Why I still pick up pennies
The most-read piece I ever wrote for MSN Money’s Smart Spending blog was an essay called See a penny? Pick it up! It got more than 1,657,000 hits before MSN changed blog platforms. After that, the penny essay and most of the other things I’d written went to live on a farm, where they can run and play with all the other articles.
And me? Still gleaning dropped coins. I pick up road pennies with copper coatings ravaged by traffic. I fish nickels out of puddles. I’ve spied dimes glinting across parking lots. I rescue quarters from bus-stop gutters.
Occasionally I find paper money, usually one-dollar bills. This year was unusual because I found a $10 and a $20 bill along with 23 quarters, 52 dimes, 15 nickels and 288 pennies.
I can cite the particulars because I save my found money all year, in a vase that my daughter gave me when she was in third or fourth grade. She was so proud of that gift, which she found in the free box at a yard sale. I was so proud that she’d found treasure in someone else’s trash.
Which brings me to the reaction a lot of people have to my picking up pennies: Eeeewwww! That money’s DIRTY!
Well, no kidding. This year I traveled twice to Philly (where I used to live) and to Manhattan, where I reacquainted myself with this fact: No matter where you sit, stand or lean in a big city, somebody has probably urinated there.
But it’s not as though I carry these coins home in my mouth. And sorry to burst your hygienic plastic bubble, but the money you get from the bank or in change at the comic-book store is probably just as invisibly appalling as the stuff I find on the bike path.
Filthy Lucre?
Science News reported on an Australian study about bacteria found on paper money. The U.S. dollars harbored anywhere from 20 to 25,000 bacteria apiece. (Ever held a folded bill between your lips or teeth while you fished in your wallet for change? I bet you won’t do it again.)
A fungicidal agent is added to U.S. currency ink, and the metal in some of our coins has anti-microbial properties. This may be small consolation if you, like me, have ever seen people pull money from socks, shoes and bras. Or watched someone sneeze into his hand before fishing around in the take a penny, leave a penny dish.
This explains why so many cashiers have bottles of hand sanitizer at their stations. Bank employees also know that most money is unspeakably germy. They treat it all as though it came from under fresh piles of dog poo.
Helpful hint: Want to break a nail-biting habit? Go to work at a bank. When you see how dirty your hands are 8 hours of counting currency, you will never willingly touch your mouth again unless you’re wearing latex gloves spritzed with Clorox.
But folks, we’re surrounded by bugs. Doorknobs, vending machines, women’s purses, shopping carts, bus seats, yoga mats and libraries are crawling with cooties. So are our children and our pets. (Elementary schools are Petri dishes for rhinoviruses. And those of you who kiss your kitties would do well to remember that a cat’s tongue is its washcloth and also its toilet paper.)
I don’t sweat the grime on my street funds because:
- I have soap and water at home and hand sanitizer in my backpack, and
- I’m not picking up the coins for myself
At the end of the year I roll up my coins and deposit them, then write a check to the food bank that helped both my daughter and me when times were grim. (This year’s finds totaled $44.58 but I made the check out for $50.)
Some people don’t think it’s worth their time to stop and pick up change. Others don’t think it’s dignified to pluck coins from a vending machine coin return. I’ve even heard it said that you should leave the money for someone who really needs it.
Here’s what I think:
- If it isn’t worth your time, don’t do it.
- If you’re embarrassed, don’t do it.
The food bank’s constituency defines “someone who really needs it.” And according to the hunger-relief charity Feeding America, $1 provides the makings for eight meals. I keep that in mind every time I pick up a penny: Another 99 of these and eight people get to have supper.
The Bottom Line, Dime by Dime
If it’s more than a penny, so much the better. But in my experience, the one-cent piece is the one that lots of folks think isn’t worth noticing. I disagree, respectfully.
In part that’s because I’m so old that I remember penny candy. When we walked to and from school I kept a sharp eye out for stray specie. A single cent could be traded for a Squirrel Nut Zipper (the candy, not the band), a sour grape gumball, a roll of Smarties, a peppermint stick or any number of delights from our rural township’s one store. You could even get two Hershey’s Kisses for a penny. Those were the days.
More to the point, I believe in that old saw, Take care of your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves. It’s not that I think a lone Lincoln will generally make or break the bottom line. (You must pay the rent! But I can’t pay the rent! I’m one penny short!) No, it’s that seeing dropped coins everywhere makes me wonder about our sense of what money is.
After all, it’s only a penny. Why pick it up? But pennies add up to dollars, and dollars that aren’t properly managed dissolve into tarnished coppers. One way to lose sight of the bottom line is to forget that it’s made up of small change.
Note: Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, was famous (perhaps apocryphally so) for picking up dropped coins.
Or maybe you’re one of the people for whom a few cents really will make your day, or break your heart. A common example: The supermarket shopper with five store-brand items, one of which he has to put back. Or would have to, if someone behind him in line didn’t pony up the extra 17 cents.
Best Places to Look for Coins
- Under the couch cushions (duh)
- In the rejected-change bin of coin-counting machines like Coinstar
- Near parking meters in early springtime, as the snow melts
- Under your feet at the checkout counter of just about any supermarket or drugstore
- Around the self-service vacuum at car washes and gas stations
- The bottom of the ball crawl at Chuck E. Cheese (or so an MSN Money reader claimed)
- Beaches and playgrounds, especially if you have a metal detector
(The funniest place I ever found spare change? Under couch cushions — but the sofa in question was sitting on a street corner wearing a free sign.)
Small Expenses
I don’t pick up every coin I see. A few days ago I was getting off the bus while carrying two incredibly heavy bags. I walked right by a dime in the aisle because I couldn’t get it easily and didn’t want to hold up the line by trying.
Occasionally I’m in a hurry, or for some reason just don’t feel like stopping and reaching for a coin. Generally I tell myself, Come on, it’s for the kids — i.e., the hungry kids — and then pick up the change.
This is not my only form of charitable giving, incidentally. I give money all year long to health, social service and educational organizations. The found-coins fund is just another string in my fiddle — but why not play it for all it’s worth? That $44.58 rounded up to $50 equals 400 people not going to bed hungry.
The expression nickel-and-dime in its adjectival sense means of little importance. If you think of coins in that way, they’re easy to dismiss.
As a verb, nickel and dime means to impoverish through small expenses. Minor obligations — bus fare, cough medicine, class trips — can really bust a budget, especially if you’re a 99er or a minimum-wage worker.
Yes, earning more money is preferable to washing plastic bags. But not everyone can earn more money right now. (Hello, Detroit!) If that’s you, I propose a simple three-part plan:
- Pick up any coins you find
- Save them in a jar
- Every time you get a dollar’s worth, exchange them at the corner store and put the singles back in the jar
Congratulations! You nickel-and-dimed your way to a teeny little emergency fund!
