How Much to Pick Up Money on the Street? $0.10? $0.25?
Posted by Cap in Even More Ramblings on August 29, 2007 |
Yesterday, while walking from one class to another, I walked pass a dollar bill on the ground.
A few steps later, the image of the bill on the ground finished processing in my brain.
“Hey wait, that was a dollar!”
So I did a roundabout and came face to face with the crumpled up dollar bill on the ground.
Hmm.
Two seconds went by and I convinced myself that it wasn’t worth picking up.
But, as I began to head toward the classroom again, another part of me thought I was being incredibly stupid.
“What’s this? You’re hesitating about the seconds it’ll take to pick up that dollar? Oh I’m sorry Mr. Millionaire, you’re suddenly too good to bend over for a dollar. I see how it is.”
Besides the conversation I was having with myself, the whole thing was pretty stupid. Had you been at this particular school, on a hot day in Southern California, you would have seen an idiot pacing back and fort between a crumpled up piece of green paper on the ground.
I eventually picked up the dollar, but at this point, after pacing back and forth about three times, I felt incredibly stupid and shady.
And that’s the really interesting part — when I pick up coins off the ground, I would flip it up in the air, catch it and filed it away as my lucky day.
But for whatever reason, when I find amounts higher than $1 — I’d feel like I’m stealing or something. As if the money didn’t belong to me (and it doesn’t). So to alleviate that feeling, I’d generally throw the money into whatever charity box I come across.
Had I just applied Madame X’s Rule #3: Found Money without question, this whole stupid moment wouldn’t have occured. Tsk tsk.
How much money will it take for you to pick up money found on the street? $0.10? $0.25? $1.00? Or maybe you won’t pick up money on the street?
47 Responses to “How Much to Pick Up Money on the Street? $0.10? $0.25?”
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August 29th, 2007 at 10:34 am
I pick up pennies! It’s all money! I’m getting rich off the discarded monies of NYC, bwa ha ha!
August 29th, 2007 at 10:58 am
I generally don’t bother with a penny (usually because they’re mangled) but anything else, sure. One time when I was 17 I drove by this park and I saw a bill lying in the grass. I pulled over and it was a $5! I kept it and don’t remember feeling guilty about it.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I pick up any denomination, paper or change, loudly and proudly.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Guilt should be predicated on having been in a position to do something good but not having done it. If you find a wallet with ID, you should return the wallet as found. If you find a bill, you cannot reasonably expect to find out who owns it. Keep the money, and stop being silly.
As for $1 not being worth picking up: ARE YOU KIDDING????
August 29th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I had a friend convince me to go to a club with him even though I didn’t want to spend the money to get it (It was like $10). Lo and behold, when we stopped at the gas station to go to the ATM I found $10. I sure as hell didn’t feel bad picking it up. In fact I didn’t even realize how much it was. I saw green on the ground and grabbed.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Haha. Love that quote. “Saw green on the ground and grabbed.”
Crowman: You’re absolutely right. It is pretty silly.
Largest amount I’ve found was a $20 at an ATM in the middle of no where at an odd hour. Felt pretty bad for the guy that forgot to take his money (or all of it).
August 29th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Sometimes when I see money I worry about who’s watching — like if I might be on a hidden camera show about picking up money.
Crazy, I know, but with today’s technology … you never know who is watching.
August 29th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
There’s a quarter glued to the sidewalk at a local coffee shop here… even has a note written in Sharpie that it’s glued… but I always try to pick it up when it catches my eye! Then I feel foolish because I know it’s there.
August 29th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
If you picked up a penny every ten seconds, 24/7/365, you would make about 31K a year. (Tax free!)
If you make more than 31K a year, you might think it is not worth your time to pick up a penny. However, it would be a rare circumstance in which you had to sacrifice ten seconds worth of your usual salary to pick up the penny. So you will always profit from picking it up.
August 29th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
I’d pick up anything except a penny. The most I’ve ever found on the ground was $5 at an amusement park.
August 30th, 2007 at 1:01 am
humm.. mine is a different mind..
If its not my money, I dont use it, I pick it and add the same amount off my pocket to it(max one dollar) and pass it to the next available charity.
I feel guilty to use it for me, but I dont leave that penny/bill right there when I find it.
Once my mom found a wallet(my mom cant read English well) and all the IDs are in there, we called that owner lady(she is a PhD in some medical specilization), she came with her baby to our house, we had some coffee and good talk and she left with her wallet, I still feel that that was a great time, we shared..
