M – Could you use an extra $48 a week? Who couldn’t? A new survey by Visa claims the average American spends $2,400 a year on stuff we can’t account for. That’s over a hundred grand in the course of a lifetime. Each! A buck for gum on Monday. Five bucks for a froofy coffee on Tuesday. You know the drill. By Friday, the equivalent of two of your Andrew Jacksons has vanished into thin air.
In a moment of silent financial introspection, I’ve concluded that a chunk of my unaccounted-for $48 ends up in those take-a-penny, leave-a-penny dishes you see at checkout counters nearly everywhere. They’ve become black holes for my disposable income. I average 7 or 8 visits a week to grocery stores and almost always drop my pennies into the tray at the register. If there was a dish for other coins, I would gladly contribute dimes and quarters. Why? Because whatever money I lose through coins, I make up for in pants pockets that last years longer because these stinkin’ coins aren’t burrowing through the fabric and creating holes in them.
Honestly, if I were the Secretary of Coinage for our government, I’d eliminate pennies altogether. It’s a no-brainer, folks. Pennies cost about 1.5 cents each to produce. The only thing stopping me from an all out public assault on pennies is the fact that several charities depend on penny contributions to serve their clients.
If you see me bending over to pick up a penny on the sidewalk, please be patient. All I’m trying to doing is get some of my $48 back.