Each Coin has Value
Picking up coins is my personal choice. I’m not saying anyone else has to do it. I’m just putting it out there as a possibility. You should do whatever works for you. What works for me is picking up the money and giving it to a food bank. That’s just how I roll, so to speak. (J.D.’s note: I’ve docked Donna’s pay for that pun.)
Even if you decide not to do this, at least pay attention to the coins in your pocket or wallet. Viewed singly they may seem insignificant. But each one has value — and power.
Just ask the underemployed or the 99ers. If you’re a buck short on bus fare the day before payday, that found-coin dollar from the glass-jar EF means you can get to work. If your unemployment check isn’t due until Friday, a palmful of coins buys five packages of on-sale ramen for a week’s worth of lunches.
Neither situation is ideal. Still, be glad that a whole lot of people couldn’t be bothered to pick up those pennies before you got there.
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There are 168 comments to "Why I still pick up pennies".
I think that you are inspirational for giving back even when times are tough or your income is low. I am in my early twenties, and I think that far too many of my peers fall into the entitlement trap of seeing the money as theirs to fritter away as they see fit. I doubt a single one makes a single charitable contribution, and I worry that I will fall into that trap.
I used to worry about falling into that trap too. I got myself into the habit of giving in little ways — like buying a jar of peanut butter for the food bank when I was grocery shopping.
I see too many people put off giving until they earn more money, they’re out of debt, they buy a house, etc. I think when people start giving or volunteering when they don’t have a lot it establishes the habit.
I’m right there with you. It’s easy to fall into the trap of “well I don’t have a lot to spare, I’ll donate when I have a real job”.
But then when I look at all the things I buy that I don’t need- coffee, fast food, movie tickets, cosmetics, etc- I figure there’s no excuse. Forgoing even a couple little pleasures and sending that money to someone who needs it can make a big difference in the long run.
And even those who don’t have money to spare can usually find an hour or two to donate to some charitable cause. Many charities could use a little free labor.
Agreed! “When I can afford to…” is a moving target.
I don’t remember a time when my parents weren’t donating time or money to causes that were important to them. As they’ve earned more, they’ve been able to do more.
I hope to live up to their example.
Yes! And a couple of hours on a Saturday sorting cans at the food bank or helping swamp out the homeless shelter has a way of giving us perspective.
When I was at my lowest financially I still gave $20 a month to my church, which provides assistance to the elderly, homeless teens and people living with HIV and which also operates an emergency pantry and a rent/utility assistance program.
Sure, I could have used that $20 — but I managed without it, and donating it made me realize that not only was I doing better than a lot of folks, but that I had something to give. Knowing you have something to give makes you realize that yes, I can make it after all.
I highly recommend the practice, even if it’s just $5 a month to the food bank or dropping off a package of toilet paper (or that jar of peanut butter) at a shelter. You will feel better knowing that you helped even a little — and, again, knowing that you CAN help and still keep the lights on at your own place. I bet you’ll never miss the two coffees a month it took to scrape up the $5.
(Or however many coffees. I don’t drink the stuff — it tastes too much like coffee — and I honestly don’t know what it costs.)
I am more comfortable volunteering my time, than giving money, unless I know the charity very well.
Great post. I pick up found money too. My mother would jump into traffic to retrieve a penny so I guess I come by it honestly 🙂
I hope you giveaway your found money to charity
Great article! Very inspiring to think about what those pennies can do at our area food banks.
I also always pick up coins. I used to get way more when I lived in a city. We moved to the sticks when we had kids. This should be added as a pro/con on the urban or rural article the other day! (Just kidding.)
I have never seen as much dropped money on the ground as when we visited the OSU campus in Columbus a few years ago. My kids were in heaven and in just an hour had found more than $1 in dropped coins. I guess that college kids don’t think they need to worry about money so much, so they are careless with it.
I found quite a bit on the UW campus during my three years there.
When I’m in the U District I like to walk around the campus and I still do find money. It always surprises me, student loans being what they are. Again, though, not everyone can make the connection between that quarter he dropped and the money he’s going to owe when he graduates.
Not to mention the furniture and big ticket items, scarcely used at all, that proliferate in the vicinity of campus dumpsters, especially in June. I was appalled at the stuff getting tossed by careless (read: parentally subsidized) students. My coed daughter was mortified that i might dive and reclaim some of it. I resisted the urge . . .but it actually hurt!
I pick up change, too — what a good idea to track and donate.
While some of it is wasteful, some of it is actually good decision making. Renting a storage unit for $25 a month during the summer to store a $50 couch isn’t a smart move. 1/4 or more of students aren’t returning to that campus each year and shipping/moving a couch isn’t worth it (especially if you don’t have a car or you live overseas).
Hey, Joe G., I understand why renting a $25.month storage unit doesn’t make sense for a $50 couch if you’re leaving for overseas…but why are college kids so short-sighted that they don’t call the Salvation Army or a similar charity to come pick up the item? Any charity that helps the poor usually has clients starting over again, and furniture could help furnish their low-income housing units. Or, the charity’s thrift store could sell the sofa to other folks and use the proceeds to help the poor. No need to leave still-usuable secondhand stuff out by the dumpster — that’s selfish. It doesn’t help (poor) people and it doesn’t help the planet. Give the stuff to folks who can use it — that’s being “green” and charitable!
We used to live just off-campus in our town, and Sunday morning walks past the bars were our favorites! Always tons of change there 🙂
I still pick up change, even pennies, and save it in a *found money* savings account. So that means I’m earning interest on free found money, wootie! I’m not sure what I’ll do with it, but giving it to charity is a nice idea.
I have always picked up coins. I have a coin jar that they go in (along with change I find when I do laundry and change from occasionally emptying out my wallet of coins) and when it fills up I roll them and take them to the bank. At this point though, I usually point out the coins to my kids and let them pick them up. They are much closer to the ground so it is easier for them :-).
That’s funny 🙂 If I drop a small coin, I leave it for someone else to pick up 🙂 I figure my lost penny or quarter is someone else’s good luck. (I draw the line at loonies and twoonies though!)
I pick them up and have trained my 5yo to do the same. She knows that a penny buys a ride on the pony at the grocery store! I also “pay” her for odd jobs with pennies. Her pennies go into her 3-compartment piggy bank. One year I took my found coins to the bank and got a money order in that amount and sent it to the Red Cross. Other years I’ve taken it to the coinstar machine and selected the amazon gift card option (Free counting that way) and bought toys for toys for tots.
You’re awesome, Donna!
I am not! And don’t you go saying I am.
:Þ
Now you are talking about one of my things to do. I work the night shift driving and patrolling schools. I pick up money on the groud at quick stores and wherever. One night I found a $20. I pick up pennies. Each day I add the amt. I find to my hourly income. It makes me feel like night work is worth it. I save it for hard times which one year I cashed it in at the store to buy groceries. Every penny counts! Great article!
I agree that every penny counts. Just ask the person who has to put something back at the supermarket because she doesn’t have the extra 28 cents.
It always gratifies me to see how many people start digging in their own pockets and extending change.
