It was a good year for found money: a $20 bill, two fivers, a singleton, 13 quarters, 47 dimes, 15 nickels and 216 pennies, plus a ngwee from Zambia. (You find the most interesting specie in Coinstar machines.)
That $41.86 will become a $50 donation to the Alaska Food Bank. As my 8-year-old nephew and I stacked and wrapped the coins, I pointed out that while it’s fun to find a $20 bill even the pennies add up over time. I’d be writing about this, I said, and maybe it would remind them that dimes add up to dollars.
“Maybe it will remind them to pick money up,” he said. “Or not to drop it.”
I doubt it. Coins don’t seem to matter to plenty of people, which says a lot about the way we look at money. Change gets left on store counters, as though it were too worthless to acknowledge. I’ve found multiple coins (mostly pennies) scattered on sidewalks, tossed in gutters and stacked outside the bus station.
Do I pick them up? Of course. According to Feeding America, a dollar will buy the ingredients for up to 10 meals.
Any time I don’t feel like picking up a penny, my conscience kicks in: Another 99 of those means some people will get supper. That usually does it.
Change that changes lives
To those who are financially comfortable, $41.86 doesn’t sound like much. To those who aren’t, it sounds like all sorts of possibilities.
It could be seed money for an emergency fund, and you’d have a built-in New Year’s resolution: to add to that fund, bit by bit, using a savings challenge.
You might choose to make an extra payment on consumer debt. (Hint: Get an EF up and running first, or you’ll likely keep adding to the debt.)
Perhaps some of it would go toward a new pair of specs from one of those super-cheap eyewear sites, or a new-to-you winter coat from the thrift shop.
Could be you’d set it aside for your eighth-grader’s class trip next spring, praying that more money will show up before then so you can afford the fee plus a little spending cash.
One-fourth of it could buy one of those 88-cents-a-pound turkeys, with an eye toward many meals from the first feast all the way down to the boiling bag. Or maybe you could shop with a friend who has a warehouse club membership, bringing home a giant sack of beans and another one of rice – the underpinnings of a lot of meals in the year to come.
Nickel-and-diming it
I save my own coins, too. When I get home from running errands, any change in my wallet goes into a pink piggy bank sent to me one Christmas by the friendly folks at Wise Bread.
Every so often I ask the same great-nephew to count and wrap them for me. The last time I did this I wound up taking $16 to the credit union.
Yep, I’m nickel-and-diming it. That doesn’t sound cheap to me, though – merely practical. Every dime I don’t spend carelessly will join other dimes and add up into dollars for things that matter: trips to see family, say, or the chance to keep working at home and at my own pace.
Or maybe for holiday gifts. This year I’m spending less than $40 out of pocket. The bulk of my presents will come from regifting, yard sales (bought a giant bag of books for $10) and rewards programs (credit cards, MyPoints, Swagbucks).
December is a month when plenty of people bust their budgets. I’ve got an alternate vision: Let’s make it a month when we figure out how (and why) we spend during the other 334 days.
If you want 2015 to be a better year financially, find and fix any financial leaks. You don’t have to pick up other people’s money, but you should work like hell to avoid dropping any more of your own.
Related reading:
Donna, I never did spend my pennies from any of the savings challenges I posted about from the Spare Change Challenge that I started, to today. I just turned them in for larger denominations, and have racked up $962 just in pennies. I haven’t added up the 5 cents, 10 cents and quarter totals yet. I’m not ready to count them up yet. When I do I will let you know.
$962? Wow! That’s change you can believe in. 😉
I save my change too. I took $25.50 in pennies to the credit union two weeks ago. It adds up. I will start wrapping the rest of my change this week.
I’m always picking up found money. I keep it in a jar on the dryer (any money that comes out in the wash goes in it too) and then I donate it. I keep an eye out as I’m walking to my car before and after work, when I go to lunch, just about anywhere. Back in college, I even wrote an editorial about leaving pennies everywhere. It amazes me the amount of money people will just toss aside. Haven’t counted mine yet, but there’s a $20, a $5 and several $1’s in there in addition to oodles of coins.
The last few weeks I have seen alot more pennies on the sidewalks, near the checkout floor at Walgreens and even in the alley. I pick them up since my Mom always told me they were “lucky”. I used coins to pay for some Christmas presents this year too, $153. I had a bad November with a huge plumbing issue in basement and a broken dryer. Pennies from Heaven? Possibly.
Sorry about the household gremlins. Hope that Santa brings a little relief.
I always save change. I still get excited about change like I did as a child. All my coins are designated to certain things and my found change jar is getting full and heavy. I found a single last week. I thought I found a bill the other day. It turns out it was a fake 1,000,000 bill with prayers written in Spanish on the back. I always say I would love to win and or find a million dollars, guess I need to be more specific. I kept the fake bill as dreams can come true ans that Goo has a sense of humor 🙂
*God
I do not remember the last time I ‘found’ money. Seems everyone around me is VERY careful to collect all their change. However, I have been saving my leftover Change on a weekly basis.
