I got a letter from my bank the other day. Most of the mail I get is saved for the burn pile. Pointless, unsolicited junk really. I remember seeing a story on the news a long time ago (like maybe 30 years) where a guy signed up for all the junk mail he could and then he used it to heat his home. A little extreme but now that I am a home owner (well mortgage owner) I have more sympathy for the guy. I am not quite that extreme though I have seriously thought about putting a trash can out by the mail box so as to save myself the hassle of carrying it back to the house only to throw it away, bundle it up in a trash bag and then haul it all back to the end of my driveway (only a few feet from the mailbox). I would put a label on this mailbox trash can indicating it was for junk mail. I am sure I would be the subject of the day in the break room where the USPS delivery folks congregate.
Anyway, as I was saying, I got a letter from the bank. This was not the once a month statement but rather an indication that there were going to be a change in the bank’s (as in more) fees. Gone was free checking unless you kept a minimum balance. There was a myriad of other changes that will have no effect on me except for one thing, they are going to start charging for counting coins. I don’t have the letter any longer but I seem to recall it saying that the charge would be $5 or 5% (whichever was greater). You could bring in 501 pennies and they would just give you $0.01 back. I guess I understand that they need to make money and counting coins is probably labor intensive but this still upsets me.
I have spoken in the past about my support for abolishing the penny but I still collect them and my other spare change and turn then into the bank (way back when they didn’t charge me to count them). I would usually wait until I got close to $100 and then turn it in and put it on the principle of our mortgage. This brought me a sense of satisfaction as I chip away at the monster pile of debt that I owe to them. But, unless I want to pay a 5% premium, I will need to stop doing this. Since my mortgage rate is < 5%, it is a net loss overall. I had to find some other way of getting rid of this change.
The wife suggested taking it into the pet store where she used to work as they are always willing to trade change for bills. This sounds like a lot of work really and I think I would quickly lose track of what money used to be change and what is really money for spending. The plan I thought of was to use it to pay for small purchases at the grocery store (say when we make an ice cream run [which we have done a lot this summer]). The self check out line takes coins and other than causing a delay in the line if there are others waiting to self check out, this might work out. I tried this on Sunday.
In the non summer months, there is a guy in our Sunday school class that usually brings donuts (or donut holes) for the class. For reasons I won’t go into, he is on the road for most of the summer and our class has to survive only on coffee. There is a grocery store kind of on the way to church so we have been making it a practice (if we are not running behind) to stop in and grab something off of the “quick sale” bakery rack (usually 1/2 price or less). It is not great but it is better than nothing. We were running ahead of schedule this past Sunday and so I grabbed my bucket of change and we were off.
When I got into the grocery store and headed back to where the quick sale rack usually is, I was disappointed to find that it was not there. Either everything was purchased or there was nothing that was nearing the expiration date. I did find something on sale so I grabbed it and headed to the self check out lanes. I started to put nickels, dimes and quarters in but they all kept spitting back out at me in the coin return. In the end (despite the self check out supervisor offering to take my change) I decided to use the debit card. So, not only did I spend more than I intended, my change was all still with me.
Tonight the wife decided that an ice cream run was needed so I took the bucket of change (slightly heavier now) and the son and I headed out (being the hunter / gatherers that we are). Unlike Sunday, I successfully rid myself of over $5 worth of change. I took longer paying for the groceries than it did shopping for and scanning them combined (and maybe driving there [I had a lot of pennies]). I am going to put the receipt in the bucket and when I get $100 worth of receipts I will just take $100 out of checking and put it on the principle of the mortgage. The net result will be the same other than taking a little more time to feed the coins into the coin slot at the self check out lane register.
Jon
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