Right now, hubs is the main breadwinner in our family of 4 (dau & grand, living with us, daughter IS WORKING) i said MAIN breadwinner. So, i am working on getting our own debt cleared up, but in the mean time, i save pennies for my grand daughter, silver for the extra $$ to go on my debt, and $5 bills for EF, AND i separate my aluminum to put to the curb on trash day for the pickers to gather without having to sift through all my other recyclables. I had an elderly gentleman say he wished MORE people would do that…we can all help one another in some way, and you know it is all biblical. The more you give the more you will recieve. We all have to “carry our own load” but we can also be helpful too. Great post! Ah, yes. Who’s hand was on the money before it reached your own….and i know (i am nosey/i listen) that a LOT of (women, since i use only the female restroom of course) do NOT wash their hands after using the rest room….that is why i use a towel to open the door, after washing my own…
My apartment house has two single-waste-stream dumpsters, so it’s not possible to separate them out. When I do put out cans I have them in a bag, which is easier to pull out.
I tend to hold on to them, though, until a couple of canners with whom I’ve chatted come by. Then I’ll call out the window to wait, I’ve got some they can have. I wish there were one small bin just for cans.
I pick em up if found but don’t look for them…
It’s a nice find but not something I occupy my mind or time with.
The first part of this post is so gross. The nastiness of money is definitely among the things I would readily not think about. However, I love where you went with it. Charitable giving is crucial, and I can’t think of a better reason to move past the “gross factor.”
Kind of makes you think, though, every time you open your wallet: Where was this coin or bill before it came to me?
You don’t really want to know.
I always pick up money. To me it’s more of a mental game. If the universe wants to give me money, I’ll accept it. Part of being thankful.
Some people consider dropped coins to be messages from dead loved ones — literally “pennies from heaven.”
Others consider them messages from the universe itself. Here’s my woo-woo moment: Shortly after fleeing my marriage I was walking on a Seattle street and wondering what I’d do next (and why it had taken me so long to take the plunge). I saw two pennies and of course stopped to pick them up.
I always glance at the date on coins I find. The years on these were 1981 and 2004 — the year I got married and the year I left.
Spooooo-KY, no?
Why the unnecessary shot at Detroit? Not nice.
It wasn’t a shot, it was a shout-out. Donna’s acknowledging that some people in some places literally don’t have a penny to spare. One of those places is Detroit.
Money is money in my book. I still find myself occasionally picking up the the stray coin and tossing it into my stash.
The fact that you and your daughter save the found money so you can send it off to a worthy cause is reason enough to do so in my mind. At least your efforts (and health risk according to the germaphobes) are selfless and go to benefit others.
Hilarious and thought-provoking!
BTW — the last sentence is cut off. 🙂
The cut-off portion must have been fixed by the time I got here. Thanks for flagging it, and thanks for the compliment.
It’s easy to compute whether the penny is worth gleaning over it (and moreover especially purposely looking for).
Even if you earn $7.25 an hour, that means you make a penny each 5 seconds. So basically if you spend more time for picking up a penny than you blink an eye you’d better have stayed at your work for a couple of moments more. Of course, it doesn’t always work this way literally, but I think you got the idea.
In my opinion, there is no sense of picking pennies for savings. But even for the scenario described – as a motivation to give money to charity – it is way too simpler to set a reminder on your phone to give away $50 each months, or arrange a regular payment.
While I agree that this idea may be viable as a way to teach children to be thrifty with money.
Sorry for my bad English.
But I do both, you see: Donate regularly and pick up coins to donate. It’s just another chunk of change, as it were, that would otherwise not have ended up at the food bank.
That said, I understand why some people don’t want to do this. To each his own. And to the others, hand sanitizer.
But this scenario assumes you CAN stay at work more. Otherwise the comparison simply does not work. Just as what your time is “worth” only applies if you can work mor ehours at what you do.
I once read that in his Micro$oft heyday, Bill Gates was making money so fast that his wage was the equivalent of making $600 in the time it would take him to notice and pick up a penny from the floor.
More on topic…when I was a kid there was a big state fair in my hometown. We would troll around under the rides that turned upside down to find change that flew out of riders’ pockets. Then we would promptly spend it on junk food or games.
The computer wage/time thing is great if you have a capacity to make money all the time. But if you’re on a salaried job, or if you can only work a set number of hours, then you’re not losing any money by bending down to pick some up.
I pick up spare change all the time. I wish I had kept track like Donna, because I’m sure mine has added up quite a bit. I add it all in to my general spare change, and every couple of years I cash the jars in. I’ve made quite a bit.
I have been collecting coins for as long as I can remember. There was a time when I was too superstitious to pick up coins that were tails side up. Now I don’t care. I put all of the pennies into a Snoopy-shaped piggy bank and save them for a rainy day.
I love the idea of saving up a year’s worth of found money and donating it. Great idea! When my son get’s older I think this will be a great way to teach him about charitable giving.
“Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck.”
That’s what I always think when I see ’em tails-side up!
I have always picked up money too and to this day every time I pick up a penny that little chant goes through my head about good luck…however, I have always just added it to my own fund….
Now I think I am going to do something different with it … I really like the idea of using this found money (wasn’t mine to begin with)and giving it to a food bank or something else in a charitable manner…
And don’t forget the traces of cocaine on all those bills you’re picking up… (http://www.snopes.com/business/money/cocaine.asp)
Anyway, you’re right that little things add up. And coins really mean something to kids (who, as Leslie commented, are closer to the ground anyway).
When I talk to first home buyers about ways to get their kids involved, I suggest they set up a coin bank labeled “my own room” or something similar where kids can collect found coins to put toward buying a house.
One of our board members who is in her 70s reminisces proudly of contributing her tiny savings bond to buying her family’s first home. And she still lives there today!
Every child should have that feeling of pride and picking up coins is one way they can contribute to an important family goal.
I love the idea, BTW, of contributing the found coins to help others. The process makes you mindful of money and mindful of others at the same time.
Money is money and I’m not above picking it up off the ground. We keep and collect our change and Mr. Sam uses it for coffee in the a.m. or we use it for parking at the beach, but we use it.
Donna,
I have to tell you that I love your practical, commendable, well-that-makes-sense style. My husband works with people who THROW loose change away because, “Pssht, it’s just change.” He loves to give them updates on how much he’s saved from their frivolousness. All money is dirty and covered with germs (including those plastic pieces called credit cards). It’s part of life. Practice practical hygiene and you’re good to go.
Thanks for another great article.
Thank you, Liz.
And on the subject of “it’s just change,” see the reply I left elsewhere on this page about my dad, the teacher, whose unruly teen students threw pennies at him. He shut ’em down pretty quickly when he informed them he was one-fourth of the way to a free beer — on them. Maybe your husband should let his co-workers know how much of their discarded change he picks up in a year.
On second thought, maybe not. They might stop discarding it.
Still picking up loose change. And rolling it myself.
