Cashed in coins today

[~bs]

My ex (who has a blog on this site) kept track of her habit of picking up change - I think she had over $300 in 4 years. It takes a second to pick up a penny (2 seconds for us olds) so picking up a penny is the equivalent of $36.00 per hour. I think she may be slowing down a bit - at one point she actually ran out into bus tunnel track to get a quarter and about 5 security guards showed up and chastized her - like really seriously, they threatened to arrest her.

I think the money has gone through so much devaluation over the years that people look at the change on the ground and can't see it being worth picking up. Back 20 years ago, that quarter on the ground had a lot more value, and people would not hesitate to stoop to pick it up. A quarter back then is probably equivalent to a dollar now. I think gas cost $1/gallon or less.

Regarding the tunnel track, if I saw her doing that, I'd honestly give her a quarter not to ...

[disneysteve]

He also is happy to bend over and pick up change on the ground that others throw away.

Same here. I never hesitate to pick up a coin on the ground. Very often, I have found where there is one coin, there are more. People rarely drop just one penny. They usually drop whatever was in their hand or pocket.

When I was a kid, I was always checking the coin returns of pay phones and vending machines wherever we went. I made a small fortune that way (in kid terms). Sometimes a vending machine would yield 50 cents or more which was a lot of money back then.

[debtfreeme]

coin machines

I do this once or twice a year when I head to where the main branch of my bank is located as they have a Coinstar machine that goes right into my savings account. When I did it last December I selected 10 $5 Starbucks cards for the Holiday season. And the rest, a little over $150, went into my savings account.

I pay cash for 90% of all my purchases so I get the change back and I drop the change into the buckets and the $1 bills into an envelope. Those $1 are part of the emergency money I keep at home for an emergency (natural or bank emergencies).

[Gailete]

My best find was driving down a street and seeing bills on the ground. I stopped jumped out and found $14 on the ground! Up to then my biggest find was $5 back in the days when $5 bought $50 worth of stuff now. I guess my son takes after me. I found a quarter the other day and did bend over for it, but I generally skip pennies as the bend over takes me a lot longer than 2 seconds these days! And you are right where there is one piece of money there is usually more. After the snow thaws out it is good to check around the parking meters for dropped coins that disappeared into the snow during the winter.