Found money!!

[patsal]

I am a high school teacher and I started picking up the money the kids drop and don't care about...usually pennies, but sometimes quarters, nickels and dimes. I put them in a small jar on my desk and at the end of the year I donate it to student senate or to the charity that student senate is sponsoring. One year I had close to $55. This year is less, I guess maybe a sign of the economy? I wish the kids had a bit higher value for their money and their parent's money...but alas another topic. Though I pick up anything that I find in loose change, I never kept it isolated at home..I may have to do that!

 

[QVCshopper]

I do this. When I was a kid, my family and I went looking for money at the high school every Sunday. Now, I save everything I find and put it in my kid's piggy banks. When it gets over $10 or so, I put the money in their band accounts. Trying to help them learn about saving... they are 3 and 5. My son is really into finding money. The King Of Prussia Mall in PA is the best place to find change!

 

[disneydreamer1970]

This is a great idea! We save our change anyway, but I'm going to find a jar for DD to put any found money in.

Thank you!

Trish

 

[Jenn4615]

I found a 100 dollar bill once rolled up like a cigarette... My mom had a heart attack i was picking it up at first!

 

[NYCDiane]

I love finding coins and dollars on the ground.... One time at the train station, I found $3 crumbled up on the ground. Another time as I was walking to my car, I found $1 and then another $1. I find change all the time.... One time at the laundromat, I found $60 crumbled up in the machine. There was no one there directly before me and for the entire 2 1/2 hours I was there, no one came back looking for it, so I guess it was mine.

My best find, though, was at JFK airport (a VERY long time ago). I noticed a crumbled up bill on the floor in the terminal... .I picked it up, stuck it in my pocket. Turned out to be $100.. How cool was that!

 

[andrews_dad]

Yes, I save the coupon amount on the bottom of the grocery receipt, not that entire amt (my husband wouldn't go for that ) I have in just over a year and a half over 1800! We have double coupons and sometimes our stores have 10% off as well as $10 off an order coupons. They all add up. I also keep money I save on stamps by paying over the phone and change found on the ground.

How can you save money on stamps? You mean postage stamps?

 

[andrews_dad]

Vegas is a great place to find loose money. Those chips often blend in with the wild colored carpets. Found a $25 green chip once. And folks will leave credits in the machines of a few cents here and there, especially if the amount is under the min bet (like 85 centsleft in a $1 min machine). I also found a $50 in a hot tub there once. Stuck to the water intake. Of course, I think I lost that $50 at the blackjack tables later that night. It was still wet when I gave it to the dealers to chip in!

 

[disneyfan55]

How can you save money on stamps? You mean postage stamps?

While I don't use bill pay online I do call some payments to pay them on Disney Visa. The stamp for not mailing, plus I get Disney Dollars for using the card to pay it. I also was lucky to get the 5 times disney dollars offer Oct-Dec and earned quite a few of them as well. I do pay in full every month otherwise those Disney dollars aren't worth it. Sorry if I mislead you. (I do know that Costco sells a roll of stamps at a very small discount though) I just added the amount of the postage stamps saved to the coupons saved and put it in the savings every month.

Also, the way I actually started saving the coupon savings was that my husband would laugh and kind of make me feel almost like it was a joke about the coupons. That's when I said ok, give me the money every month (he's on a monthly pay) and he agreed. I keep the receipts every trip and keep a list of the coupons saved. We have saved between 40-120 per month just with coupons.

 

[v.t.]

Best place to money... the washer and dryer! I have even found some $20's in there. (DH was mad when I wouldn't give it back.)
I keep a bank on top for all to see but they still won't clean out their pockets. I started charging a quarter to get toys, pens, etc. back but no one will pay me for that pack of gum that went through the washer.

 

[pediatric-rnp]

DS found a $20 bill at the local carwash once, and dollar bills a few times. When people are tossing the papers, etc from their car into the trash drum, they often have money mixed in with their trash. He doesn't dig around, but can see them right from the top - it's just a big drum that is open on top, so has good visibility. So, we always look first before tossing into the drum!

 

[benolathe]

lol - you certainly find cash more often than I do! I very seldom see cash on the ground. But if I do, I normally point it out to a nearby child so that they can pick it up and keep it. Just think that would brighten their day to find some $$.

 

[ceecee]

DD's lost $, last week a $10 fell out of her pocket. The pockets in the jeans they make for teens now is about 1" and nothing stays in them. She was really upset about it.

 

[estherhead]

I think I'll start doing this!