My office is a bounty of people who don’t value change, and tend to leave it everywhere. I’m all to happy to swoop in and take over responsibility for neglected money.
It take a lot more to embarrass me than stooping down to grab a coin.
All coins are wanted and needed. How nice of you to rescue the neglected ones. 🙂
I just think of it as my luck for the day. If someone catches me in the fact and looks at me funny I’ll say, “Someone has left his luck on the ground.”
My three year old likes coins because they are shiny and make a jingly sound when carried in a pocket and just figured out that if she has 25 cents then she can buy any book she wants at the library book sale.
If you serve, or are a military brat like me, one of the best places to pick up change to get into the movies is under the stairs at the Mess Hall.
I pick up pennies and any other change and wash them later. Personally, more than the value of the money, I find that I am more aware of what I am doing at that instant instead of being lost in thought 🙂
So finding money on the sidewalk grounds you, as it were…
I have been picking up coins my entire life! That combined with paying only in bills and saving all the coins got me a car at age 15 that lasted for 9 years, and is now significantly helping me repay my student loan debt!
I played a game with my kids – I offered TEN TIMES the money they found like this. The objective was to make them more aware of their surroundings – to pay attention.
I still find money – once £20 – but less than before. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough!
Or maybe other people are looking, too. (See “not everyone can earn more money right now,” above.)
I think the reason we find money less often nowadays is because of people using plastic more than cash.
In the state that I live in, we have a bottle deposit($.05) on recycables. I have my co-workers drop off their soda cans and what not in boxes as the foot of my desk that would otherwise end up in the trash. Every so often, I take the box full of cans to the redemption center located at my grocery store. So, The time spent on this endeavor is the time I spend putting the cans/bottles into the machine.
Although it’s not the same a directly picking up a penny on the ground, it’s along the same concept of a little bit will add up to a lot.
Plus you keep things out of the trash. Win-win!
Usually I’m a change picker upper, but recently I found a quarter in the candy shelf at a store…. It didn’t really seem like penny on the street territory so I gave it to the cashier. Then I felt bad about all the other change I’ve scavenged from the floor at the checkout line of the grocery store- maybe they gather it up at the end of othe night? In any case, now I leave change that’s on private property (stores, but not sidewalks).
I expect the janitors sweep it up. Or maybe the underpaid employees do supplement their incomes this way.
Here’s my only exception: When I’m at McDonald’s* and find change on the floor, I put it in the little donation box for the Ronald McDonald House. Every little bit helps, right? It’s worth noting that the majority of the coins in there are pennies.
*Yeah, I go to McDonald’s sometimes. I like the fries. Sue me.
I found a dollar once at the gas station, it was just sitting there in all the candy bars right below the register. I kept it, but I asked the cashier if he’d ever found any money there, and he said yep, he found a $50 once! (he said he turned it over to the company, good man)
My husband is a transit driver, and on layovers and breaks he strolls up and down the bus, picking up dropped coins. He once paid for the majority of his Christmas shopping from the ‘found money’ jar he kept, filled with just that found money. It does add up! He’s got a sharp eye and once found a $50. bill! Woohoo!
I see a surprising number of coins on bus floors. It can be hard to get at them, since I’m usually carrying at least one bag, but I’ll pick them up if I can.
A couple of weeks ago a young man getting off the bus handed the driver a wallet and said, “Somebody left this back there.” Bless his heart.
My Dad had a funny store about change…
While he was working on a school remodel in Indianapolis, he had noticed that the kids all had the same attitude you described toward change. One day while he was eating his (packed) lunch in the gym, a boy saw some change on the floor and stopped and picked it up. Dad thought, “good for him!”
Then the boy went over and threw it in the trash! haha
I’ve got a “dad and coins” story, too:
Many years ago, my father taught elementary school all day and then went to his second job of teaching adolescents deemed too unruly for regular high school. One evening, a student flipped a penny at him. Dad picked it up and put it in his pocket. The teens laughed, and another one flipped a penny. Then another one.
When my father had 12 cents in his pocket, he said, “Guys, I want to thank you. All I need is 38 more of these and I’m going over to the Fairfield and have a draft beer — on you.”
Not another penny was flung. He could see the horror in their faces: “Man, I’m not gonna buy the TEACHER a beer!”
I pick up coins when I see them, and I think of The NonConsumerAdvocate (aka CoinGirl) every time I do!
I do find coins on an almost daily basis. I find that if you glance under outdoor seating at restaurants, there’s almost always money.
Free money, what’s not to like?!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
AKA “Coin Girl”
I’m always semi-delighted when I see someone picking up a coin, because it lets me think “See, I’m not the only one.”
I say “semi-delighted” because part of me is thinking, “Dang, I wish I’d gotten there first.”
Excellent article! I seriously laughed out loud at your comment about not bringing money home in your mouth. Heh.
I also pick up money, and I’ve found that my current location (suburbs, nowhere near a bus stop) yields a LOT less dropped money than when I lived in Chicago and fairly close to buses and trains. I still keep an eye out for dropped change, because hey, you never know when you’ll find a $20.
Happy to amuse. 🙂
I find a lot less money when I’m visiting the ‘burbs or, worse, my dad out in the country. Long stretches of time without so much as a penny.
I love the idea Donna! Our son, now 11, has been in the habit of picking up money for years. He is SUPER lucky often finding $5, $10 and $20 bills along with pocketfuls of change. Most days he comes home from school with several coins that he’s found on the playground or hallway. We allow him to keep the money. I like that he understands that money has value even if everyone doesn’t think so.
As always Donna – hilarious and on point! Yea, money is dirty – really dirty – I almost think bills are dirtier than change – think strip clubs and (as someone mentioned before) cocain use. Hubby doesn’t like to carry change – so it all goes in a basket near the front door. Before I started reading GRS – I would take it to Coinstar and pay the 8%. Last time I did that though – it REALLY bugged me to pay the 8%. I don’t really buy much on Amazon so I didn’t think that was the right decision. Well, yesterday I had a whole bunch of change (and some items picked out on Amazon) so I was all set to use the coinstar – when I realized that I was stopping by the bank anyway. Well, they take wrapped coins so I got the wrappers and am wrapping them myself – got $35 worth before I ran out of wrappers. Note – it hasn’t actually taken me any additional time to wrap the coins – do it while watching TV or while hubby is driving. But having done it – I’m wondering about the usefullness of using up those paper wrappers compared to just putting them in the machine. Is it really worth the 8c to waste more paper, and then count my time going back to the bank to deposit them… At my hourly wage – it definitely isn’t worth the time – so now I’m torn again as to the right solution. Even you Donna – who have been in the place where you can’t just make more money – I bet you actually make MUCH more money writing about picking up coins than you ever have actually picking them up. At least I would hope so because you’re writing is great!
You might ask if your bank actually *wants* your coins wrapped. My credit union will not accept wrapped coins. I just bring it in a plastic bag (or vase or jar or whatever it’s collected in) and they dump it into a coin counting machine. At my previous bank, they would make you bust open all your carefully rolled change into a bank bag for the same process.