August 30th, 2007 at 5:05 am
Unless I actually saw someone drop it, in which case I would attempt to return it to them, I pick up any and all money that I find on the ground in public. Once I found a $100 bill on the floor of a bar.
August 30th, 2007 at 6:35 am
My husband and I once wondered if it was worth it to stop and pick up a penny. So we did a little calculating.
How long does it take to stop and pick up a penny? We tried a couple times and it took us one second.
.01 per second =
.60 per minute =
$36 per hour
So if you make less than $36 per hour, it’s worth your while. The only objection I had was my mom, who said she would possibly throw her back out bending down to get the penny, which would cost her more in the end. But we decided that for us, it was definately worth it to pick a penny off of the ground!
August 30th, 2007 at 6:41 am
I ALWAYS pick up money I find, even pennies. I save all my pennies, nickels and dimes so it does add up. Slowly, but it adds up.
The most money I have ever found though was back in 1983 while walking thru a Food Court in a mall. I just happened to look down and saw $250.00 (neatly folded $100.00 bills and a $50.00 bill) just sitting on the floor. I looked around and no one was nearby so I just quickly put it in my pocket.
10 years ago I found $200.00 in a wallet in the street by my then apt. I looked thru the wallet a few times but saw no ID in it. I decided, oh yeah it’s all mine. After looking thru the wallet a thrid time I found a small hospital cafeteria receipt for my next door neighbor, a single mom just getting by. Boy was she relieved when I took the wallet up to her at her work! I guess I could have kept it and NO ONE, except me would ever have known. But I would still have felt guilty about it to this day.
August 30th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Depends how filthy it is. But if I’m actually unfocused enough to notice the money, i’ll grab it as long as it’s not disgustingly gunked up. Of course there’s a definite relationship between denomination and how gunked up is too gunked up.
Best find was getting on to a ski lift in Stratton, VT. Looked down to make sure I was in the right spot, and BAM $50 bill laying right there. That pretty much covered my lift ticket for the day.
August 30th, 2007 at 7:37 am
I don’t get the argument about it being worthwhile to pick up pennies only if you make less than $36 dollars an hour.
That argument assumes that you stop earning your other income for the amount of time spent to pick up the penny.
Rather, it’s ALWAYS worthwhile, because the net income is cumulative. I doubt your boss will dock you 1 second’s worth of pay if he sees you bend over to grab a penny on the way to the can.
If you pick up a penny while you are on the clock, you increase your income.
If you pick up a penny while you are not working, you create income. There’s no down side.
August 30th, 2007 at 8:26 am
I had a friend who didn’t care about anything less than a quarter. He would actually take the change he got back from cash purchases, drop the quarters in his pocket, and toss smaller coins on the ground or drop them in a tip jar. He used a similar line of logic that the time to put away, get out, sort and reuse the smaller coins wasn’t worth it.
I never agreed with that, the same way I dislike the argument about a penny not worth the second to pick it up. When I was with him I convinced him to give me the small coins, and when I find money I pick it up.
August 30th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I don’t pick up pennies, but will everything else. I hate pennies. I wish the gov’t would just stop issuing them.
August 30th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Haha, I remember when I was like 9 or 10, I was at the beach with my dad, aunt, uncle, and cousins and I spotted a wad of cash on the ground a ways ahead of us. I looked around to see if anyone else had the same idea as me, then I ran ahead and picked it up and ran back to give it to my dad when my uncle swooped in and was like “oh, here, give that to me.” Luckily, I was a highly intelligent child and said “bitch, please!” (ok, not really, but you get the point) and handed it over to my dad. He thumbed through the bills and said “well, dinner’s on Elissa tonight! There’s 80 bucks here!” It was a nice feeling, as a 10 year old, to find that much money ($80 is almost the equivalent of $1,000,000). We did ask a couple people who were around if they dropped anything on the sidewalk (didn’t specifically say what it was) and everyone said no, so we claimed the cash as “finders keepers” and all enjoyed a lovely, free dinner that night.
That’s been the most money I’ve ever found. I rarely pick up change, unless it a quarter (free laundry money!) and don’t often find bills floating around the streets of Los Angeles. When I lived in Boston it was more common to find money on the ground, probably because I walked everywhere. Can’t really do that in LA, hehe.
August 30th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Silly Cap, you mean to say you don’t live and die by my every word?!?!
:)
thanks for the mention!
August 30th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
I pick everything up….from pennies to whatever paper money I am lucky to find. The coins go in my coin jar to take to the bank once it gets full.
Hey every cent counts.
August 30th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
I’ve done that before, I even did it once with a slip for bottle returns (we pay .10 per bottle/can in mi & then return to get our money back). Hubby & I love having our kids with us because they don’t care & they will jump up & down & shout they found money, lol.
