The Disposable Penny – How Much Are You Leaving on the Table?
August 29, 2008 by Katelyn Thomas
Filed under save-money
Someone dropped a penny on my table today and said, “Here. I don’t want this.” It made me think about pennies and how careless people are with them. Yes, a single penny doesn’t buy much, but a hundred of them will buy an Arizona sweet tea at the grocery store or an entire bottle of yellow mustard. In fact, next week a hundred pennies will buy me two Arizona sweet teas at Walgreens.
Even if I didn’t put them in a savings account to earn interest, if I saved a penny a day for twenty years, I’d have 7,300 pennies. That’s $73 that I could use to buy groceries for almost two weeks. (I spend $40 a week on groceries unless I’m doing a stock up trip where I’m buying toothpaste for a year or something.)
If just five people who don’t want their pennies give them to me each day, I’ll have $365 in twenty years and all it will have cost me is a few moments to chunk the pennies in a change jar. (I don’t even have to count and wrap them to be able to cash them in at the bank because I have someone who says rolling cash is soothing in the family!) So, if you want to toss your pennies on my table, please feel free.
Photo by Nathan Bauer
I am new to your site and am loving it…would you please share how you keep groceries at $40 a week. I can do around $70 a week with two young kids and 2 adults. I would love to reduce it so any advice/suggestions would be appreciated!!!Thanks for all your hard work!
You can’t have my pennies–I will stop to pick up pennies on the ground (unless they’re too dirty/messy to put in a pocket.)
I love throwing change into a jar and then using that money for special treats/Christmas shopping.