I don’t know if it’s the same everywhere, but it might change your calculations. 🙂
Good point. My own bank does require that they be rolled, although you’d think that would encourage people to sneak foreign coins in among the local ones.
I guess it’s better to take the occasional Euro than to hold up the lines while the specie gets digested by the coin counter. Or maybe they just want US to have to touch the sticky coins. 😛
Yea, I’m not sure they really ‘wanted’ the wrapped coins – but the official rule (since they don’t have a coin counter) is it must be wrapped…
Thanks for your kind words. As noted in the piece, you should do what works for you — and it sounds as though Coinstar might be it.
I also pick up change (and very occasionally bills) from the ground, and what works for me is to tally them all up on New Years Day, then take the equivalent from my wallet and deposit that into the house repair savings account. I then take the *actual* change, bag it by coin type (quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies), and over time I spend it whenever I was going to make a cash purchase.
This works best when you either know ahead of time what the change will be and can have it ready for the cashier (for example, my breakfast sandwich and drink every morning costs $2.68 [it’s a special rate], so I’d have the $0.68 ready), or when you have time to stop and count out the change (having the coins separated makes this easy).
LOVED THIS POST!!! Thanks, Donna, for writing it. I thought I was the only one who does this – I never see anyone else pick up change (and there’s plenty around if you look for it, at least around Boston).
And here I thought I might get mightily flamed for writing it. Turns out there are a lot of closet penny-picker-uppers out there.
Which begs the question: Do we pinch them as we pick them up, or later on?
A neighbour of mine once left a jar filled with pennies out by her trash with a sign marked “free” on it. There was over $4 in that jar…
What’s her address? And when is trash day in your neighborhood?
My kids have heard this story so often they can recite it.
There was a guy on my college campus regularly shaking a coffee can to collect money for his church’s free breakfast for kids program. I went up to him one day with a small handful of change and said, “Sorry, it’s mostly pennies.”
He gave me a huge grin and said, “Pennies are just baby dollars waiting to grow up!”
You bet I am a change-finder/saver, too.
I heard a guy describe it this way: “Another $999,999.99 and I’ll have my first million.”
In the meantime, those kids get breakfast. Imagine going to school with your backbone touching your belly and getting scolded because you’re not paying attention. I went to school with a couple of kids who ate paste. One of them told me it was because he was hungry — no breakfast at his house.
Great article! I’ve picked up stray cash since I was a kid. My husband thinks I’m some kind of cash magnet because I find coins almost every time I walk through a parking lot from car to shop. We save all of our change and at the end of the year have an extra house payment to take to the bank!
An extra house payment’s worth? I want to follow YOU around, too…
Well written and humorous. Thanks for the post.
Although I have a cap on what I keep. I found a $10 bill on the floor in the lobby of my building (I work at a banking HQ). I kept thinking, what if some kid dropped his life savings of $10 and is crying right now. So I told the tellers and the security guard that if anyone asked (specifically about a $10 bill)to call me. I got a call from an aquaintance/co-worker about 5 minutes later who had been in the branch right before me.
I’m a big change picker upper. When I was 7 I would do my Dad’s laundry for extra allowance and the other bonus was that I could keep any change that I found in his pockets or on the floor. To this day I don’t think he realizes how much money I made off of him that way. If he did he would’ve understood why I liked doing laundry so much 😉
Once I was in line at an ice cream place and the lady in front of me dropped a bunch of small coins and just looked at them and turned away. I guess it wasn’t worth her time to bend over and pick them up. So I waited a few seconds and then just started collecting them myself, right in front of her. I have no shame when it comes to picking up change that other people reject. She paid for half of my ice cream cone and it took me maybe 5 seconds to pick up all the coins.
You’re story made me smile.. did you ever think you’re father may have left you coins to find in his pocket on purpose? 😉 Not so much that you’d get suspicious but enough to keep you interested .. lol. I know I did for my daughter!
I used to clean a guy’s house, and also did his laundry and took his suits to the dry cleaner. After washing a pair of pants with tissues in the pocket — and having to painstakingly pick little bits of tissues off everything in that load — I told him he needed to empty his pockets before throwing slacks into the hamper.
He said he would, but of course he didn’t. So I tried a different tack: Anything I found in the pockets, including money, was MINE.
He said that would be fine. I found a fair number of crumpled bills in khakis and also in suit jackets during my time working for him.
There’s bacteria everywhere on the planet. Filthiness just strengthens your immune system. 😉
Yep, they’re everywhere. To paraphrase Tom Robbins, “Human beings were invented by bacteria as a way of getting themselves around.” 😉
I told a relative with two small kids that some scientists think we’re TOO clean, and that our insistence on antibacterial this and sanitized that plus the fact that fewer kids play out in the dirt any longer may be contributing to the increase in allergies.
She said (tongue firmly planted in cheek), “You mean that by not having a cleaner house I’m actually being a good mom?”
Since that time I read about research that indicates exposure to soil improves the immune system and increases production of the feel-good chemical serotonin. (No wonder gardeners and children are so happy.) For more on that topic, plus a picture of her AMAZINGLY dirty kid, see http://www.donnafreedman.com/2010/07/07/malachi-and-mud/.
Somewhat off topic, but gardening DOES make me much happier. Now I know why! 😉
I’ve been doing thi for years! It drives my husband nuts to see me bend over to pick up aa muddy,scratched penny, but I still do it.
Once a year, I take all my change to a free Coinstar at my credit union and convert it to cash. The proceeds are divided between the local animal shelter and the Salvation Army.
I agree with the idea of giving no matter how broke you are (or think you are). There is ALWAYS someone worse off than you.
I wind up washing some of my coins before I put them in the vase because of mud, cola or whatever their particular brands of disgusting might be.
Wish my bank would count them. Then again, I like rolling coins. Hey, I don’t have a TV — I have to make my own fun.
I definitely pick up change more often than not. However, I passed up a penny this morning while walking my dog. 🙁
I put them in my piggy bank I’ve had since I was a kid (I got it for free while flea market shopping with my mom when I was a kid…much like your daughter’s vase, Donna!). I’m going to cash them in for an Amazon gift card this year to buy Christmas presents. If I’m lucky enough to find a quarter, I keep it for the self-serve car wash.
I love that you donate your change to the food bank! I think I’ll start splitting my finds in half. Half for piggy bank, half for food donation.
You raise a good point: Folks for whom the budget is tight at home could use their street funds to provide little extras, such as Christmas gifts. (Or that teeny-tiny EF.)
I read a story in a poverty forum about a lady who got a “free ipod.” She said she really wanted an ipod, and she saw all those scams on the internet. She barely had enough to make ends meet, so she knew she couldn’t get an ipod out of her own money. She started saving every cent she picked up (and went out of her way to check vending machines, phones, etc). After two years, she saved enough for her ipod!