August 30th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
I’ve been known to pass up pennies but lately I’ve been grabbing them too.. anything silver or up.. it’s mine! About a month ago I found $20 on the ground… Last year I found $110 on the ground…. I felt bad for the fool who dropped it for awhile but then I thought… who would be so careless with a 110 bucks that they would drop it and not realize it..
August 31st, 2007 at 3:11 pm
So…….. if you make less than $36.00 per hour than it it is not worth picking up a penny!
How much do you pay a health club? No matter what I pick up, I do so in a manner that I exercise my body. A good stretch is a good stretch.
And pennies add up. My daughter is saving up to go to Japan with her school in two years, and with her account, her bank does not charge her to count the coins she is going to deposit.
Plus the look on her face to get a bunch of change from me to deposit towards a goal - is priceless!!!
In addition, though I am not superstitious, I still feel lucky when I find a penny.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Ohhhhhhhhh, thank you to all those who leave the pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters on the ground, especially around vending machines and anywhere you have put your lazy hand in your pocket and have dropped change in the process.
August 31st, 2007 at 8:02 pm
I found $5 two weeks ago. And a few years ago I was driving down a street near Fenway park in Boston and saw dollar bills blowing in the street.
Thats right.
I pulled over, got out and grabbed like $9.
Every day I park and walk like 10 min. to work and more days than not I find pennies and I find silver change probably once a week.
Finding money reminds me to actually pay attention to what is going on when I walk and as a result I see hawks, plants, people that I would totally miss otherwise.
My mindset is, be prepared to react, help others, or pick up money, at any time.
;-)
Wylie
http://wyliemoney.blogspot.com/
September 1st, 2007 at 10:29 am
Zowie. Okay, I’ll be the odd man out.
I pick up nothing. Zippo. No offense to all the picker-upper’s that have posted here, but I figure there is probably someone who needs it more than me. I’d rather a kid or someone who truly needs it found it. No, I’m not Donald Trump but I’m still okay with my modest lot in life.
I would feel demeaned picking up money off the ground. It feels greedy and desperate and that’s just not my scene.
Just my, er, two pennies.
September 1st, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Alright, this is weird but… I find money (usually small amounts) ALL THE TIME, and EVERYWHERE! I know, that’s strange, but it’s true. I have found coins regularly on walks (one time three days in a row!), at the grocery store, in airplanes - everywhere. Almost everytime I take a bus or train, I spot a coin. I’ve found bills of all denominations here and even in foreign countries: found A$5 on the sidewalk in Australia and a two-pound coin shining up at me just outside me hotel in the UK. Went on a hike in Ireland - everyone else is trying not to step in sheep s**t, and there I was picking up Euro coins. It’s become so common for me to find coins that it barely registers to pick one up when I see it. Even the ATM likes me: I asked for $40 and it gave me $60! The best find: three 20s rolled up. Not a huge find but there’s always tomorrow!
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:41 am
I feel really guilty about keeping lost money. It’s a personal thing. I get quite superstitious about it too, like it may be an unlucky quarter or something(must’ve been some spooky TV ep I saw as a child or whatever).
But I hate the idea of just leaving it there like I’m too wealthy to snub coins lying on the ground, ‘coz heaven knows I’m not wealthy. What I do is pick it up, whether it be 10 cents or 10 dollars, and then pop it into the nearest charity basket(usually a Salvation Army or AIDS Foundation collector round any corner I’m walking past).
Thus my guilt is flushed away over both about wasting money lying around for grabs and spending money on myself when I didn’t earn it myself!
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:41 am
I’d pick up $5 and above.
Hah! Recently, in the backcountry, I found a $20 bill. Wow! THAT made my day…what’s the odds of finding money in the bush?..mind you, it was a very busy hiking area, lots of people hike there daily.
Forget the pennies, though I suppose, even $1 coins would be worth picking up…I think so.
September 4th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I pick up ALL money! Coins, coppers, silvers, folding money…all of it! Leave no stone unturned! It all adds up sooner or later!
September 4th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I was at Faneuil Hall the other day and picked up a dime that was on the ground. A group of tourists saw me do this and I felt like they gave me a funny look. A dime is a dime and I don’t care what anyone thinks.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:24 am
I have got from $5-abt 3 times, $1-abt 5times, 25c - plenty, pennies - plenty. If no one is looking for it, I d pick it up. But I make the point of droppping it later into some donation boxes. Last time I dropped it into a collection for cancer research at circuit city.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I’ll normally pick up anything that’s not sticky/yucky. Sometimes I ignore pennies. Anything bigger goes in the change jar.
