Are dimes the new pennies?
Posted
Feb 20 2008, 12:12 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Just for the heck of it, I counted my "found money" collection. So far this year I've found $6.56. Yeah, I pick up change on the street -- and so do a lot of other people, judging from the response to "See a penny? Pick it up!"
What surprised me was that $2 of the $6.56 total was made up of dimes. Twenty people dropped them and didn't retrieve them.
Lately I've also seen dimes in the "need a penny, take a penny" cups found at many cash registers. What gives?
Maybe the people who put pennies into those cups added the dimes by accident, and maybe the ones who dropped those coins on the ground didn't realize it.
Or maybe they just don't consider the loss of a dime worth correcting.
Too proud to bend
Some of the people who responded to that "See a penny?" article wrote that they'd be ashamed to be seen picking up money. Apparently it's too low-rent -- too nickel-and-dime, you might say.
Used as an adjective, the definition of "nickel-and-dime" includes terms like "low-paid" and "small-scale or of little importance." Looked at in that way, a dime seems easy to dismiss. How much does it pay you, really, to bend down and pick it up?
One-tenth of a dollar for a few seconds' work, according to my interpretation of the pay schedule.
Used as a verb, "nickel-and-dime" means to "impoverish through small
expenses." Who hasn't had a steady stream of minor expenses -- car tags,
school supplies, cough medicine, class trips -- bust the budget?
Little things cost a lot
Then there are the small luxuries that Hoover money out of our wallets on a daily basis. Lattes, texting, bottled water, takeout, mani-pedis, the latest DVD, that pack-a-day habit -- it's $5 here, $10 there until your debit card begins to smolder.
You haven't been to the mall or out on the town for what seems like ages, yet you can't seem to stay ahead of the bills. That's because you're being nickel-and-dimed or, more precisely, because you're nickel-and-diming yourself.
It's just a coffee, just a combo meal, just a magazine … just a minute, where'd all my money go?
Small change
Maybe dropped dimes, or all dropped coins, are a symptom of how detached we've become from the way money works. Loose change isn't as valuable somehow as folding green, and paper money is more finite and therefore less desirable than credit cards.
It's "only" a dime. But dimes add up to dollars, just as dollars dissolve into dimes if they aren't managed properly.
Try this: For the next week, chronicle every dime you spend, on everything from gum to gasoline. You might be shocked at the final tally.
Maybe it will encourage you to look at money differently. You can cut back without giving up everything you love.
Maybe it will even encourage you to start picking up coins. Many Smart Spending message board readers swear by the practice. They bank the change, earmark it for holidays, give it to charity and, at times, use it to pay bills.
Still not convinced? Read the essay "Being Poor" by John Scalzi. It includes sentences like, "Being poor is picking the 10-cent ramen instead of the 12-cent ramen because that's two extra packages for every dollar."
Try telling folks in that situation that a dime isn't worth picking up.