Another great place to find coins is under vending machines. You can literally find dollars worth of quarters that have rolled underneath beyond reach. Helps to have something like a yardstick to sweep them out.
I used to know a vending machine guy who found a couple of hundred dollars per week under the vending machines on his route. It was his family’s grocery money!
Hey Donna had to comment as yesterday I quoted in my post Can A Family Kitchen Be Minimal exactly those words ‘see a penny pick it up’. I’d photographed my kitchen, and one shot shows my windowsill which holds a piggy bank. This is where I drop all the coins and notes I find. I’ve been doing this since 2009, when I read Katy over at Non-Consumer-Advocates post about ‘Coingirl’. I don’t find a huge amount of coins, my daughter has more luck and has found a £5 note! Totally with you on donating the cash also… that is what I’ll be doing once it’s full!
Well done, you! Rest assured that the need will be there at the end of the year.
I live in a small college town/city and while I feel like I’m diligent about collecting “street money” my “biggest” year so far was only $7.16. I think that there was more change around in the “boom” years (2006-2008); last year I only collected $3.51 and while I haven’t counted up lately, I suspect I may not even have that much in 2011 — I don’t see a lot of quarters in my street money bank at the moment… But there’s still more than a month of the year left!
We do a lot better “collecting” our own change — I put anything smaller than a quarter in the loose change jar. Now that will provide some real money when it’s turned into the bank in December (and my bank will count it for free if I’m depositing the funds into an account).
Agreed. My pennies, nickels and dimes go into a piggy bank. The quarters go into a separate bank (for laundry).
Speaking of which: I have been finding pennies and sometimes other coins in the laundry room in my apartment building. Not on the floor, but set on a small shelving unit next to the machines. Saves me having to pick them up — and they’re never sticky, having just gone through the wash.
Oh, I’m sitting at my desk at work trying not to laugh too loudly and I hurt all over!!!
I’d always pick up loose change no matter where it is (my favorite place is the huge dryer I’m using at the laundromat – coins get wedged into the bars of the barrel) and for years I had adopted many “casual” ways of doing it: in a store I’d pretend to drop another coin so I could retrieve them both, in the street I’m tying my shoe or I put my foot on it like a ballet dancer and slooowly drag it towards me. Yes, I’m sure no one EVER knew what I was doing.
I felt the same way about taking something useful out of another person’s trash at the curb on bulky night. I’d ride around the block til I was sure there was no one around, or wait until the dark of night so no one could see me. After loosing out on a beautiful and what surely was an antique dresser to someone who, in broad daylight, put the top down on their little convertible and drove away with it on top of them, I made up my mind to NEVER hesitate again.
I hope I don’t see that dresser on Antiques Roadshow.
A friend of mine needed help taking something to the dumpster. I show up with my truck and it’s this really cool old writing desk, with a glass inkwell embedded on it. It’s in poor condition but it’s definitely a good piece. I tell her she should try to sell it. She says no, she wants it out, who would want it, please take it to the dumpster, etc.
I load it on my truck. I drive straight to an antique furniture shop & show it to the owner. He takes a look at it and offers me $50 on the spot. He says it needs a lot of work and he’d offer me more if it was in better condition, like $250. I say $50 is fine and take my check, and make a point to call my friend and tell her the news. I hope she learned her lesson ha ha ha.
Did you check the inkwell for pennies?
I do that too! Here’s the one I use at the cash register: I set my backpack down next to the coin while I pay or put the items in my shopping bag. Then I pick up the coin before I pick up the backpack. Smoooooth, no?
Please refer to me by my Latin name, illegitimus frugalis.
While not specifically about found money only, we pick up coins and also save quite a bit of the change we get back from buying things. We just opened our daughter’s savings account with $36 in coins we wrapped ourselves. My mom is one of those ‘money-magnet’ people who are always finding dropped money-she found 2 $20 bills one week (she can also look down seemingly at any moment and find a 4-leaf clover). I always enjoy Donna’s articles; the topics are interesting and the writing is well done.
1. I want to follow your mom around.
2. Thanks for your kind words. If you were here I’d give you a penny. One of the clean ones, even.
Can I go for walk with your mother every day?
Although slightly disgusted I found a whole handful of sticky change at the vacuum cleaner at a car wash a month ago. I just took it home and washed it. =)
Thanks for the good reminder on pennies & charitable giving.
My route to the library/bank/post office takes me past a car wash and I always glance over at the vacuum cleaner as I pass. Some day I hope to come up with a haul like yours.
My best-ever find was in a Coinstar returned-change slot in Anchorage, Alaska: two handfuls of specie (including 10 quarters), and a bunch of it was sticky. Read more about this, if you like, at http://www.donnafreedman.com/2011/07/05/a-found-coin-moment/
One of the comments on that piece was left by a former supermarket employee who said, “People routinely leave change in the Coinstar. How do I know? I was the person that ran the nightly reports and fixed the machine when it got stuck.” So go ahead and invest in Coinstar futures, i.e., give it a sidelong glance as you pass by.
Hint: A lot of stores now keep hand sanitizer out by the shopping carts.
Your point about how dirty money is is absolutely true! I used to work as a vault teller in a major metropolis, and counting all of the branch’s money was the dirtiest job. By the end, my hands were so full of grime that I never wanted to touch cash again. I think that’s one of the main reasons that I prefer my debit card.
Decide not to do it?! My entire blog is about finding money on the ground! 🙂
I haven’t decided what to do with my stash yet, but you’re food bank idea is a good one!
My BEST spot for money:
-Go out to the bars on a Friday or Saturday night. People are a lot more careless with their “bills” when they have some liquid courage in them! 🙂
“I don’t remember a time when my parents weren’t donating time or money to causes that were important to them. As they’ve earned more, they’ve been able to do more.
I hope to live up to their example.”
@Elizabeth: The fact that you say this leads me to believe that either you already are living their example or making plans to do so. The world needs more givers, so as they used to say on “Hee Haw”: Sa-LUTE!
I always pick up change! Well, 99% of the time… I always say a small “thank you” when I do as I take it as a symbol for increasing abundance in my life and want to accept any abundance that comes my way. My favorite find was a $100 dollar bill!!!!!! Loved that!!!
However, Detroit’s got a lot going for it these days. I’m in the suburbs, not the city and I am expanding my business, but even the city itself is really becoming a creative, youthful hub. There’s a lot of determination here and a lot of proud Detroiters.
Hey, I like this idea. If a lot of people could give $50 a year to a food bank, we could make a difference. I am going to change. I also read that most US paper currency has traces of cocaine on it. Ann
You are going to “change”? Hee hee.
“Most”? That’s a lot of coke heads!
It has always been easier for me to give money than to give time, so that’s what I do. I don’t give change, though.
I’ll pick up dropped money anytime it’s convenient to do so. Coins go, along with our own daily change, into a three-compartment Carnival glass dish (bought on eBay years ago and kept for this purpose, and to remind me not to shop on eBay). When the compartments are full I roll it up and DH deposits it at the credit union. We collect at least $50 a year this way, which is more than my savings account earns in interest. Quarters we save for the coin laundry in our building.
One time I found $80 on the sidewalk. I was walking home from a hair appointment (this was before I started cutting my own) and there was no-one around. Talk about found money! Somebody probably just got back after visiting the ATM.
I felt bad for them, but you can’t exactly knock on doors and ask “did you lose some money” and expect to hear “why no, but my neighbor just got back, ask her.”
I find money too and I will pick it up! I don’t think I ever found a $10 or $20 though. In the last week I found two singles and a few pennies. I usually donate found money because I feel good doing it. Dirty money is another reason, I use credit cards exclusively.
One time I found a roll of bills on the seat of the bus I was riding. I called the bus company, and the guy there thought I was nuts for wanting to find the person who lost it, but I left my name and number. Nobody ever called me so I gave it to charity. My favorite place for finding money (mostly bills) is the pockets of my jackets. When I put on that first jacket in the fall, I usually find bills, then the winter coat, then the spring jacket. Sticking money in my pockets is a bad habit I just haven’t broken after, well, many decades.
My partner and I keep a piggy bank that we empty our wallets and my purse into at the end of each night. (She tends to pick up pennies – I mostly don’t see them)
Just this last weekend, we took ourselves off for an anniversary vacation to a nearby casino. (While we don’t gamble, they’re incredibly inexpensive places to stay and eat.) We decided we’d gamble while we were there, realizing that that money is entertainment money and therefore gone.
We took the piggy bank (well, we had to do some finagling, because apparently, casinos don’t take coins anymore. Who knew?)
We had $80 in the piggy bank, $60 of it was spent one way or another (drinks during the cabaret, dinner one night, and, yes, at the shiny machines.)
Now, we’re saving up for a trip to Disney. Around our house at night you’ll frequently hear “24 cents for Disney!” “Huzzah!”
It adds up.
When my mom was planning to remarry, she and her intended saved all their change in jars. It paid for the honeymoon. (Not at Disney World, though.)
I recently took a jar of pennies to the bank and came out with $8. I always pick up coins off the streets. Pennies are for the piggy bank, quarters are for laundry and nickles and dimes are saved for coffee purchases. Over the years I’ve found 20, 10, 5, 1 and even a 2 dollar bill. I always wash my hands and use hand sanitizer so I’m not that concerned about the germs.
In terms of charitable giving, I have $XX automatically deducted from my checking account to my charity of choice. It all adds up…
I often find pennies at the drive-through windows of fast food joints early in the morning. Get there before the workers, or they’ll just sweep up the pennies with the trash!
OK Pennies and change is important, and it makes a difference when I buy things and when I check my bills and statements, but its simply not worth it to pick up a single penny the act is not worth your time, anything else greater than a penny is fine by me, a nickel – 5 pennies all worth it, but for 1 penny you should put your time to better uses. Had you took the time you spent picking up and searching for coins over the year and volunteered at the food bank, my guess is that it would be more appreciated than the $50 you gave.
I don’t expect to be paid for every single second of my time, every single day. Thus I don’t put a price on how much it “cost” me to stop momentarily and pick up a coin.
I don’t “search” for the money per se. If I see it, I pick it up. The closest I’d come to searching would be making sure I walked past the Coinstar machine while shopping. Thus I can’t translate that time (a second here, a second there) into even one hour-long stint at the food bank.
Since I already donate (both to the food bank and other causes as noted in the piece), the street funds are just extra money to be given.
Everyone is free to do what works for him. That includes me, and it includes you. If the idea doesn’t appeal, ignore it.
Think about how much time you spend collecting the pennies, rolling them, writitng articals about them 🙂 Thats all time. Even the time to think about it. To me that all valuble, if it gives you joy the be my guest, but just like pennies, seconds add up! 🙂
Not to split hairs, but: I *am* paid to write about them.
You don’t have to “roll” coins anymore. Just take them to the bank in the jar; they now have coin counters. It only takes a few seconds. I guess if you no longer go to the bank – ever, it may not be worth it for you. That $8 was worth it for me though. Besides, it only takes a second to pick up a penny off the ground. That’s more money than what I had a second ago…
I can relate to picking up pennies. I remind my kids when they want to toss pennies, or not stop to pick them up…Hey, that’s about a week’s worth of interest on $50!
True. And depressing.
I was once just walking along, minding my own business, when a $20 bill literally came fluttering out of the sky. All I had to do was reach out and grab it. I looked up to try to figure out where it had come from – I was walking next to the mall and it seemed to have blown down from the roof – but the roof was just the roof – no parking or anything up there, so what the bill was doing up there in the first place is still beyond me. Very bizarre, couldn’t figure it out, and it’s not likely to happen again I suppose! I put the money straight into my bank account and put it towards paying off my vet bill, btw. Another $20 closer to being out of debt.
I love the idea of picking coins for charity!
When I was a kid, I picked up pennies. My kids do this now too. For me, I stopped doing this. I almost never run into any coins that are more than dime these days.
Donna I just love what you write. You are helpful and insightful. I stop by this site just to read your new articles.
here’s a great place to pick up change – The Gym! Just about every time I go, I see nickels, dimes and quarters just laying on the ground for the taking. See, people tend to wear shorts or those swishy pants and change falls right out of them. To add insult to injury, gyms are commonly frequented by people that are already pretty vain, so they wouldn’t be caught dead picking up change. It just lays there. I’m a married guy who keeps to myself, listens to music on my iphone and don’t socialize there. I couldn’t care less how I look when I go around scooping up change.
Give it a try!
A gym membership that pays for itself?
And do you consider these to be bonus deep-knee bends?
Whenever I pick up coins I look at the words “In God We Trust” and I smile. For me, it’s not just a coin, it’s a reminder. I guess you could say that picking up pennies is a religious experience for me, lol.
When my husband packed up our son from college #1 he found loose change scattered about the room. He picked up all the change and filled a ceramic jar with it and taped it up in strapping tape.
After kiddo moved out I took all the coins to our bank and deposited them in his savings account.
Our son isn’t making very much money as a teaching assistant and almost ran out of money this month. He has a full scholarship but many things aren’t covered like his health insurance, car expenses, etc.
That $90 cushion may yet save him the next time he “almost” runs out of money.
Was that $90 all in change? Wow! Or are you counting what was already in the account?
I want to help your son clean out his next room, please.
Young folks can be some of the worst about managing small amounts of money. My tenants were recent college grads and borrowed a old couch I had in the basement.
When they left, I checked under the cushions and found $30 in bills and change.
I’m stuck on the image of the articles on the farm, playing with each other! That is hilarious.
My editor said they’d be better off there, because they could run free. I have no reason to doubt that because editors never lie. Right, J.D.?
