Throwing away small change?

[zahc]

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

Agreed. Change is worthless now. You can't even buy a pop with less than a dollar. How useful is change when you can't buy anything with it? Eventually it costs more in time and effort to hoard, roll, pick up off the sidewalk, or otherwise deal with it. Cash is rapidly becoming obsolete by way of becoming worthless. Our governmental overlords do not compensate by issuing larger denominational money either. Although a $100 bill is worth about as much as $3 was worth in 1900, we still don't have any denominations bigger than $100, making it downright impractical to use cash for large transactions. Eventually with inflation, even $100 bills will be worthless. The man doesn't have to outlaw cash, just keep inflating and and failing to issue larger bills. Nobody would care if they phased out the penny now, because 1-cent transaction increments are well past the point of being in the noise floor of personal finances.

It's not just money, but there's a chronic problem with old people not realizing that stuff is cheaper now than it used to be. Just try keeping my grandmother on the phone for more than 5 minutes. There's still an internal timer in her head whenever she is on the phone, because to her, phone calls are expensive. Same problem exists in computer programming...development of graphical user interfaces would have never happened if some younger dudes hadn't come along and started "wasting" processor cycles on pretty pictures. Or "wasting" internet bandwidth with internet traffic. Storage is now so cheap that it costs more in work-hours to delete emails than to leave them on the server. The cheaper resources become, the less wasteful it is to use and abuse them.

[seeker_two]

So now there's an anti-change movement?    

Why surprised?.....Obama is leading the anti-hope movement....  :rolleyes:

[Vodka7]

When I'm walking around I'm always looking down.

A friend of mine's in NA, and I go with him to his meetings whenever he hits an anniversary.  From what I've gathered, it's a pretty big milestone for recovering addicts when they can walk around without compulsively looking on the ground for money to score with.

[209]

Quote from: Mike Irwin on Today at 07:21:41 AM
I won't pick up a penny if it's face down.

Really?

That seems kind of... arbitrary.

Just sayin'.

It’s an old saying like many others.  My great grandmother used to quote all of those (she was the same person that would flash the "devil's horns" hand sign if she foresaw some problem arising)

I told her the bad luck fell on the person who dropped the penny face down.  Picking it up canceled it out. 

[LadySmith]

I’m in the habit of picking up change, even pennies.
I count them and roll them up whenever my coin collectors get full and sometimes turn them in at the end of the year.

In one of my bank accounts, I had $99,999.87.
I used some found change to bring it up to an even 100K. I like even numbers.

As for little old ladies counting out exact change in the checkout lines, I’ve noticed older gents doing it too.
When I’m in a patient mood, I bless their hearts and think of how maybe portions of their lives are arranged around the necessity of having exact change, such as public transit.
If I’m not in a patient mood, I’ll just go to another register, which invariably winds up being slower than the first one with the little old people and their exact change searches.  

[KD5NRH]

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

What if it's standing on edge?

My wife got me one of those counting banks, so I just have to feed the coins in one at a time and it keeps a running total.  For the most part, I hang on to my quarters for the vending machines, but everything else except 2-3 each of dimes and nickels, and five pennies, goes into the bank when my pocket gets overloaded.  Since I keep quarters and dollar coins in my left pocket, (along with the odd Kennedy half when one turns up) and everything else in the right pocket, I can generally get exact change faster than most people too.  I tend not to bother most of the time unless the total is $x.04 or some such that will result in adding a lot more pocket ballast.

For pennies and nickels I'll generally pay a CoinStar fee.  Quarters and dimes can be spent easily enough without the machine up to about $5.  I used to fund my smoking habit 50% or more off change and discarded lottery scratch-offs.  (People either can't understand the game or decide that $1 tickets aren't worth the trouble.  I once picked up a $70 winner outside a quick stop, and found several winners in the trash can there.)

[bmitchell]

Sounds boring. 

Ben

[seeker_two]

Sounds boring. 

Ben

Not if you know where they're getting the change from....

[lupinus]

Deliberately get rid of?  Hell no, goes into a spare tequila bottle.

I will admit for pennies and the occasional nickle I don't go out of my way to save it from death by vacuum, but dimes and quarters are saved always.  What doesn't make it to the bottle goes into the coffee machine at work.

As to holding up the line, I pay the posted price.  If it's 11 cents it's 11 cents that is not the stores to have.  11 cents adds up and it's the principle of the thing.

[Uncle Bubba]

As to holding up the line, I pay the posted price.  If it's 11 cents it's 11 cents that is not the stores to have.  11 cents adds up and it's the principle of the thing.

