How hard is it to pick up pennies?
Pretty hard.
Blogging about it can be even harder. People say they watch their pennies, but until you have to actually account for every cent that crosses your path, you don't realize exactly how exhausting that can be.
So, let's backtrack.
Day 8 - Goal? $1.28. A few quarters helped a lot. Made it with a couple pennies to spare.
Day 9 - Goal? $2.56. I went most of the day without seeing a penny that didn't already live in my wallet. At 10 p.m., I cleaned out my dresser. The first dollar bill I encountered put us over the top.
Day 10 - Goal? $5.12. I honestly thought this was going to be my Waterloo. A penny here, a dime there. Surprisingly, by 2 p.m., I met my goal with a Sacajawea dollar that winked at me at the car wash.
Day 11 - Goal? $10.24. Yes. $10.24. Pretty scary, huh? I beat it in short order with a quarter and a ten-dollar bill. Yes, a ten-spot. Gotta love the lint filter in the dryer.
Pretty cool, huh?
Yeah, well, tomorrow I've got to dig up $20.48. And somehow, I don't think the laundry is going to be cooperative.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Two for one
Yesterday, I found 32 cents. But I cheated. They weren't all pennies. I know, I know, but I never really made an official ruling on the idea of pennies as a measurement versus an actual item, did I? Let's just pretend I didn't.
Nickels are our friends. I found four of them while I was putting away my son's blocks and play food. This makes me not only a cheater, but a bad mom since my not-quite-2-year-old could have swallowed 20 cents that somehow ended up in his Elmo kitchen.
Twelve more cents showed up here and there in places I don't even remember.
Today has been more of a challenge. More cheating was involved. To find 64 cents, I had to include a quarter and two dimes. I found the quarter in the parking lot at the grocery store.
Day 6 total: $0.32
Day 7 total: $0.64
Overall total: $1.27
Tomorrow's goal: $1.28
Nickels are our friends. I found four of them while I was putting away my son's blocks and play food. This makes me not only a cheater, but a bad mom since my not-quite-2-year-old could have swallowed 20 cents that somehow ended up in his Elmo kitchen.
Twelve more cents showed up here and there in places I don't even remember.
Today has been more of a challenge. More cheating was involved. To find 64 cents, I had to include a quarter and two dimes. I found the quarter in the parking lot at the grocery store.
Day 6 total: $0.32
Day 7 total: $0.64
Overall total: $1.27
Tomorrow's goal: $1.28
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thank you, Miley Cyrus
This was not posted yesterday because I was taking my niece to the Miley Cyrus concert at the Bryce Jordan Center.
It may have been the longest night of my life since I took her mother to see the New Kids on the Block in Pittsburgh about 20 years ago.
But, every cloud has a silver lining. In Miley's case, probably a glittery silver lame lining.
I was a few pennies short yesterday. Goal was sixteen. We had to leave for the concert by 5 p.m. By that time, I was only at 12 pennies.
And then, as I was running with my six-year-old niece to go worship at her goddess's altar, I found three pennies in the parking log. Cool. Only one short. I can live with that.
But the penny fates weren't done with me yet. The BJC was filled with advertisements from Walmart for all things Miley. And on the floor, on her smiley face, I found one final penny.
Yes! Disaster averted.
Day Five total: $0.16
Experiment total to date: $0.31
Day 6 goal: $0.32
It may have been the longest night of my life since I took her mother to see the New Kids on the Block in Pittsburgh about 20 years ago.
But, every cloud has a silver lining. In Miley's case, probably a glittery silver lame lining.
I was a few pennies short yesterday. Goal was sixteen. We had to leave for the concert by 5 p.m. By that time, I was only at 12 pennies.
And then, as I was running with my six-year-old niece to go worship at her goddess's altar, I found three pennies in the parking log. Cool. Only one short. I can live with that.
But the penny fates weren't done with me yet. The BJC was filled with advertisements from Walmart for all things Miley. And on the floor, on her smiley face, I found one final penny.
Yes! Disaster averted.
Day Five total: $0.16
Experiment total to date: $0.31
Day 6 goal: $0.32
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Hidden treasures
Today was an 8-penny day.
I found them all in one fell swoop.
I was cleaning out the cupboard with my baking supplies. An old coffee can yielded some rattling. Inside, eight old dull-finished pennies waited for me.
Day 4 total: $0.08
Experiment total to date: $0.15
Tomorrow's goal: $0.16
I found them all in one fell swoop.
I was cleaning out the cupboard with my baking supplies. An old coffee can yielded some rattling. Inside, eight old dull-finished pennies waited for me.
Day 4 total: $0.08
Experiment total to date: $0.15
Tomorrow's goal: $0.16
Yeah, I know...
I didn't get the Day 3 post in under the wire.
But I did find my four pennies.
Two of them were in the lint filter of the dryer. One was under the kitchen table when I was mopping. One was found by the gas pump at Sheetz.
Day Three total: $0.04
Experiment to date total: $0.07
It's ten a.m. here, and I haven't found one of my Day 4 pennies yet. Gotta go get cracking.
But I did find my four pennies.
Two of them were in the lint filter of the dryer. One was under the kitchen table when I was mopping. One was found by the gas pump at Sheetz.
Day Three total: $0.04
Experiment to date total: $0.07
It's ten a.m. here, and I haven't found one of my Day 4 pennies yet. Gotta go get cracking.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Two more down
Pennies #2 and #3 have been scored and tallied.
There I was. Doing laundry. Because I have an almost-two-year-old son, so I do a lot of laundry. All the time with the laundry. So you'd think I'd be better at it. I'm not.
That means, I don't always clean out the pockets. And I have the ink-stained and lipsticked former clothes/current cleaning rags to prove it.
But in the interest of our experiment, I have embraced the idea of attention to pocket detail. And it netted me two cents from my husband's pants at 10:12 a.m. His loss is my coppery gain.
Day 2 total: $0.03
Day 4 single day goal: $0.04
There I was. Doing laundry. Because I have an almost-two-year-old son, so I do a lot of laundry. All the time with the laundry. So you'd think I'd be better at it. I'm not.
That means, I don't always clean out the pockets. And I have the ink-stained and lipsticked former clothes/current cleaning rags to prove it.
But in the interest of our experiment, I have embraced the idea of attention to pocket detail. And it netted me two cents from my husband's pants at 10:12 a.m. His loss is my coppery gain.
Day 2 total: $0.03
Day 4 single day goal: $0.04
Sunday, November 1, 2009
And we are LIVE!
The experiment has begun.
And we have our first penny.
Penny #1 was found on the front porch at approximately 5:45 a.m. Why was I on my porch at that ungodly hour on the Sunday after Halloween? It involved a rogue rooster and not pennies. Don't ask, because I'll tell you, and you really don't want to hear it.
But there he was. Abe. Grimly staring forward, stoic, waiting for me. A shiny 1994.
One penny down. One hundred million..or so...to go.
Bring 'em on.
And we have our first penny.
Penny #1 was found on the front porch at approximately 5:45 a.m. Why was I on my porch at that ungodly hour on the Sunday after Halloween? It involved a rogue rooster and not pennies. Don't ask, because I'll tell you, and you really don't want to hear it.
But there he was. Abe. Grimly staring forward, stoic, waiting for me. A shiny 1994.
One penny down. One hundred million..or so...to go.
Bring 'em on.
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