i have been thinking about this recently...more specifically this weekend...
over the past few days, i have been monitoring my bank accounts 2-3 times a day waiting to see which debits cleared and which ones are yet to clear... all the while trying to guage how long it will be before other debits reach the bank... the race is on - who will reach the bank first: my debits or my deposits... not liking this position, i liquidated some stocks and channeled the funds into my checking account... i hated having to do that, but i needed immediate relief...
then i really sat and pondered about how people assign worth to money - when is a penny worth more or less than a penny?... i concluded they do so based on several factors...
there are times when a penny is less than a penny... examples
1. when pennies are abundant... during these times i will put it in the penny jar at the neighborhood store after a purchase... or don't pay a lot of attention to where i left it... i may even step off and leave it if it falls from my hand... on a larger scale, my trips to the cd/dvd store become more frequent... i still remain frugal by buying only used cds/dvds unless the new ones are really discounted, but the frequent spendings add up... in these cases, it seems i have assigned a lower worth to the penny... it's no big deal - there are more where those came from... i suspect there are others like me...
2. when you don't have to work for it... this holds true for some (i exempt myself from this category because rarely do i never have to work for my pennies)... this is the time when the tax refund, an inheritance or lottery or gambling winning goes to splurging... i have seen people spend their tax refund before they get it... they think that it is "free" or "extra" money... however, these same people are much more cautious with their paychecks...
what about when a penny is worth more than a penny?
1. when you are broke like i have been recently... you no longer leave your pennies behind and you double check your change to make sure you get every penny that is due... every penny you find laying around the house or elsewhere has an increased worth... it is during this time that you pull out the ashtray of your vehicle and lift the cushions of the sofa to find pennies... remember the ones that fell from your pocket in the laundry room?... go check to see if they are there... what about the ones at the laundromat?... if only you had picked up that quarter, you could now afford $2.00 worth of gas as opposed to only $1.75 (that $0.25 in extra gas is worth about a day's worth of driving - it would have gotten you much closer to pay day)...
2. when you have to work for it... how likely are you to reconsider that purchase if you are using "free/extra" money as opposed to using your paycheck?... barring financial irresponsibility, how likely are you to splurge and blow your paycheck versus blowing a lottery/gambling win?... if my thoughts are correct, i believe you are less likely to blow your paycheck... the pennies from your hard work and effort seem to be worth more than the ones "given" to you...
isn't it interesting how we tend to assign varying worth to money?...
being broke now, i started assigning worths to my pennies...they are worth a whole lot more than their face value... i started hunting for pennies and then i remembered a treasure chest of riches under my bed... this treasure chest is a plastic container that holds all kinds of "pennies" (quarters, dollar coins, nickels and dimes)... these are pennies i remove from my pockets daily (the ones that make it to my pockets - i hate coins in my pockets)... they normally sit on top of a furniture or the washing machine until i dump them in this chest... i decided to deposit these pennies and was surprised to find that they totaled $150.72 (this after being raided by my niece and mother, and me removing $45.00 in dollar coins and quarters - hey, i have to prepare for $45.00 of emergencies, okay)...
based on the worth i assigned to those pennies, my total deposit was $1507.20... yes, each penny was worth that much relief to me... after making the deposit, i smiled as i walked out the bank feeling better about my situation...
so what is a penny worth?... while it depends on how broke you are, it will never be worth less than it's face value... maybe more, but never less...
and a penny saved, can potentially become more than a penny earned...
p.s... the images are my actual container...but picture was not taken at home.... i have no carpet at home...
4 comments:
What you say? A penny saved is 10 pennies earned? Throwing change in the change jar when you don't need it is keeping your house in order...but when you need money that jar is your savings account. We will roll coins like we are closing a candy shop and when in dire need, we will even sacrifice a percentage of those pennies to use the CoinStar machine at the grocery store.
Hey a penny is a penny. It is certainly worth something! And a whole lot of pennies equal a whole lot of somethings!
One of my favorite penny-spending things to do is to buy used CDs. Sometimes I like browsing stores. Sometimes I like browsing online. I even found a site that offers free shipping on used CDs.
Happy pinching!
Yeah, I've been in that which-one-will-hit-the-checking-account-first mode, and it's NOT fun.
But I think I'm one of the few people left who's always thought pennies to be sooo valuable. When I was back in school my sorority used to go door to door in the dorms collecting pennies. We called it Pennies for the Poor. $857 later, I thought how lucrative it could be to go around just asking people for their pennies. But I didn't have the patience to count them, and roll them...
I think that's why people just disregard the penny - it's the hassle of getting it converted into larger denominations.
the power of the penny is undisputable...
i have found a bank with a coin machine that will not charge you a "convenience fee" for using the machine - if you have an account with them...i don't but i know someone trusty that does - my momma...lol
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