Now, I am aware that not all houses suffer from the strange and unusual phenomenon that I’m about to describe, but our house definitely does. The curiosity to which I am alluding is the frequently acquisition of random piles of coin… and lots of them.
I am one of those people you see holding up supermarket queues, usually rifling through her purse to try and give the cashier some coins so I can get back notes, and not end up walking around with a purse that is heavy enough to cause spinal curvature. In my experience, many men do not engage in this fleeting two second exercise to minimize the amount of coin they are carrying around, and as such generally whip notes out of their wallet for every new purchase. The numerous coins they then accrue from every transaction go from pockets to floating around the house, dumped in neat little piles here and there. Which means that doing the laundry, emptying the car console, turning the sofa cushions, or even just wiping down benches can often prove very lucrative.
And having spare coin in the house can be really handy too. Every vendor at the farmer’s market looks on in delight as you ‘apologize’ for your $20 purchase all being paid in gold coins. The Small Child once received a pretty bag full of gold coins to blow at a video arcade on his birthday which he thought was the best thing ever. And of course, there’s that ‘I really don’t want to pay you for X,Y or Z, but I have to, so I’m going to pay you entirely in schrappers’ thing. They can come in handy for that too!
Anyway, lately I’ve been collecting all the coins from around the house, raiding Mr K’s coffee fund even, and throwing them in my piggy bank – in this case the largest spare Tupperware container I have in the house that isn’t in use – because a few weeks ago, I said I’m going to have to start ‘saving my pennies’ for my big Alaskan adventure… and I meant it, literally! What better way to save up some spare spending money than to pool the loose change that ends up floating around the house! At the time, Yale laughed at me and said “I’ve got a handful of coins you can have.” *Sigh* Will they never learn! Never hang shit on a girl on a mission! When my money box gets full, I’ll cash it in for US currency to add to all the USD$1 notes I got on my birthday, and all will be well with the world. 🙂
About a week or so later I was out and about, and Yale told to me “Close my eyes and open my hands.” Now, we all know this either ends really pleasantly or extremely unpleasantly, so I looked at him skeptically and the facial expression he was wearing wasn’t telling me much about which end of the spectrum to expect, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and put my hands out… from the bottom of his bag, he pulled out a ziplock plastic bag full of coins and unceremoniously dumped them into my hands! I nearly dropped them at the unexpected weight and said, “What’s this for?”
To which he replied, “I said I had a handful of coin to help you save your pennies for your trip.” I had completely forgotten his throw away comment and I stared at this amazing and crazy and silly, yet extremely thoughtful and generous gift. I had no idea of his having been serious when he said he had a handful of coin for me… and I had no idea that his ‘handful’ of coin would equal about three of mine! I have no idea how much was in that ziplock bag, as I just tipped it straight into the Tupperware coin bank, smiling and shaking my head as I did so.
A bag full of random coins. Who would have thought that a plastic bag full of change could be such a wonderful and unexpected gift that would it make a lasting impression as one of the best presents ever! I am still incredulous at the thoughtfulness of such a simple gesture… or maybe I’m just amazed when people actually listen to me and decide to come along for my strange flights of fancy!
I had to take my TupperPiggyBox to the bank today – it was either that or find a bigger container, and then I probably wouldn’t be able to lift it. Today’s schrappers netted $275 to add to my holiday fund. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s better than them being left scattered down the back of the sofa!