PRACTICAL PARSIMONY: Finding money in Coinstar and elsewhere

Friday, July 8, 2011

Finding money in Coinstar and elsewhere

found money

I had looked at the Coinstar machines before, looking for the rejected coins. I think I had found a penny. Okay, it is a penny and was not rejected. After reading Donna Freedman's post about her Coinstar find, I decided to try again. In case you don't know about this, Coinstar machines count coins and charged 9% for their trouble.

Earlier in the week--nothing; tonight--tada. I think there was 87 97 cents of the stickiest coins I ever felt! But, like a good soldier, I ignored the urge to gag and let them be, pried them from the little cup, and held them in my hand until I got a produce bag and dropped them in. Actually, they were so sticky, they would not drop from my hand. Yes, I used a plastic bag! Then, I swung back to the cart wipes to clean up and remove any germs.

This week I found a dime on the ground.

In change, I found a 1947 nickel in fine condition, but cannot find it now. It is still worth a nickel, but there is always the future.

If I found ~~97 cents~~ $1.07 (counted wrong) every week for a year, that would be ~~$50.44~~ $52.04 cents more in pocket. I don't find that much each week.

Your turn
Have you ever found money in the Coinstar machine? Do you find change and pick it up? Is it put in a special place for a special purpose?

7 comments:

DmarieJuly 8, 2011 at 1:40 PM
wow, love it!! I found a quarter one day last week, a penny another and two pennies yesterday...if I keep this up, I'll be rich! ;) And yes, unless there are serious gag reflex issues over the location, I always pick up coins. Haven't found any in a coinstar yet, but thanks to this post, I have renewed hope!
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LindaJuly 8, 2011 at 2:50 PM
That's the way I felt about Donna Freedman's blog post! Once I counted the coins, clean and unstuck, there was actually 87 cents...richer still.
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LindaJuly 8, 2011 at 2:55 PM
97 cents
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AnonymousJuly 9, 2011 at 8:44 PM
I've actually never looked, but I think I will definitely start doing so now!
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AnonymousJuly 10, 2011 at 8:59 AM
My husband and I have been picking up change for years. We keep track of how much we find each year. Our best year was about $64.00. One hot spot for change is do it yourself car washes. People throw change on the ground or get change out for the machine and forget to take it with them.
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LindaJuly 10, 2011 at 10:51 PM
Anon, I keep saying I will tack my finds, but never seem to get it done properly or for very long. Now, I may cruise the car washes...lol. Thanks for the comment and a good suggestion.
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LindaJuly 10, 2011 at 11:00 PM
track
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Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.

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The Cast

Fancy is my favorite hen. She is one of the three youngest hens I adopted. Because she is so gentle and friendly, she may be the one I rescued when she was being pecked to death after she could no longer stand. She got to live in the house in a box. Sometimes, I let her sit in my lap while she was convalescing. Now, she comes to sit in the swing with me, cuddling up to my body like a cat or dog. She died in February 2012.

Fancy follows me begging, complaining, needing me to do for her. She talks to me in various voices. She allows me to pick her up and carry her. When she became an adult, her head was a darker red and her body was light brown. Around her neck were tips of black feathers. It appeared she had a necklace of jet around her neck. When I showed this characteristic to a friend, he said, "Oh, you have fancy chickens and plain chickens."

Chessie has a broken toe. I broke it! She had a habit of jumping really high and almost sticking. A raccoon ate her in October 2009.

Thelma is the blonde. She is also the largest hen and the alpha hen. I suspect the gigantic eggs are from her. She often squats and presents herself to me. She is top hen, but I suspect she knows she had better be deferent to top feeder of the flock--me.

Louise is the auburn-feathered hen. She looks like the true Rhode Island Reds in pictures. She is almost as large as Thelma. Some days I suspect she is trying to be top chicken. When I got Pepper, I found out Louise is the Alpha hen.

Pepper came here from the same home as the first four. We were discussing putting red pepper on their food, wondering if it really would increase egg production. Pepper is the only name we agreed on. She is terrorized each day by Louise. Even after the worst was over, she was and is still filled with terror and very wary.

Linda is owned by four hens. They allow her to fetch for them. She loves them dearly, so she allows them to boss her around. Linda comes out in the rain to perform chores for them and make sure they have food and water. She begs scraps from all sorts of places to make sure they have fresh fruits and vegetables.

Parsimony is not a vegetable

Parsimony is extreme care in spending money. Stick around and learn about my random thoughts on accomplishing goals economically--dumpster diving aka safari, gleaning, do-it-yourself, sewing tips, recipes, and whatever is happening in my life.

Okay so maybe "parsimony" is not your thing. How about thrift, frugality or just plain saving money? I try not to go the tightwad route as that seems to imply others will suffer from my habits.

Some of my not-spending habits have very much been a part of my lifelong habits. Other habits are newly acquired and are an extension of my lifelong not-spending habits.

I am very imaginative when it comes to substituting or making instead of buying. I will tell you about making a heater for the chickens' water. Not one dime was spent since I had everything I needed right in my basement.

Practicality must rear its head alongside parsimony. For example, I will use the dryer in bad weather or because of allergies in the spring. But, I will not wash clothes in a tub as long as I have a washing machine or can find one.

You may hear more about my four Rhode Island Red hens than you care to hear. They lay delicious brown eggs.

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Friday, July 8, 2011

Finding money in Coinstar and elsewhere

7 comments: