Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee + 5$ phyllo dough
Found money - $.20 (19 cents under a bench at a bus stop, penny on the road

Petunia asked, but I really don't have an equally gossipy spreadsheet that lists out failing credit unions as I do failing banks. From The Bank Implode-O-Meter, I do have a list of credit union conservatorships, along with failed credit unions. Just not blogged about as much.

And if you like things a tad less lurid, here's an index of NCUA board reports and decisions.

I don't know whether the lack of blogging and gossip is because credit unions are more conservative and therefore more stable, or whether credit unions are smaller and therefore its not as interesting to collect that info. (Mea culpa to thrifty ray for that dig. )

No matter bank or credit union, its hard to figure out where to put that change found on the sidewalk: $8.73 thus far - 223 pennies, 8 nickels, 41 dimes, 8 quarters. Enough, when put in an extra strong sock, to really hurt someone. Hmmm, there's an idea...

Found money
Friday - $0
Saturday - $0
Sunday - $0.22 (sidewalk corner, Goodwill floor, Goodwill parking lot, Safeway floor)

Lots of little food and holiday things.

Yesterday, DH and I went to a coffeehouse "mugging". One of the arson fires in the neighborhood destroyed a coffeehouse and the quirky mugs therein. Another neighborhood business offered to host the destroyed coffeehouse, but no mugs, so on Saturday we could get a free cup of coffee if we brought our own mug and donated it to the coffeehouse by leaving it in the bus tub.

As I walked past today, I saw my former tulip mug being used.

Fish trade is being worked out - the fish in question is Alaskan sockeye salmon, always good. We have club, rib-eye, beef sausage (hot dog size) and ground beef for trade. The hitch comes from the beef cooking skills of the fish trader; to be fair, club and rib-eye are the classic slap on the grill/cook-hot cook-quick cuts, which you need a little bit of confidence/experience to do. She's interested in getting advice next week, and I'm to get information about the ground beef, so we can better assess the fish to beef ratio. Compared to the duck trade, this is definitely more business. The fish for beef trade will go through, but probably in a couple of weeks.

I was at Goodwill today, seeing what change I can pick up from the floor . We needed a platter or two for Thanksgiving; our ceramic platter broke when I dropped and it hit the floor. At Goodwill I found two matching circular metal with white-enamel platters, each at $3. No pattern - I liked the clean look, the handles, large diameter and the total unlikelihood of them busting when dropped. The enamel part is the only issue - carving and slicing directly on them is counter-indicated.

As far as change finding is concerned, winter has come. With the rain, cold, and wind, change hunting feels like it has become an inside game.

Friday
Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee + $9 groceries
Found money - $0

Thursday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0

It would appear (maybe) that the arsonist has been caught. I looked at the picture, I'm sure that I passed him a couple of times on 85th as I walked home. We'll see whether it really was all him - one can't be too complacent because it might not be him or there might be a copy cat. Still, the mood around the neighborhood is a lot brighter.

Other things are looking up too. I always enjoy Friday the 13th because its going to be a payday. (We get paid on the 15th, or the Friday before, and paid on the last day of the month, or the Friday before).

I decided to talk a break from walking home tonight so I have a bit of energy to burn and don't totally feel like sticking my head in the refrigerator. Besides, this weekend is the weekend of cleaning house and preparing for T-day.

Took a break from hunting for change...actually I think it took a break from being lost. The weather has been freezing, so no one wanted to be out and about, and they kept their collective hands in their collective pockets.

Monday
Saving log - $0 tip box + $35 drp
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0.11 (parking meter, sidewalk)

Sunday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.88 coffee, bagel + $9 tea, apple, oatmeal bar, magazine
Found money - $0.18 (sidewalk, coffeeshop floor)

Found a 5 cent euro on Sunday. I figured I'd count it - after all, the exchange rate of the euro: dollar was 1.47:1. In other words, the 5 cent euro is worth a hair over 7 cents.

I-bond rates also came out today. The fixed rate is 0.3%. Better than 0.1%, but not enough to think about buying more. The variable rate, though, is much better on this 6 month go around - a bit over 3%.

Took a walk at noon and discovered an ING Direct/Shareholder branch on King Street. For laughs I went in and chatted with the receptionist, who told me that there were plans for it to turn into an ING cafe.

Final Jackie Handey thought: We are now back on "Standard" time, coming from "Daylight Saving" time. Count the number of months of each. Standard = November, December, January, February, 1-2wks March. Daylight = 2-3wks March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October. Since we are in Daylight Saving time for longer than Standard time, isn't Daylight Saving really Standard?

All in all, this picture sums up the conflicting signs on the economy. Its a real picture, fyi.

Sunday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $3.88 coffee, bagel + $16 conveyor belt sushi pigout
Found money - $0.11 (coffeehouse floor, gutter)

Saturday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $14 breakfast + $6 Halloween hat + $21 miscellaneous
Found money - $0.39 (sidewalk, gas station parking pad, carpet)

Friday
Saving log - $9 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0.04 (road, sidewalk, under picnic table)

Still having reasonable luck finding change despite the leaves on the ground. This weekend was a do or die time to "do" something for Halloween - I usually say I don't have a creative idea for Halloween in the two weeks before but then pull something off. This time, still nothing. I'm going with a funny hat (keeping the price tag on for the Minnie Pearl fans out there) and be done with it.

Finding the funny hat meant heading to the Goodwill, change hunting all the way. You might have noted that I expected, and was disappointed, that the Goodwill parking lot would be a rich source of found money, and I have mused about the mystery. When I walked into Goodwill, I found a cheap, funny, fuzzy hat, but also a partial resolution to the mystery: Goodwill's inside carpet was the rich source of found money. Goodwill was extremely busy with shoppers; they made a mess of the racks and floors; and the only person who was watching the floor was me. At first blush, if people drop change in response to distractions, the Goodwill store is a primo study site to explore. But for now - easy dime and five pennies. With the other change found in other spots - Seattle has provided me with $6.54 since mid-July.

Later at the Fred Meyer, I bought another item for the months to come: a clip-on, five-pattern, 1/2 mile visible bright flashing pedestrian light. $6, but when I walk home in December, that car is gonna see me.

The other delight I've seen at Fred Meyer are the definite price reductions for food. For example, I needed some luna/clif bars for breakfast - last year at this time they went, cheapest, @ $0.99/bar. Now - $0.79/bar. I've now been seeing produce for under $1.00/lb and canned tuna at $0.65/6 oz can. I've not kept up my price book for the last couple of years (too depressing). I might restart it now.

A bit of our neighborhood news made even some of the national news (at least I heard that it made the morning ABC news). Our neighborhood lost 4 businesses Friday to fire - 2 places I ate at semi-regularly, 1 I drank coffee at every so often. The phinneywood blog has the fire pictures. Arson investigation is ongoing. Mine is from the back. That cooked area at the top is where the roof line was.

Monday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0.11 (sidewalk, bus stop)

Sunday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $3.88 bagel, coffee + $6 croissant, coffee + $2.50 financial paper
Found money - $0.12 (sidewalk, road)

Well, I took a look at the change-finding blogs around. ZZZZZ. However, most find about $25 - $30 in a year, along with a bill or two. In my 90 days of change hunting, I've found $5.48, or about 6 cents/day. With my lack of bill finding skills, that pace puts me a bit under, coming in at $21 for the year.

In the last 90 days I've found 123 pennies, 4 nickels, 23 dimes, 7 quarters. Lately I've had a string of 17 days straight where I've found a coin. To find money, you do have to be out and about, walking around. Some days change appears within minutes; others, I'm looking hard; for 31 days out of the 90, I didn't find any. My walking habits are very routine, it really is a case of being alertly relaxed.

I've noticed in my routine walks some hot spots. Most bus stops are hot spots, some much hotter than others. The gutter, about 2-10 inches from the sidewalk, is another great place especially along the patches of road contiguous with the bus stop. One can imagine the bus glides in, opens the door, people leave, one or two drop a coin or two, coins land in the road. Often the coins are so beat up that you know it took a rare person to stop and pick them up. (Its safe - look for oncoming traffic, put a foot in the road when the traffic eases, and pick up your profit.) Edges of all sorts - floor overhangs, counter edging, shadowed spots, edges between sidewalk/street appliance (eg wastebasket, parking meter, still alive payphone), sidewalk/grass and sidewalk/road tend to be very fruitful.

