Picking up Pennies

Today, I picked up a penny. Most people ignore a penny on the ground, but think about it.  Most people would pick up a quarter - but 25 pennies and that is a quarter-dollar.  Picking up pennies is most useful if you use the self-checkout at the store.  I usually don't carry coins on me, but if I pick up a penny on the way to the market, and I end up needing a penny, picking up that penny came would turn out to be  agood thing.  Of course, I don't pick up pennies that have been run over a million times by cars, or look particularly dirty and i might catch some bacterial disease. 

For the last few years, I've been saving up the equivelent of all the coins I pick up during the year, and at the beginning of the new year, I'll take the bag full of coins and dump it into the coinstar machine at the supermarket.  Some stores, if you decide to get paid with the store's giftcard, you don't get charged a fee.  If you want the cash, you will be charged around 9.5% for the fee, but many times you will also get a coupon worth about a dollar you might be able to use.  The last time I used one of these machines, I cashed in $8.00, got charged around $0.75, but recieved a coupon for a 2 liter bottle of soda that was on sale for $1.29 that week, so I actually received a premium.

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