I went to the bank today. This is not that exciting. Except that even though the bank is a block from my office I drove there, and not because I was feeling lazy. I had 43 pounds of change in my car (yeah, I weighed it).
We have two jugs in the house. One is by the back door, where we throw the contents of our pockets before walking out the door. The other is in the laundry area. The rule is that anything that is in a pocket by the time clothes reach the laundry pile becomes communal property.
So, once a year or so, I take all the change and random folded up dollar bills that are collected in these two jugs and go the bank (where the tellers see me coming with the jugs and suddenly all go on break). Today I had 43 pounds of change and about 3 inches of dollar bills. They put it all in their little change machine (I go to one of the few banks in the world that will still do this for you) and came back with the report. First of all, the teller admonished me for having so much dog hair in my change (I’m sorry … I live with two Newfoundlands; there is dog hair EVERYWHERE), and for not picking out the Euro coins, drill bits, random washers, dog treats and scuzzy pennies (which I don’t understand … isn’t a scuzzy penny still a penny?), and then I got the good news. All of that saving came to $715.48!
Since the last time I turned in the change I spend it on furniture, I told the hubby that he can use it to buy some stuff for the house this time. And since we desperately need a lawn mower that actually starts, we’re going to get a mulching mower with a bag so that I can have all the chopped up leaves in the world!!!!!!
I know it seems crazy to get so excited about chopped up leaves, but they are great stuff. My mom’s been putting them on her garden and her soil is so fantastic. What doesn’t go in the garden will go in the compost pile and make great compost.
In the past I’ve raked up the leaves, run them over repeatedly with the lawn mower, then raked up the little leaf shnibbles and bagged them or used them. This will be so much better. And since our change collection yielded more than we expected, we might just get a new snowblower (again, that actually starts when you want it to) too.