The interesting thing, though, are those hot spots. I cut through three parking lots on one of my routes - Greenwood Market, Fred Meyer, the Taproot Theater. Fred Meyer is the hot parking lot, the others - meh. I shop at both the Greenwood Market and Safeway. I never found any money on the Greenwood Market floor, while the Safeway floor can be a veritable ATM. I wonder why the hot spot - is it just more foot traffic (paying in cash), different lighting, ambient noise levels, an environment of distraction?

Tuesday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $.80 coffee, bagel (finished up a gift card) + $13 grocery & misc shopping + $2 large iced tea + $10 sushi lunch
Found money - $0.26 (sidewalks, Safeway)

Monday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee + $7 curry lunch
Found money - $0.03 (sidewalks)

Took a day off today and I just kicked around. I bought a breakfast and coffee and finished off a gift card, so my meal only cost 80 cents. I told the cashier that I hoped she didn't mind a batch of dimes I found on the street! She was as amazed as I was - so many dimes. I joked that the obesity epidemic will only improve my odds - soon no one will be able to touch their toes. ... This before I found two dimes today.

Found a screaming good deal at the Pike Market today - 4 cukes for $1, so I bought two. After gym and the late lunch I popped into a QFC in the sushi lunch neighborhood, thinking that I would pick up some salad for the cukes. I looked at the prices and left the store. Despite picking up sidewalk change for laughs, I have my pride.

One my stocks has now been bought by another company. As part of the buyout, I get 1.35 shares of the other company, which also pays a dividend. Last I checked, they didn't have a formal Drp, so I suspect I will get dividend checks. But one never knows, things can change. Time to watch the mail to see who the new transfer agent is.

Sunday
Saving log - $125 moved from checking to savings
Spending log - $4 bagel, coffee + $2.76 garbanzo beans, apple
Found money - $0.23 (various sidewalks, Safeway floor)

Another great day for finding change - again, I found two dimes, one on a residential sidewalk, a place where I assumed I would find nothing. (the other was on the Safeway floor, a place nearly as good as an ATM) I don't understand why I've been finding so many coins these days. Dimes especially. Perhaps with the weather change, it changes everyone's wardrobe, and everyone has to be re-introduced to their jacket pockets.

I also found a great deal on canned garbanzo beans at the normally pricey organic food coop - $.89/can. Usually $1/can has been the low price over the winter and spring. October seems to be the bridge month for some food deals - its a good time to prepare for the deals of November.

Got off my duff and planted some lettuce for the winter/fall harvest, and watched my blueberry plants' leaves turn a gorgeous flame red.

Saturday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $12 coffee, breakfast + $28 groceries
Found money - $0.51 (sidewalk, road, parking lot, bus stop, Coinstar machine)

Friday
Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0.10 (parking meter, sidewalk)

No dice on the Washington unclaimed property search, so I guess I have to take potluck amongst the really unclaimed coins along my walk. I walked along 15th Ave NW to about 55th - a fairly rich source, including a quarter so beat up that you couldn't really tell it was a quarter except for the weight and parts of the ridge. It will be fun trying to get the bank to take it. And yesterday I found 8 pennies by the parking meter. Since I've been keeping track of how much and where I find change, I've found $4.28 in just under 3 months.

I set up the ability to electronically transfer money to buy stock for my newest Drp stock - Sysco. All the other stocks that I hold as Drps seem pricey. It sounds very strange to others, but I'm really hoping for another serious drop in stocks so I can buy more of what I like.

Monday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0.02 (bus floor) + $0.04 (sidewalks) + $0.02 (Safeway floor)

Sunday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $3.88 coffee, bagel + $20 groceries
Found money - $0.01 (sidewalk) + $0.01 (road)

Found eight cents the hard way - a few pennies here and there. Soon fall will come, the leaves making finding pennies extremely difficult, and the dark making finding silver difficult too.