Hear Hear!

[Lee]

Agreed. Change is worthless now. You can't even buy a pop with less than a dollar. How useful is change when you can't buy anything with it?

Try putting a credit car in a sock and breaking someone's jaw with it.  Just kidding...sorta.

[Viking]

I pick up change, and add it to the coins I keep in my back pocket. It gets used up fairly quickly.

[Uncle Bubba]

Try putting a credit car in a sock and breaking someone's jaw with it.  Just kidding...sorta.

Good point.

[Perd Hapley]

As to holding up the line, I pay the posted price.  If it's 11 cents it's 11 cents that is not the stores to have.  11 cents adds up and it's the principle of the thing.

Ooh, how noble.  I'd prefer the principle of giving up the eleven cents, so the folks behind you can get on with their day, but that's just me. 

[Uncle Bubba]

Ooh, how noble.  I'd prefer the principle of giving up the eleven cents, so the folks behind you can get on with their day, but that's just me. 

 


Would you still be inclined to be "considerate" of others in line if every store you went to overcharged you a few cents for something?

One principle involved is that if the store overcharges for a product and everybody lets it slide, that's money the store didn't earn. It's a business transaction. I don't mind spending money for the things I want and need, I do mind the store screwing a little more out of me, whether or not it's on purpose.

The other, like I said before, is that money is money. I grew up poor and learned not to piss it away needlessly, regardless of the amount.

But that's just me.

[Perd Hapley]

Would you still be inclined to be "considerate" of others in line if every store you went to overcharged you a few cents for something?

IF that actually happened, then yeah, I'd be more niggardly about it.  Since it don't, I ain't. 

IF a store is over-charging folks systematically, they're going to have plenty of annoyed customers and will eventually suffer for it.  Even if no customers hold up the line for their eleven cents, they'll start to take their business elsewhere.

[lupinus]

Ooh, how noble.  I'd prefer the principle of giving up the eleven cents, so the folks behind you can get on with their day, but that's just me. 

Has nothing to do with being noble, it has to do with paying the posted price.  Cashier screws up and rings up the wrong vegetable, which happens constantly, I'm not paying for the wrong vegetable to save the minute it takes the supervisor to come over and change it.

Just where is the line drawn between letting it slide and making them fix it?

[Uncle Bubba]

IF that actually happened, then yeah, I'd be more niggardly about it.  Since it don't, I ain't. 

IF a store is over-charging folks systematically, they're going to have plenty of annoyed customers and will eventually suffer for it.  Even if no customers hold up the line for their eleven cents, they'll start to take their business elsewhere.

Always remember - IF your aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle.

 

[PTK]

To refute a few points, here:

I was raised by very wealthy parents in a very relaxed-about-money environment. I still pick up change.

I recently bought a can of soda for $.35, which I had picked up off the ground.

As for pennies being worthless, copper in one pile, zinc in the other, and proper cartridge brass can be cast... sort of a useful thing to know, isn't it?

[Perd Hapley]

Just where is the line drawn between letting it slide and making them fix it?

I guess it's at the intersection of how many people are waiting, how long it takes, how much of a hurry you are in, and your own level of parsimony.  Some of us are a little more determined to squeeze the last drop of blood out of the stone than others. 

[K Frame]

IF that actually happened, then yeah, I'd be more niggardly about it.  Since it don't, I ain't. 

Racist! Filthy, disgusting racist! :D

[PTK]

Racist! Filthy, disgusting racist! :D

I'm very much missing something, here... why is confusing niggardly for a racial slur funny? Do people actually do that?

[mtnbkr]

I'm very much missing something, here... why is confusing niggardly for a racial slur funny? Do people actually do that?

A politicritter or govt employee (can't remember which) was nearly drummed out of a job for using that term.  The idiots around him thought it was a racist term.

Chris

[Uncle Bubba]

Gotcha covered, Chris.

I'm very much missing something, here... why is confusing niggardly for a racial slur funny? Do people actually do that?

Yes. Most famously, in 1999 an aide to Washington D.C.'s mayor at the time was publicly vilified and resigned his position because he used the word while discussing budget matters with his staff, two of whom were black. No amount of explaining that the word shares no part of its etymology with the word "*let's not go there*" would placate the race pimps and -warlords. To his credit the mayor hired the man back a little later, but still he shouldn't have accepted the resignation in the first place.

Details here - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/jan99/district27.htm - and here - http://www.adversity.net/special/niggardly.htm

[PTK]

My hope for humanity meter just dropped a few ticks.