Will you Stoop to Pick up a Penny?

[keegs]

If I see a penny I pick it up ...If I see silver...I usually take the added step of looking around to see if there's more.

[Koolau]

Sometimes I'll pick up a penny and sometimes not. DW ALWAYS picks up a penny.

We both pick up a couple dollars worth of "Hawaiian" nickels each month. Thats a soda can or bottle since we have the "HI FIVE" here (5 cents a can/bottle for "disposable" drink containers.) Full disclosure: You pay $.06 but only get back $.05. DW says if I don't stop drinking diet sodas, we'll go broke on the deal. I tell her we could make our fortune dumpster diving for HI nickels. She ain't buying it.

Back when we were frequent tourists here, it wasn't worth trying to find a site to get our nickels cashed in. So, on our last day, we'd take a plastic bag full of soda cans/bottles down to Waikiki Beach and leave them in one of the shelters where the house-challenged hang out. The cans were picked up about the time they hit the sand. I've seen folks pushing grocery carts overflowing with bags of crushed HI nickels. Could easily be several hundred dollars in a load.

One trick we learned: If you take back a few cans, they count them and give you $.05 each. But for a large number, they go by weight. Apparently, they pay according to some "standard" per/pound equivalency which turns out to be a better deal for us. Don't know that we quite get back our extra penny a can, but it's getting close. (No, we don't put sand in the bottoms of the cans - but it's an idea.)

[keegs]

We have a place in Maine where they have container deposits. There are redemption centers where you can redeem your containers.

Being from out of state we initially thought these redemption centers were places of worship.

[Nords]

A decade ago, when our kid was eight years old, she was browsing with spouse & Grandma at a Goodwill. They found a box with a very pretty but very old kimono in it and she tried it on. When she put her hands in the pockets, she pulled out a hundred-dollar bill. Spouse practically had to clap both hands over her mouth and hustle her out of there to the parking lot.

A couple months later the money burned a hole in her pocket and she spent most of it on Yu-Gi-Oh! game cards. It was a most valuable fiscal lesson. I think she's still holding the cards somewhere, waiting for them to be worth what she paid for them.

I'll pick up any penny I see lying on the ground. Sometimes when I find two or three I start looking around for the hidden snare that Wile E. Coyote sets in RoadRunner cartoons.

Over 2025 years ago spouse used to be stationed at Lajes Field in the Azores. Every morning the military's anti-submarine warfare planes would take off to hunt the Soviet submarines transiting between the Med and the G-I-UK gap, and if they were hot they'd fly round the clock. One of the routines you religiously carry out around military airfields is the FOD (foreign object damage) walkdown to remove any runway debris. It was a very small Navy command in those days, so everyone turned out for the morning FOD walkdown in a line abreast from one end of the runway to the other. The weather was usually miserable, but it was social and the good news was that you usually got to keep what you picked up.

She did this routine almost daily for over a year, and even today she can still spot a stray coin (or a coin-shaped object) at 10 yards.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau We both pick up a couple dollars worth of "Hawaiian" nickels each month. Thats a soda can or bottle since we have the "HI FIVE" here (5 cents a can/bottle for "disposable" drink containers.) Full disclosure: You pay $.06 but only get back $.05. DW says if I don't stop drinking diet sodas, we'll go broke on the deal. I tell her we could make our fortune dumpster diving for HI nickels. She ain't buying it.

We've finally matured to the point where we no longer pull over to the side of the road and scamper back to pick up the stray cans/bottles. Almost never.

However every morning that I'm surfing White Plains I'll see an old, old man (in his early 80s?) park his pickup, pull out a trash bag, and start going through the mahalo cans and the dumpsters. His truck bed will have a dozen or so full bags in it. I'd like to think that he's getting his morning walk, not that it's his retirement income...