Three months ago I learned a shocker: the bulk bin usually is not the best price for the staples. I tested it out yesterday afternoon with plain ol' brown rice. I wanted two pounds - $1.99/lb in the bin ($3.98), $2.49 for a 2 lb plastic bag on the shelf... and not an eye-level shelf either, the lowest one.

Such are the tricks of the grocery man.

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee + $3 office supplies + $9 groceries
Found money - $0.03 (sidewalk three different places) + $0.20 (under Coinstar machine)

The barter for the duck and the fish is beginning - in package units, to trade we have 10 ground beef, 4 soup bone, 2 t-bone, 1 back rib, 1 chuck, 2 sirloin, 1 flank, and multiple links of german sausage. We've reserved a few pieces for ourselves.

The Duvall friends, the other end of the muscovy duck trade, are going to be sending at least 8 of their ducks to "freezer camp" (euphemism theirs) starting this weekend. They're thinking about the chuck, sirloin, and t-bone, so I weigh my pieces, they weigh their cleaned duck carcasses, and we pound for pound trade.

Got the results of my mammogram back: normal.

Not much else - discovered that the Coinstar machine can be a rich source of change. Not surprising - easy to imagine a bit of change dropping out of the bin, and if you are doing this with the iPod on, you wouldn't hear the ching.

This weekend is the Greek festival, I saved to stock up on olive oil, feta, tarama, olives, and maybe a bit of wine. Saturday is also national free museum day, sponsored by the Smithsonian. Tough choice.

Tuesday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $27 groceries
Found money - $0.01 (vending machine near Safeway)

Monday
Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $0
Found money - $0.01 (bus floor)

Officially, its been two months plus two days of writing down how much money I find and where I find it.

So far, I've found $2.55, found as 50 pennies, 3 nickels, 9 dimes, 4 quarters. I'm hoping for a bill someday! The penny amounts are not too surprising - when most people say that they won't pick up change they mean a penny. I'm not sure what I'm surprised at more - that I found so few nickels or so many dimes. Dimes more maybe - they are more worthy to pick up. Or is it that a dime is hard to see?

I've been finding change in the usual places - parking lots, road, sidewalk, by wastebaskets, phone booths, buses, under benches and vending machines, close to cars. Disneysteve's rule of looking for more change happens often enough so that you should definitely look ... as long as you're bent over. I was a bit surprised that I can spot change from the bus as long as its stopped. Certainly it adds a bit of flavor to the scenery.

It works out to about 4 cents/ day. There were 29 days where I found no change; there was 1 day where I found 46 cents. In other words, at least in Seattle, you're not going to find enough change to fund anything grandiose. (who are these people who find thousands in change?) What I've been doing with my change is funding goodwill amongst the tip jars in town. Coin rescue at its finest.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $4.50 coffee, chocolate croissant + $1.75 iced coffee
Found money - $0.10 (under a bench)

Sad, in a sense. I spotted the dime under the bench from the bus, so I got off the bus at the next block and walked over to pick it up. Kind of funny that I can even spot change from the bus - but the bus has to be stopped.

Today I participated in a day of service - I was part of a project helping a non-profit by stuffing a jump rope (in a plastic bag) into another plastic bag and sealing the bag with a label. Repeat 4500 times. The 15 of us made for efficient work - we got done in about 5 hrs. The jump ropes will be given to every kindergarten kid enrolled in the Seattle school district. So if we didn't get the label on perfectly, well, no 5 year old would notice. The non-profit in question is working on lessening childhood obesity.

Monday
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee + $3.29 forks
Found money - $0.01 (chiropractor's office) + $0.01 (Goodwill parking lot) + $0.01 (underneath Safeway vending machine)

Sunday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.90 bagel (free coffee) + $2.90 large iced tea, apple
Found money - $0.02 (floor of Pete's coffee)

Made a nickel the hard way these last two days! Would have thought that the Goodwill parking lot was prime for change finding: very busy, cash business, kids, people shifting money from hand to pocket and leaving in a hurry. I found a penny, was expecting to find much more.

