Author Topic: Throwing away small change? (Read 14860 times)

Marnoot · « **Reply #25 on:** July 30, 2009, 10:42:31 AM »

Chay....aynge? It's not something I deal with much any more as I very rarely carry cash. What change I do occasionally end up with is usually collected until it equals something out of the vending machine.

Balog · « **Reply #26 on:** July 30, 2009, 10:44:14 AM »

I think the move to paying for everything with a card has spurred the anti-change movement. When you collect maybe $5 a year in change it makes it less worthwhile.

That said, I still pick change up when I see it, and save it when I pay cash.

MechAg94 · « **Reply #27 on:** July 30, 2009, 10:54:21 AM »

I don' always pick up pennies, but I do sometimes. Silver stuff I usually do pick up if I can.

I don't normally hoard change in jars and such, but I try to keep some in my pocket to make change with. If I keep it in mind, I actually use the change I get and don't accumulate it too badly.

I always thought about getting a big plastic jug to collect change in, but just never got one.

Ex-MA Hole · « **Reply #28 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:04:15 AM »

I save my change in a jar...so far it has bought a mountain bike, a DVD player and a bunch of useless stuff my wife "had" to have.

Corny alert:
I don't pick up change when I see it in the street. Growing up I was always told that finding money is good luck. Despite my bitching about certain things, I reflect on my life and how fortunate I really am.

I leave it for the next person who really is down and out and needs the good luck.

Stand_watie · « **Reply #29 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:04:37 AM »

I won't normally go to any great lengths to recover small change. Funny thing I remember though, a couple of years ago I was walking through the Walmart parking lot and I saw a tyke peering into the sewer grating, exclaiming vehemently with his mom standing next to him trying to get him to come along... I looked down and saw what he was looking at - a bill down there! This was a treasure hunt now. I discovered the grating weighed less than a hundred pounds, pulled it off of there, and by laying down in the parking lot was just able to reach it...a fiver!! I don't think this kiddo was old enough to know a one from a five, but it was well worth my effort to see how happy he was for it. Made me kind of feel like I was a kid again to see how proud he was of himself for finding it.

Iain · « **Reply #30 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:07:49 AM »

Got into the bad habit of not carrying anything less than 50p around. Also, at university, all the laundry ran on 20p coins which were scarce. You could sell 4 20p coins for a Â£1 at times, so I got into the habit of saving them. 10p, 5p, 2p and pennies all end up on the window sill. Every couple of weeks I sort them into coin bags. Couple of times a year I count that out and take it to the bank. Right now I've got about Â£100 in change.

AZRedhawk44 · « **Reply #31 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:11:59 AM »

I think women are more prone to paying exact change than men because of the whole purse phenomenon.

Imagine if you pay cash for most things, and you don't have a coin jar back at home, and you have a purse.

Change gets heavy when added in with all that other junk. It's a PITA to deal with making exact change, but it's even more of a pain to carry around $30 in mixed change in a bag along with other stuff. You don't want to throw away good money, but you don't want to be the stick in the mud holding up the line. No-win situation.

Obvious solution is the home change jar, rolling or Coin-Starring, and a trip to the bank.

But a lot of folks don't like rolling or having large jars of change at home.

brimic · « **Reply #32 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:13:46 AM »

I won't pick up a penny.

I normally don't use cash, use credit for everything. I have maybe $1 worth of change in my pock at most- to buy a soda from a machine if necessary. I don't like to carry change or even a wallet- I like to travel light due to lower back problems.

Pennies are less than worth less to me- they can't be used for anything other than cash transactions, and you need a lot of them to amount to anything. When I was a kid, you could godown to the candy store and buy a small tootsie roll for a penny, now they cost what, 5 cents?

K Frame · « **Reply #33 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:21:41 AM »

I won't pick up a penny if it's face down.

BAD BAD BAD luck.

Nick1911 · « **Reply #34 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:29:44 AM »

Quote from: Mike Irwin on July 30, 2009, 11:21:41 AM

I won't pick up a penny if it's face down.

BAD BAD BAD luck.

Really?

That seems kind of... arbitrary.

Just sayin'.

grampster · « **Reply #35 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:34:16 AM »

When I'm walking around I'm always looking down. I couldn't tell you how much money I've picked up over the years. Tools, too. I was telling my grandkids about my habit and they started it too. The oldest one found a twenty dollar bill.

As for change, I give all of mine to Lynn and she rat holes hers too. When we go to Key West in January she uses the money to shop. She usually has three hundred or so dollars.

K Frame · « **Reply #36 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:36:21 AM »

Quote from: Nick1911 on July 30, 2009, 11:29:44 AM

Really?

That seems kind of... arbitrary.

Just sayin'.

And what superstition isn't rather arbitrary?

Step on a sidewalk crack and break your Mother's back?

What happens if you step on the intersection of 4 squares? Your whole damned family explodes?

erictank · « **Reply #37 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:58:57 AM »

Quote from: AZRedhawk44 on July 30, 2009, 12:20:27 AM

I refuse to pay the coin-star machine 7% or whatever they want to count it.

Irks the bank... but I come in with $100 or more in rolled coins several times a year. Deposit it in checking, then buy something off Midway or Brownells or somewhere with it.