[Khan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords A decade ago, when our kid was eight years old, she was browsing with spouse & Grandma at a Goodwill. They found a box with a very pretty but very old kimono in it and she tried it on. When she put her hands in the pockets, she pulled out a hundred-dollar bill. Spouse practically had to clap both hands over her mouth and hustle her out of there to the parking lot. A couple months later the money burned a hole in her pocket and she spent most of it on Yu-Gi-Oh! game cards. It was a most valuable fiscal lesson. I think she's still holding the cards somewhere, waiting for them to be worth what she paid for them. I'll pick up any penny I see lying on the ground. Sometimes when I find two or three I start looking around for the hidden snare that Wile E. Coyote sets in RoadRunner cartoons. Over 2025 years ago spouse used to be stationed at Lajes Field in the Azores. Every morning the military's anti-submarine warfare planes would take off to hunt the Soviet submarines transiting between the Med and the G-I-UK gap, and if they were hot they'd fly round the clock. One of the routines you religiously carry out around military airfields is the FOD (foreign object damage) walkdown to remove any runway debris. It was a very small Navy command in those days, so everyone turned out for the morning FOD walkdown in a line abreast from one end of the runway to the other. The weather was usually miserable, but it was social and the good news was that you usually got to keep what you picked up. She did this routine almost daily for over a year, and even today she can still spot a stray coin (or a coin-shaped object) at 10 yards. We've finally matured to the point where we no longer pull over to the side of the road and scamper back to pick up the stray cans/bottles. Almost never. However every morning that I'm surfing White Plains I'll see an old, old man (in his early 80s?) park his pickup, pull out a trash bag, and start going through the mahalo cans and the dumpsters. His truck bed will have a dozen or so full bags in it. I'd like to think that he's getting his morning walk, not that it's his retirement income...

When Mother was still ambulatory, she would get her exercise by walking along the canal and collecting cans.

[BTravlin]

Always, my father taught me to respect money.

[Moscyn]

Sure, I'll pick a penny - it is still money. I even pick golf tees that golfers forgetfully leave at the tee box and I go crazily happy when I find a lost golf ball.

[Onward]

I stoop and pick up pennies happily. Each one thows off $0.0004 annual income.

[Sue J]

I've always been one to pick up coins, probably comes from having parents who talked about growing up in the Depression.

A few years ago I was coming out of the Post Office and walking to my car. A man was between my car and another car and he was holding a bill and asked me if I had dropped a $20. I knew that I only had $5's on me so I said, "No, not mine", got in my car and drove away. The thought occurred to me that I could have told a little white lie and come home with an extra $20. But the whole scene was just a little creepy, the way he stood between the cars and I think maybe he was setting up an opportunity for a purse snatching/mugging/kidnapping and subsequent horrors.

[BTravlin]

Not to mention that the penny or nickel you picked up could prevent you from breaking a $20 bill.

[Payin-the-Toll]

Before my double hip replacement, no. Now--yes!

[jimnjana]

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird5825 Oh...you FOUND MY RING After all these years...I thought it was gone forever.

Maybe, if you lost it about 8 yrs ago in a KFC parking lot...

[rescueme]

I pick up pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, stray dogs, cats, and women ...

[Fireup2020]

Of course - I believe they are good luck (heads up or not)...well at least it seems to be working!

Ditto to golf balls & tees (but not with the same "good luck" enthusiasm - then I am just being frugal!)

[aaronc879]

Up until a few years ago I always stopped to pick up a penny. Now, it's too painful to bend down that far(i'm 6'6") for just a penny.

[MichaelB]

I'll pickup any coin. Put them in containers, along with pocket coins, and when full, drop off at local charities.

One of the places DW volunteers is a NFP that helps young expecting mothers with no resources. The hand out plastic containers shaped like baby bottles and ask for spare change as well. They don't mind pennies either.

[Retire2013]

There are usually a lot of coins and bills in the movie theaters. Fall out of people's pockets when they sit down, and in the dark and noisy theaters, no one seems to notice when something hits the floor, etc. I worked in a movie theater when I was a freshman in college; I kept my eyes on the floor most of the time; found lots of money this way!

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB I'll pickup any coin. Put them in containers, along with pocket coins, and when full, drop off at local charities.

Wow. I figure that poor people can look for their own coins, redeemable cans and other flotsam and jetsam that can be turned into cash. They have even more free time than I do.

However, picking up coins is easy for me as I have been told that I am a knuckle dragger.

Ha

[freebird5825]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimnjana Maybe, if you lost it about 8 yrs ago in a KFC parking lot...

Yes, of course, in...um....ummmm...how about Orlando?

[easysurfer]

I just happened to pick up a penny in a parking lot yesterday. It does depend on the shape of the penny -- if it's yucky, than no, otherwise, yes.

I think I do that to reinforce the habit of a penny saved (that is, found) is a penny earned. I know a penny here or there isn't going to really change my net worth any, but it's about the habit.

Sounds a bit irrational? I compare that to driving in the middle of the night when no cars are around. When I make a turn, I still signal knowing no cops are other cars are around. Once again...to practice good habits.