Can't Buy Me Stuff

“Certainly there are things in life that money can't buy, but it's very funny - Did you ever try buying then without money?”
--Ogden Nash

I've complained before about characters who seem to maintain a comfortable lifestyle when there's no evidence they even hold a job (or, if they have a freelance one, zero indication they work nearly enough hours to support themselves). In the context of a cashless or low-cash society, this means characters who allegedly work on farms and yet do not spend any appreciable time on agriculture or animal husbandry. (Actually, this is a worse research failure than the first one-- while many people shirk their office jobs, a subsistence farmer must do hard physical labour for up to 14 hours a day or starve).

The associated problem is that characters-- particularly in Fantasyland and Urban Fantasy City-- seem to get by with an unusually low supply of cash. Sci-fi, as a genre, has a better track record of explaining such things, even in the more absurd or fantasy-leaning universes. For example the Doctor has used his sonic screwdriver on more than one occasion to get banknotes (or the equivalent) out of a cash machine; Ford Prefect, when unable to bill his expenses to his employer, whips out his trusty AmEx; the Star Wars universe is shown to have lively barter and cash economies both legal and illegal.

So it seems strange that a good portion of Fantasyland's citizens don't run into either the larger workings of the economy, or into immediate problems which require money to solve. The fact that their car always has petrol, there is always money for beer at the Generic Urban Fantasy Bar, and the fridge always has food (or the occasional mysterious moldy item, for all those troubled bachelor slobs) is always waved aside.

Realism issues aside, economics are an underused plot complication--I'd love to see an Urban Fantasy City detective evicted from their flat due to non-payment of rent (due to their absence of actual paid work). And whether you simply care about realism or plan to use the character's overdrawn bank account as a plot point, you can think about several things to get started:
Does your setting have a cash economy? If not, it could be a subsistence economy (such as subsistence farmers or hunter-gatherers) or a barter economy.  What is the 'cost of living' in your setting? This includes everything from rent to beer at Fantasyland Tavern)How much is your character paid? (If it's cashless, how much labour do they have to put in gathering salt or digging potatoes or whatever one does in your setting?)