I went to Goodwill again to buy forks. Got 15 for $3. Last April, several co workers complained that the temp staff stole all the forks. I bought 8 forks at Goodwill after the temp staff left. Opened the work silverware drawer in the last few days: one fork. Look in the mirror, thieves. Quit blaming others.

BIL and DH's sister have firmly decided to visit the Oshkosh EAA next year in 2010. "If not now, then when?". I emailed them and invited them to stay at the farmette, and sister emailed them and invited them to the farmette. We'll see. Just a little warning: if you decide not to attend EAA for a day or two, sister will work you in the garden. We joked that we were in a re-education camp.

Sister's birthday yesterday. She got her b-day gift from us but she chided DH: if you are going to use popcorn as a packing material, don't use oil! She and the neighbor at the farmette are getting tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, and squash, squash, squash. She's beginning to be a regular at the Tuesday farmer's market and picked up another customer near the farmette, losing a non-payer in Milwaukee. I suspect that that's the benefit of the farmer's market - advertising to pick up weekly customers.

Yesterday I got my library visit in before the Seattle libraries furloughed for the week.

Kitty is settling in even more. Ate more dry food (at least she's cheap, sister said), and after she begged a little from my plate (I have SUCKER tattooed in cat on my forehead), played for a few minutes with the mouse on a stick, totally DESTROYED the little plastic bag containing catnip that I put on my dresser, explored the kitchen and the tops of the washer and dryer, tolerated a bit of brushing, wants to snuggle on the bad as soon as the lights are down. In other words, a full day, and not that shy. She does have an unusual habit - she is quite the tail swisher when you pet her and you think you better stop otherwise you'll get a claw in your hand...but she doesn't growl or attack. Tail swishing must mean general excitement. Think I will call her V.I.

Tuesday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0

Wednesday
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0.01 (road on 1st/Yesler)

The penny I found was even one of those new fangled Lincoln/Lincoln penny. One side was the Lincoln profile, in the other, he's sitting on a rail reading a book. I found the penny on the road, so rail splitter Lincoln had a scar on his head and dings along his legs.

Philosophically, do I have a double headed coin, or does Lincoln sitting on his bum count as a tail?

No finding change on the street since Wednesday - a 5 day drought. So much for publishing my tricks of the trade.

Took DH out for a special dinner - one of the highest end restaurants in Seattle. All told, it was $280. But it was worth it - the drinks, the food, the service and the view were magical. I've never been there, and DH was there 33 years ago. And if you think of it as 28 lunches not bought, I've saved for it already. Just not every weekend.

Down one pound and am at 174. Walked yesterday and jogged today. 47 min, but considering that I didn't jog for the last two weeks due to the heat, well, it could be worse.

Mailed my ballot in, mailed my stock proxy in (one of my stocks is planning on merging with another. Instead of 15 shares of x, after the merger I will get 20 shares of y). I also mailed in another $300 into SYY.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.64 coffee + $3 tomatoes, peaches + $1.80 coffee
Found money - $0.27 (road, 2 ft from traffic island) + $0.01 (floor of Safeway)

I learned a very important fact today.

Not that coffee costs 16 cents less in my neighborhood than it does downtown; and not that I can spot 2 pennies and a quarter on the road from my bus seat, stop at the next stop and walk to the change and pick it up. (I'm committed to coin rescue...or perhaps I should just be committed.)

Nope, I learned these days that the bigger brick & mortar banks (like JP Morgan Chased) will charge you a $3 fee for the privilege of moving money to an internet-based bank like ING. The reason why I read it and did not experience it first hand was that I, by shear luck, hit upon the right way to transfer. Always, always, always get ING to pull out the money from the brick & mortar bank. Never tell the brick & mortar bank to push it out. $3 ain't that much - or its 9 weeks of change hunting.

I also learned that my secret downtown Post Office office is in danger of being shut down. The list. In Seattle, you can wait in line for a couple hours at the gigantic feedlot at 3rd and Union site, or you can go to the little, intimate, general store PO in the Old Federal Building. Which would you pick? Time to let the secret out and mail my Drp payment from there and sign the list.