First full week of Jan. I’ll take it to the bank for conting. I figure somewhere between $20-25. My pla is to use it for steak & seafood tat has gotten WAAAY too $$ to buy regularly.
Now, I am going to split it. Half for my wants and hallf to the local food pantry (they can buy cheaper htan I).
Win-win. 🙂
I too, am that girl that stops to bend over and pick up coins that someone left behind. Sometimes I walk the long way just to look! I keep a jar on my dresser and each year before my annual vacation, I turn the coins into “folding money” to add to my trip budget.
My friends laugh at me – I laugh at them for leaving it behind. Doesn’t matter if it’s copper, silver, or paper – it’s all valid currency! If your bank only offered you pennies for interest (and some do!) – would you tell them to keep it? Of course not! I consider “found money” as interest on my budget!
“Interest on my budget” — I like that.
I’ve been throwing my change in a container for a while now. When it fills up, its pretty close to $75. I take the change to the Coinstar machine and get an Amazon gift card, as they don’t change a fee for those.
A friend thought this was hokey until a big ticket item needed to be paid for in about a year. So he started socking away his change. When it came time, I told him to Coinstar them and I would reimburse him for the Amazon gift card. He thought he had maybe $40 in there…it was over $150.
It most certainly adds up!!
(However, I will admit that I walked by a penny on the ground….it was 35 degrees, hard wind and pouring rain….I’m such a slacker)
I picked up 4 pennies in the credit union parking lot yesterday. I always find a couple coins there when I go to make my deposit.
My husband saves the pennies & I save the silver coins. I’ll be rolling them in a couple weeks so we can use the money when we drive my parents to Florida the end of this month (we live in New England). I’m guessing there’s about $100.00 in my coin jar! My husband has about $20.00 in rolled pennies.
Guess where I found the single dollar bill in this year’s stash? The credit union parking lot.
When my mom remarried, she and her fiance had been saving all their quarters in a jar for a couple of years. I don’t recall how much it added up to, but it paid for a big chunk of their honeymoon.
I save change too,usually. But when I shop at my Salvation Army I always donate the change in their little red kettle that is on the counter . I don’t miss it, they need it , win – win. And a lot of time when other people see me do this, so do they.
I pick up pennies, quarters, dimes, nickles and aluminum/soda cans. When I see aluminum can/pop bottles while out walking my pups, I see a nickel waiting to be used for something. I will return the bottles and save the money for something I feel a desire to help. This year on giving Tuesday (after cyber Monday) I donated a large box of toys, dog/cat food, dog/cat treats and cleaning supplies to our SPCA. I also cleaned out my towels & sheets that were not good for me but useful for the SPCA. Had coupons for free stuff from Petco and went shopping to add stuff too! Nothing like the feeling of making a difference~
Indeed, there isn’t. Your note is a good reminder that someone’s spare change can go toward whatever cause s/he believes is important. (Hint: That cause can also be “pay down consumer debt” or “boost emergency fund.”)
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
Total Agree!
I hate change and stash them around the house while finding them as I clean. It’s amazing how much they add up to when you cash them in. I also never pass any change laying on the street.
When I was in college, I knew a guy who would come home and empty the coins out of his pockets onto his bedroom floor. That was his “emergency stash,” and he did resort to it on occasion. Not as tidy as a jar on the dresser, but hey – whatever works, I guess.
I collect any change that I come across, but if I find it downtown, I nearly always put it into the Denver Rescue Mission parking meters (they have special meters downtown that are in sidewalks to collect to help homeless individuals).
Having been the victim of three credit/debit card hacks in the past 15 months, I’m really making an effort to only spend cash, including change. It is odd, though… I keep getting comments about paying with exact change. Like it is weird or something…
But this practice has cut into my “change accumulation” jar, for sure.
Your post reminds me of a time, 25 years ago, when I lived in San Francisco. It was bitter cold, and late, and I had scraped together all my change to be able to pay the $2 cable car fare to get up the hill instead of having to walk. The cable car conductor pulled out and kept everything but the pennies… which he threw into the street as if they were breadcrumbs for the pigeons. My eyes still burn hot when I think about what those 15 or so pennies meant to me, and how humiliated I felt that he so publicly deemed my coins worthless. I trudged home up that hill every day for the rest of the time I lived there, no matter how bad the weather, how tired I was, or how much cash I had in my pocket.
I really hope some kind soul picked up those pennies to do some good with, the way that you do…
Elizabeth, sending you a virtual hug. I am so sorry that happened to you.