My mom taught me that it’s not stealing unless you saw someone drop it. Or it’s at someone’s house. And if it’s on their lawn and over 99 cents, it’s polite to ask the parents if they dropped it. Under 99 cents is fair game on lawns.
September 7th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
A few months back, I had been finding numerous coins everywhere I went. So, I made a pact with myself to collect all ‘found’ money, and donate what I find over a years period. Figured it was not mine to begin with, and someone out there needs it more than I do.
Well, lo and behold, a day after I decide to do this, I find a $10 dollar bill. Of course my first thought was ‘yah! free money!’, but then came back the deal I made with myself. So, I still have it sitting in my “donation pile”, with 9 months left to go!
September 8th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
I’ll pick up any money I find, pennies included. The most I’ve collected at once was a $5 bill last summer. I will take other people’s pop and water containers because they are worth ten cents a container (the water ones I recycle) and I’ve probably made more than $400 in the past few years.
It’s amazing how many people throw away perfectly recyclable containers, that are worth money too. I don’t drink pop so it’s win/win for me.
September 8th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
I should also say that I see someone drop it I’ll give it back, or turn it in. There was a woman in front of me at a store that had an open purse and when she grabbed her wallet and extra $20 fell out. I picked it up and gave it to her, although I could have kept it and no one would have known. She apologized to me, and said thank you. Good thing I didn’t steal purses, her’s was wide open.
September 14th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I pick up anything I see. During the Christmas season, I usually throw it in the nearest red bucket I see, but any other time of year I’m just as likely to stick it in my pocket until I transfer it to either my car ashtray or the change jar at home.
I agree with the sentiment stated by others that if you see someone drop it, you should tell them. Otherwise, I figure it’s fair game, no matter the amount.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
I’ll pick up anything including pennies and throw it in the change jar. The most I’ve ever found in one day was $60. I worked in the produce dept at a grocery store during college. The manager pulled me to sweep floors and retrieve carts outside. I was sweeping deep under the edge of the shelves and kept finding a dollar here $5 there. Topped off my day with $40 in the parking lot while retrieving carts. I already thought it was funny they were paying me produce salary to chase carts and then I made another $60 on top of that.
September 24th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
I will stop, bend over and to pick up ANY amount of money I see on the street. Why? Because I can. Be thankful you have the ability to walk and move because there are thousands of people who would give almost anything to have the pleasure of such movement. Enjoy it.
September 26th, 2007 at 8:07 am
I’ve been reading Stuart Wilde, and he has the philosophy of picking up any money, no matter how small. The reason is that the “universe” is giving you money, you’ve got to take it! to the “universe” there is no big or small. So if you play lottery and hope for the “free” money of the mega-millions, but then don’t pick up the “free” penny, you are telling the “universe” that you don’t really want the free money. So I pick up any money I find. :)
October 9th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Whenever I see money outside I pick it up unless I am in the street and going to be hit by a car. Found money is great. I have a bank with all the money that I have found in the past 8 years. I have a few dollar bills, at least one five and lots of silver coins. Unless I am in danger… I will pick up money.
http://www.urbanfrugal.com
October 13th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I don’t pick up found money unless it’s an obsene amount. I couldn’t tell you how many comic books, candy bars and soda pops were financed by found money for my friends and I when I was a kid. So I always imagine some kid picking up the change or small bills and having a holiday. I wouldn’t want to deprive any kids today of that wonderful feeling I used to have when spending found money.
Unless it’s like a fifty dollar bill or something. Tough luck, kiddo.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I pick up coins, dollars whatever, finders keepers losers weepers!
November 4th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
I was unloading a motorcycle at my home one day and saw what appeared to be a dollar bill at the end of a storm drain. I walked over to it and to my surprise it was a $20. Didn’t feel bad at all for picking it up, and it was totally worth the 10 seconds spent picking it up.
November 10th, 2007 at 5:15 am
I can not leave the penny lying around in the ground if I’ve seen it already. It is all money, money is dirty, who cares, we can use it all.
I’m now trying to show Londoners how much money they throw away by setting myself a challenge to buy a premium bond in the end…
http://www.stooly.com/london-guide/premium-bond-challenge/
April 11th, 2008 at 9:39 am
for some reason i feel funny picking up money (or litter, btw) if i think someone may be watching. It’s as if picking up something from the ground is dirty or shameful.
Ya got me where this came from!
Yet i often pick up litter, especially recyclable bottles, but only pick it up when no one’s around.