Sunday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $3.88 coffee, bagel +$1 peach
Found money - $0.01 (corner curb 3rd/Pike) + $0.01 (bus stop) + $0.02 (bus floor)

Pennies from heaven today, so I got a dollar's worth of change.

Monday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $0
Found money - $0.01 (sidewalk in front of coffeehouse)

Well, I've been relatively lucky in finding change - it only took me 19 days to find a bucks' worth, that with 4 days of no luck. I rarely find quarters at all, not to mention finding two. Its like getting paid to jog, walk, and touch my toes.

This current stock market rally is freaking me out a bit. My net worth is now above what it was June 2008, before the Great Fiscal Implosion.

Thursday
Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.87 iced coffee + $10 groceries (apple, work breakfast bars)
Found money - $0.01 (next to the last working payphone in the neighborhood)

Friday
Saving log - $7 tip box
Spending log - $20 beer, dinner for date night
Found money - $0.05 (middle of quiet street)

Cooled off by about 15 degrees, and I am very much looking forward to being able to sleep the sleep of the cool and blessed.

Am having quite a bit of fun hunting change and writing down where I find it. It is a sad state of affairs that I can usually find more change (at this pace, over $1/month) on the sidewalk than what I earn in a couple of my accounts - its a good motivator to find good homes for all of my money ... and to define what a bad home is.

Looked at my Drp stocks today, and am slightly bummed that they are all very much up. I was hoping for a few more months of buying stocks on the cheap. I also did a calculation of my net worth and found that I am within $2K of getting back to my high in June 2008, before the Great Fiscal Crash truly began.

Sunday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.88 coffee, bagel + $4 iced tea, croissant
Found money - $0

Monday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.75 coffee, pastry + $22 groceries
Found money - $0.11 (Fred Meyer parking lot, close in) + $0.05 (gravel near parked cars)

Its hot. I'm not spending much money. Not cooking. Didn't jog on Sunday. Suspect that I'm finding change because nobody wants to take the time to bend down in this heat. More for me! Over and out.

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 half 'n half
Found money - $0.25 (in gutter along curve, half buried in disintegrating leaves)

Tonight I found the rustiest quarter ever. When I saw it next to the curb on the road it was just a metal curve and I thought it was a rusted bottle cap. Nope - 1978 quarter. Surprise 1.

I renewed my prepaid cell phone a couple of days ago - my leftover minutes rolled over which was sweet. However in the last few days I've gotten a couple of calls from a collection agency. I have no debt, so they are not mine; I suspect they're coming from the previous owner of the phone number. Half buried surprise 2.

Question is: do I call them and tell them, or ignore them?

Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $14 dim sum lunch + $4 grocery
Found money - $0.04 (glass countertop at work)

You might have noticed the found money line that I've added in the last two weeks or so. I thought it would be fun and useful to see where and how much I find.

Today I found change in an odd place. I rarely find any at work, and I really don't like to find any at work. Did someone actually lose the money, or misplace it? Four pennies isn't a big deal to me, but these days you never know. In addition, I found it on top of a cabinet at waist level, non-floor money, so feels like not fair game ... at least compared to sidewalk money.

But I found it in on a glass cabinet in a public place and found at 5:30 pm, when most everybody was long gone.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $0

And I even found .03 on my commute home. One more day and its payday.

The Sunday before it so Seattle-y hot that I didn't even jog the 3 mi. Yesterday it was considerably cooler, even sprinkled at times. I jogged the 3 mi in 47 min 50 sec. My goal was to finish, but since my heart rate didn't go much above 135 bpm, next week my goal is to get my heart rate to the 140s and see how fast that is.

Found this article in Newsweek tonight and it made me laugh in places. My several points:
1. You are not rich, no matter how much you earn, if you don't save anything. You are only living high.

2. The real rich don't buy that much stuff. Oh for sure, some in the later generations do as they convert from being rich to "living high", but when I was in college there was that really, really rich college kid living like a church mouse because that's what dad and grand-dad did. Anyway, the real rich buy money (stocks, bonds, companies) rather than stuff. That's investing in a nutshell.

3. Ahem. This article could have been written in 1920, 1923, 1929 (of course), 1937, 1948, 1953, 1957, 1973, 1981, 1990 ... you get the idea - any other recession.

