Are you a victim of 'mystery spending'?

As I write this, I have $6 in cash in my wallet.

About an hour from now — after lunch — it will be gone.

And then all will be right with the world. Because under normal circumstances, my wallet is a cash-free zone.

I have become an almost-exclusive debit-card spender. Which is why I was interested in the results of a survey I received recently from Visa USA.

This clearly self-serving survey said that, every year, nearly half of all Americans lose track of about $2,340 in cash through "mystery spending."

What is mystery spending, you ask? Well, Visa's survey says it occurs when people lose track of how they spend significant amounts of cash.

According to the Visa press release, "48 percent of Americans say they can't account for more than one-third of their cash, spending an average of $120 in a typical week, but losing track of $45."

"It's understandable that consumers would lose track of some cash over the course of a week, but we were surprised by how much cash goes unaccounted for at the end of a week — a dollar here and a dollar there definitely add up," said Wayne Best, Visa's chief economist, in the release.

I can relate to that. If I have a buck in my wallet, it seems to disappear into a vending machine at work, or for a shake from a fast-food restaurant, or in some other barely noticed manner.

Visa's survey of 2,036 U.S. adults — conducted between May 3 and 7 this year, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points — says that 7 percent of respondents admit to losing track of $100 or more each week.

"One in five people who admit to misplacing more than $25 in cash per week say their mystery spending is 'out of control,' and 62 percent feel that 'small cash purchases make it difficult to track spending,"' the Visa release says. "Furthermore, 47 percent say that 'mystery spending makes budgeting difficult."'

Mystery spenders say they are most likely to "lose" cash while out for a night on the town, grocery shopping or out with children.

I know my wife struggles with the latter two. Our little ones often beg for something when she takes them to the grocery store, and they sometimes get an ice cream cone or other treat. And if we take them to the dollar store to let them spend a little of their allowance money, we usually spend a few bucks, too.

Again, these expenditures are not large. But they do add up over the days, weeks and months.