stuff.
Have you had the almost violent pushback of how that could never ever possibly happen because "they just wouldn't?"
Absolutely and across so many areas. Then when it happens, they move the goalposts of their words again.
Have to avoid being wrong at any and all cost? XD