4. I would make the case that to the "living high" set this recession/depression is different. To the real rich, who were careful on the way up, are probably equally careful on the way down.

...just under the wire; today was the last day. Found a dime on the curb this morning.

I had a "joke" goal to find more spare change than what my T-bill would earn that month.

T-bill interest = .31 cents

This month, I found = .39 cents
(.05 + .11 + .01 + .02 + .10 + .10)

Saturday
Saving log - $.11
Spending log - $14 brunch + $7 groceries

Friday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $9 lunch + $50 dinner for 2

Yesterday DH and I hit a just opened brewpub right next to our coffeehouse. Not bad for a beer, but it was very busy, proving, in part, that beer is nearly recession proof. After the beer (the pub really didn't have a lot of food choices), we walked past a 5 table Greek restaurant, and got the very last table. DH had the lamb, I had the chicken, and the price above included a glass of wine and tip.

Today I worked off a bit of the beer and Greek chicken by walking from work to home - about 7 miles.

During the walk, I found a dime and a penny. I am challenging myself to find .31 in change in 4 weeks ... therefore doubling what I earned in interest on my T-bill that month. With the nickel from last week -
.26 - .11 = .15 left to go.

Every so often the question comes up. Do you pick up change from the street?

And the pros and cons come up which boil down to this. Pro: the money's risk free; con: my time is precious, and by G*d, I'm not the type of person who picks up pennies from the street. In case you couldn't tell by the subject line, I'm a pro change picker upper. I know I won't convert a con change picker upper people but I do want to provide a little food for thought.

First of all, you have to be in the right position to even pick up change from the street. If you are already in the right position, you're already un-American. You can't be in a car. You have to be on a sidewalk or in a lobby, walking. You can't be on a cellphone. You shouldn't be pacing and staring off into middle distance, listening. You have to be on a sidewalk, & basically unproductive - not doing deals, not selling something, not ordering someone around. If you're just walking, so much for your time being precious; might just as well train your eye searching for little metal circles.

Second of all, do you pick up change in other aspects of your life? Change that collects in the bottom of the washer/dryer when it fell out of your pants? You pick that up. Change on the carpet of your car that you tossed in your hurry pulling out of the drive thru? You'll pick that up, sure, especially if there's a toll involved. Change that you sucked up in the vacuum bag? Nasty, but you'd rescue it. Change between the couch cushions? You'd pick that up. Matter of fact, isn't that the first place you look for pizza and laundry money?

Here's a news flash. Picking up change from any of those sources, some even nastier than the sidewalk, doesn't change your net worth one iota. Its money you already have that you've moved into your pants pocket from an alternate pocket. Sidewalk change is new money.

Lastly, there's the I-make x-dollars-per-second-its-not-worth-it argument. That only works if your pay is docked when you pick up change. Otherwise, if you find change at night or on the weekend, your pay that hour is $0. Picking up the coin means your pay is $0 plus coin. If you find the coin during lunch and you are making a salary, you pay that hour is $salary plus coin. Think of it as a tip for being alert.

I don't have any reason to convert a non-change picker upper into a change picker upper. Why make competition? Change that you pick up means change I won't. All I ask of you is this: if you see sidewalk money, point it out to me. I'll pick it up.

Expense check from work came $1,223.88. It includes the Nashville junket and the bowling awards. There apparently were no problems with either. YAY! It goes directly to the credit card, which along with what I would put in normally per month ($500), means that I will be only about $200 away from clearing it, even with the trainer. I felt the expense check burning a hole in my wallet, so I ran a special errand to deposit it in my bank.

On my way back, I picked up two pennies on the sidewalk right next to my bank. A guy on the street gave me the fish-eye for stopping to pick up the change.

"I run a coin rescue," I said.

Hey, if you saw an cute little kitty (forgive me kashi), you stop to rescue it, right? And that would cost money. Why not rescue a poor penny, which will increase your net worth by a few hundredths of a percent? Liberate the poor pennies from the chilly sidewalk and get them where they belong - straight into the tip jars and leave a penny trays of the world.