I also am a change picker-upper. 🙂 This year since things aren’t quite as financially tight as they once were, I was able to put change into my penguin bank. This includes found coins and leftovers from cash only living. I just cashed the change in at the bank yesterday for a total of just over $30. I bought a gift card for a family with kids from “Santa”. I love this time of year!
What a kind gesture! You know how it feels to live close to the bone, but instead of keeping that $30 you passed it along.
Thank you, Ms Iggy! It’s been really great to learn from people like Donna that the pennies do indeed matter. I love what you do with yours!
Thank you, Donna and Elizabeth. 🙂
As I have said a number of times, I find very few coins, which I assume is because I live in the suburbs and there is not much walking going on. Over a period of 10 years I collected less than two dollars. But, despite having a comfortable retirement, I will always pick up pennies.
AND Happy Birthday to Donna Freedman, Walt Disney and Anne. 😀
All three of us appreciate it (although Walt is doing so from a cryogenic tank).
We have the same birthday! Happy birthday to you!
Happy Birthday, Miss Donna!
One “found money” episode has always stuck with me. Years ago, I was in the supermarket and saw a $5 lying at my feet. I looked up, and right in my line of sight was the Salvation Army bell-ringer and her kettle. I got my bags, and walked right over there and put the fiver in the kettle. I figured, God or the Universe or whomever meant for the Sallies to have that money, not me!
Happy birthday, Donna and Anne!
Thank you!
Happy birthday, Donna! It’s my birthday also and I’m glad to know I’m in such good company! 🙂
Ditto. 🙂
I also pick up coins and bills. Once, when helping to clean up some open space near where I work, I found a weathered dollar in a bush. Money does grow, just on bushes, not trees. This year I’ve found a 20, lots of dimes, a few nickles, one quarter, and enough pennies to make at least a dime. All this money went to the bank, to add to my pitifully small interest payment. I also think of found money as being as much as (usually more) than the interest my account earns. Sometimes I say to myself: I got paid 10 cents to go to the grocery store.
I remember a time when a subway cashier wouldn’t let me ride because I was seven cents short of the fare. I begged her to let me get on the train that night: it was past midnight in downtown Chicago, and I had nowhere to sleep, except way to the south in my apartment. She refused to sell me a ticket (ICG). As I turned away in frustration, a guard motioned me over to the gate, and unlocked it so I could go through. Because of her (and a guard with compassion), I rode free that night. I’ve never forgotten how much 7 cents can mean. Or how much the real value of money changes: I once offered a homeless lady (with a shopping cart) a 5 dollar bill. She refused it, saying “I don’t need money. I got money. You keep it: you probably need it more.” She was right, in a way. The way I was living then did take more in dollars than the way she was living. And a mere five dollars couldn’t change her life.
Or the time I lacked a quarter to dry my laundry, and the owner of the laundromat came over and put in the quarter for me, saying “You always wash in cold water, so I don’t mind helping you out.” I guess he figured I had saved him at least 25 cents by avoiding hot water washes. I thought it would make my clothes last longer. I was surprised that he had noticed. I also thought he was trying to send the other customers a message to use cold water, & maybe he’d help them out once in awhile, too.
What is money worth? Depends on the person. Andrew Carnegie said poor people don’t always make the best choices, because of their situation. He remembered a time when he spent a dime on a colored religious card, and he was living hand to mouth then. He chose to feed his soul. The lady with the shopping cart, the laundromat owner, Carnegie, we all have different values for money, and different values for it at different times in our lives. To my father, it has always meant security, pure and simple, nothing more.
To me it means independence, never having to depend on someone else. That is one reason there is some zest to saving, for me. I am not a miser, but I do enjoy “cheating” the system, eking things out more than expected or planned, making do. There’s a bit of defiance in it, a bit of “take that” to a society that seems to encourage wastefulness, as it leverages planned obsolescence. I’ve been poor longer than I’ve been well off, and I don’t fear going back. I know I can get by.
I like that you’re donating the found change–what a great way to pay it forward, so to speak :). I definitely pick up any and all change I find on the ground and save it all in a tin at home. No sense in letting any money slip through our fingers!
Happy Birthday Donna 🙂
Maybe I should start actually saving change. I usually throw it in the coin pouch of my “cash wallet” & use it.
I keep at least two quarters in the coin pouch of my wallet, but the rest of the coins go into the pig for gradual savings. Since I don’t buy that much, I’d guesstimate that I set aside maybe $40 to $50 per year this way. Maybe I should start keeping count and report back at the end of the year…
My husband and I have a small business – sell at the local farmers markets and craft shows. It is ASTONISHING how many people refuse to take their change – frequently pennies, but occasionally silver and dollars as well! Some people just don’t want to be bothered but some seem to think its a way to impress others. Little do they know it has the opposite effect.
I guess some people don’t like carrying coins. Me, I’d happily keep the change! But I’m with you on the “oh, I’m much too wealthy to sweat a handful of coins” attitude.