I run just about all my day to day expenses with cash though, and toss the coins every night into a jar.

9%, I'm pretty sure Coinstar charges. I'm a Navy Federal CU member, and love their free-to-members coin counter at the main branch in Merrifield. I've hit it twice in the past year or so for a total of over $250, combined. Went into our "moving/stuff for the new house" fund.

I'll generally stop and pick up silver change, but pennies on the ground really don't even register for me. I try to use exact change about half the time, I'd guess, whenever I get fed up with having a big ol' wad of coins in my left-front jeans pocket.

K Frame · « **Reply #38 on:** July 30, 2009, 12:12:45 PM »

"I'm a Navy Federal CU member..."

Same here. I had a ton of change the other year and in the middle of my run the damned thing shut down.

Full.

Took them 10 minutes to change out the collection bins...

roo_ster · « **Reply #39 on:** July 30, 2009, 02:28:27 PM »

Quote from: Mike Irwin on July 30, 2009, 11:21:41 AM

I won't pick up a penny if it's face down.

BAD BAD BAD luck.

That's why you flip them over like a tiddly-wink, then pick them up.

If it is money on the ground and it isn't somehow dangerous to pick it up, I will do so.

I used to save it in a big ol' jar and turn it in every couple of years. Usually a couple-hundred bucks.

Nowadays, I save it in a big ol' jar...and my wife fishes out the quarters. The payoff nowadays is not so large.

Balog · « **Reply #40 on:** July 30, 2009, 03:13:43 PM »

Never thought of Mike Irwin as the superstitious type. Kinda endearing.

Ex-MA Hole · « **Reply #41 on:** July 30, 2009, 03:30:56 PM »

He was poking fun at me.

crt360 · « **Reply #42 on:** July 30, 2009, 03:50:31 PM »

Quote from: grampster on July 30, 2009, 11:34:16 AM

When I'm walking around I'm always looking down. I couldn't tell you how much money I've picked up over the years. Tools, too. I was telling my grandkids about my habit and they started it too. The oldest one found a twenty dollar bill.

I'm the same way. I look all around, but I try to always stay aware of what's on the ground in front of me. It also keeps you from stepping on chewing gum, dog crap, pot holes, rattlesnakes, and cracks that break your momma's back, plus it keeps you from tripping over kids toys, water hoses, curbs, pot plants, tires, orange cones, and may even prevent you from falling through open manholes. Watching where you're walking is very rewarding. I know people who would blissfully walk right past a pile of free gold if they didn't trip over it.

K Frame · « **Reply #43 on:** July 30, 2009, 04:00:31 PM »

No, I do have my superstitions, and that's one of them.

zahc · « **Reply #44 on:** July 30, 2009, 04:11:11 PM »

I'm an economist, so I know that there's never any money just lying around on the ground. If there was, someone would have already picked it up by now.

bmitchell · « **Reply #45 on:** July 30, 2009, 04:30:52 PM »

What the heck is a tiddlywink?

I like pennies. I like sorting pennies into two groups: copper and not copper.
I don't know why. It's almost fun to drop them on the desk and listen for the ringing.

Ben

freakazoid · « **Reply #46 on:** July 30, 2009, 04:33:31 PM »

I have always picked up change off the ground, and have gone to great lengths just to acquire a penny, in fact there is some laying behind the vending machines down in the lounge that I have been planning on raiding shortly. Back at home I had one of those big plastic popcorn containers that looks like a beer bottle that I would put all my change into. One time I had somewhere between $400-$500 dollars that helped buy me a CETME. When I was in middle school some of my friends would toss change just to watch me chase it down. :)

Gowen · « **Reply #47 on:** July 30, 2009, 04:59:08 PM »

Quote from: AZRedhawk44 on July 30, 2009, 12:20:27 AM

I refuse to pay the coin-star machine 7% or whatever they want to count it.

Irks the bank... but I come in with $100 or more in rolled coins several times a year. Deposit it in checking, then buy something off Midway or Brownells or somewhere with it.

I run just about all my day to day expenses with cash though, and toss the coins every night into a jar.

You can get a gift card without paying a fee. If you know you are going to buy something anyway, just get a gift card for that. I have a prepaid T-Mobile cell, when I need to re-up my phone, I just need to buy a $10 phone card with small change.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #48 on:** July 30, 2009, 05:00:03 PM »

Quote from: Balog on July 30, 2009, 10:44:14 AM

I think the move to paying for everything with a card has spurred the anti-change movement.

So now there's an anti-change movement?

It's funny how we can spend so many hours on this forum, decrying how worthless the dollar has become. But when it comes to coins, small fractions of the dollar are somehow worth picking up. :|

It's not the plastic, silly; it's the inflation.

roo_ster · « **Reply #49 on:** July 30, 2009, 05:22:41 PM »

Quote from: bmitchell on July 30, 2009, 04:30:52 PM

What the heck is a tiddlywink?

I like pennies. I like sorting pennies into two groups: copper and not copper.
I don't know why. It's almost fun to drop them on the desk and listen for the ringing.

Ben

Harumph, grumble, sigh...
http://www.tiddlywinks.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiddlywinks

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Author Topic: Throwing away small change? (Read 14860 times)