OT – at my yoga class we bring our own covers for the mat, so it’s more hygienic. 🙂
I not only pick up change, I pick up pencils, and get teased mercilessly by my co-workers for doing so. I pick them up anyways. (I work in a middle school. It is amazing how many pencils I find on the ground. It’s also amazing how many kids come to class and say they don’t have a pencil).
My best find was $200.00. Yes, $200.00. I was standing in line at a CVS one day and noticed some rolled bills on the floor. I thought it would be singles, but it wasn’t. I asked, but no one in line said they had dropped any money. Of course, I was careful NOT to mention the amount. Anyhow, I took the money to the police station. First shock: they were rather shocked that I was turning it in.
The police posted a notice about lost money in the newspaper. They also did not mention the amount. Second shock: they told me a number of people tried to claim it was their money, but could not come up with the correct amount. I mean, maybe one or two other people HAD lost some money that day, but I tend to doubt it.
No one claimed the money, and after a certain length of time (I think it was six monmths), the money was mine. I was very glad to have it, but sad the rightful owner never got it back. This happened at a time in my life when losing $200 would have been devastating to me, so I truly felt awful about someone losing that amount.
Bless your heart for being honest. Not everyone would have done that.
You are lucky. Here, the police keep the money if it isn’t claimed. Or jewelry, or whatever. The best thing to do in that case is run an ad in the paper, mentioning approximately where it was found with only the vaguest description. If it isn’t claimed, it is yours and you have a clean conscience.
I think it is good luck to pick up money. Is it bad luck not to?
We pick up pennies and call them “lucky” – but you’re supposed to give it away to be extra lucky. 😉
My saved change from all my purchases as well as what I find day to day adds up to between $500-1000 a year. I don’t know how much is from the street, but I’m not going to stop picking up change. If people think they are above it, or it’s unclean, then that’s less people in front of me bending over.
And there is one caveat: know the appropriate time and place. Picking up change before ordering your food is gross. Wait till you’re done. Also, don’t stop a conversation to pick up change. That’s really off-putting to some people, so better not to risk it. And do not take pennies from the loafers of old men in church. That’s also a nish-nish.
I usually pick up coins. I have been in that situation where, maybe not a penny, but definitely change could “break the bottom line”. I remember one time when I was in graduate school (paying my way debt-free, of course) and working part-time that I was less than $1 short in my checking account to pay a bill. I had sixty-some cents in my wallet which I took to the bank and deposited and then had enough to pay that bill.
Now that’s cutting it CLOSE…but you survived. Kudos for that.
I love this article because I too am a penny seeker. I can’t fathom walking buy without picking it up. Often I gift that penny to someone and it is completely transforms there day… hey its a penny but everyone counts. And my experience is that like things attract… so why not kick start the attraction!
On the other hand, my husband has lost his wallet and was fortunate that the person who found it returned it to him WITH THE CASH INTACT!
What a great article 🙂 One of my favourite memories is of finding a massive stash of money in a bag as a kid with my sister. Well it was maybe £20 in total, but that’s a lot for an 8 year old! Lasted for months as all I could buy without arousing my parents’ suspicion was penny sweets 😉
Good post. So many times paper bills get all the love. I mean, everyone would rather paper bills to coins right? Could you imagine trying to carry around $20 of pennies and dimes in your pockets?
It is easy to neglect to see how quickly coins can add up. My wife and I have an electronic coin counter we put loose change in. Every so often we take the coins in to be counted and exchanged for the “real thing”.
It is nothing for us to leave with $40 – $50 of loose change we have saved using that electronic coin machine. Gotta love it!
a penny is worth more than a penny now as price of copper has gones up. you are on the right track!
I give money to various charities year-round, whether or not I find money. Sometimes when I spy a coin I leave it, thinking someone who needs it more than I do will surely find it. Maybe I’ll take a tip from you Donna, and grab the coin. I’ll increase my donations by a set amount; I think 10% will be a target.
Let’s see…
* Coin return slot for self-checkout at grocery or drug store
* The candy boxes in front of the register at the drug store
* Any store with any overhang at the base of the counter
* Coin return slots of newspaper racks or just about any vending machine
* Anywhere near a parking meter in any weather, especially down by the curb
* The drawers of dressers and desks that people are throwing away
I look for lost coins whenever I’m out shopping or for a walk. It helps that I’m in an urban environment, so there are more people to drop money.
I figure this year I’ve already collected $80 in bills and coins. I make it easy to use the pennies by selecting the grocery store gift card option at CoinStar, since I’ll always need food and this eliminates the sorting fee.
And always check the cushions in the chair or couch in your hotel room. I’m always finding money in those. I’m surprised the housekeepers haven’t figured that one out yet.
Good for you! I still pick up all the change I see (assuming an oncoming car won’t strike me) but I add it to my savings jar that I roll and spend on having a great experience once a year. I put money aside every month for giving, maybe I’ll give adding my coin pick ups to the pot!
Back when I was a starving college student, I lived in a state that had 5 cent bottle deposits.
My boyfriend and I had been out camping along the river, at a spot where many rafters put in or pulled out. We had been there for 5 days and we were looking very rough around the edges by then.
The campsite was a honey hole of cans & bottles, the garbage cans were overflowing with them, and many more were packed in plastic bags that the rafters left behind. I went garbage diving for every last can I could get my hands on.
While hanging upside down in a garbage can with my boyfriend holding my legs, a couple hiked past us. I caught their eye as I came up for air, and smiled sheepishly at them, feeling embarrassed.
When we got to the last garbage can at the trail head, we found the couple had left some dollars on the lid, weighted down by a rock. I could have died, they probably thought we were in terrible need, and I sort of was. But I remember their sweet kindness to this day!
Hey, my haul for my effort that day was $21 in cans and cash. Back then, that was 2 tank fulls of gas for my little Honda!
Keep in mind that bending over to pick up coins on the ground burns extra calories! And how can that be a bad thing?
I have to admit, I typically leave pennies in the “Take a Penny, Leave a Penny” containers. Either that or I drop them in the tips jar or charity donation buckets. I find that I lose pennies otherwise. Probabaly my number one reason for not keeping pennies is that my car has a coin holder for quarters, dimes, and nickels. Thus, I have no where to put my pennies.
I’m superstitous about picking up pennies that are tail side up so I flip them over while they’re still on the ground then pick them up. Silly, I know.
Last weekend I was at the beach with my parents and we found over $3’s worth of coins that had washed back onto the beach years after Hurricane Ike. One of them was a silver Mercury dime from 1944. To the naysayer that says it’s not worth the second to do it-if you read up on it there are a ton of misprinted or double struck coins (ie the state quarters with extra leaves or ears of corn or In God We Rust)-the coin you find might be worth a fortune. Imagine how many people could eat supper or pay a debt from just bending over and picking up change.
I’m not afraid to pick up loose change. There are germs everywhere, and even inside of us anyway.
I found 40$ on my birthday! What a treat that was! It went for groceries along with other birthday money I received from my brothers, unfortunately. Of course I did double check if the owner was around before taking it. I’m not about to go knocking on doors though.