But I had to add my own found money story. Several years ago my sister & I were helping a friend pick out a wedding gown. She is a dear girl with great style & had tried on every dress in the store and finally found "the one." It was her all the way. Unfortunately, she was very poor & her father had lost his job, her brother was in the hospital and her groom had just relocated & was a volunteer minister. They had scrounged together $2000.00 total for the wedding and that was literally all they had. And the gown she wanted was $600.00. My sister & I told her all the things she would have to cut out to have the gown and with heavy hearts we left without it & went to lunch to talk things over.

We decided to go back to bridal shop after lunch and see what else we could find. On the way in I saw money floating around & grabbed it. It was a $100.00 bill! And I just plucked it right out of the air. When I told others the story they gave us more money cause they said God had sent the money through the air!

So keep your eyes peeled for money because I have personally found $100.00. And, yes, I did go around & try to see if anyone had lost money but no one had. It was one of the most beautiful weddings ever.

 

[stitchfamily]

When I was little my Daddy worked out of town A LOT… he was in construction, he worked with a lot of people from Mexico that didn’t really understand our currency, they would throw their PENNIES away (in the trash)… He finally started asking them to toss them in an empty make-up case (I can’t for the life of me remember WHY he had a make-up case LOL!) and bring them home to me to play with… GIGGLES when I left to get married that was my nest egg I had almost $4,000 saved over about 10 years and IT WAS ALL MINE! I remember thinking I was RICH…

 

[The Princess]

Every penny adds up!!!!

 

[kristinw3girls]

My DD12 can always find $. We spent a week at the beach and every am we walked to the store for the newspaper, and every day she would find $. One day she pushed the change return on the newspaper dispencer and got $2 in quarters. I didn't let her do that one again, it really was like stealing! She found 100$ at the mall once and always seem to find at least a few pennies. I save my coins and put them in a jar. I cash it out when it's full. Last time I got $265. It's full again, but I'm now going to fill a new jar too before cashing it in. It's easy to save. I just never pay for anything with change.

 

[jenn-n-okla]

We have always saved our change either in the "vacation" stash or in the kids piggy banks. One year we had the kids count the pennies out and we rolled them. We have over $200. Both girls got $50 each to spend and $50 for their college savings account.
I can remember my sister saving all quarters from age 16 to 18. She ended up with $900 which paid for most of her first year college text books.
I pick up every penny too.
We used to check the pay phones back before there were cell phones. Always check the coin slots on the vending machines too.
I have a friend who each time she writes a check she write in her register the next dollar up so that it is always an even dollar amount. At the end of each month or so she checks the bank reciept and sees how much the difference is. She then transfers the difference into a savings account. I tried that once and it just messed me up so I stopped.
We opened an online savings account this year and do an automatic withdrawl monthly just like it was a bill. With only $100 taken out by vacation time we will have $1200 When we opened it we were earning 6% interest which was way more than most of our local banks. Now of course with the economy in the crapper we are only getting around 1% but still every little big adds up.
I do know of a kid who was doing one of those highway trash pick ups. She found a wad of money on the ground near a bridge. It was $800. She turned in the serial numbers to the police department who told her after 30days if it was not claimed then it was hers. She got it. She donated half of it to two different organizations, bought herself a new outfit, and put the rest in her college savings account. We as her teachers were very proud of her.
I have also heard of the fast food restaurant money as well as those turnpike collection areas. Although I haven't gotten brave enough to do that one.

 

[seasheller]

My granddaughter once found a $20 bill while in elementary school. She turned it in at the school office and was given a $20 reward. They made an announcement and no one claimed it. They told her to come back in a week and if it was still there that money was also hers. She got that, too! $40 for keeping your nose to the ground! Valuable lesson in honesty for her!

 

[mrsabbott]

A large chunk of our vacation fund is change or found money! I am all about picking up change on the ground.. "See a penny, pick it up! All day long you'll have good luck!"

I'll clean out my purse/car and put any money found in the vacation fund. Money found in the dryer goes in there too, although I don't find much in there anymore. When Hubs was active duty, I'd find all kinds of money in his ACU's!

When I worked at the Galt House, all my tips went into the vacation fund.. including pennies and change. Yes, people would tip me change. Interestingly enough, the biggest tippers were the "regular people". I found money on the ground there a few times (mostly change) and that went into the vacation fund.

Unexpected money goes into the vacation fund too. I was gifted some money by my cousins.. actually, I'd made payments to them because they were able to get me my kitchenaid mixer for crazy cheap.. and they kept the payments and just returned it to me so we could do something nice for ourselves. Went into the vacation fund!

Hubs has a milk jug in the bedroom he'll put the change from his pocket from. We've used it to pay bills or buy groceries when time was tough. It adds up quickly!

 

[danygirl]

Found 6 bucks at the gas pump a few weeks ago! I find change almost daily. I have a friend who is a dear person. She leaves penny trails to brighten other people's days!! Whenever I find pennies I think of her.