Last week, my roommate decided that it was time to cash in his fish bowl which he has been depositing his change in for the last 18 months. With the promise of reward (for helping him transport the heavy bowl without spillage), I accompanied him to Fred Meyer, with the intention of using the "CoinStar" machine to count the change.The CoinStar machine gave us three options:
1. Donate the change to charity. Not a percentage, but all of it. This clearly wasn't going to happen.
2. Get a gift card for the change. Although Amazon.com does have nearly everything, my roommate was looking to get cash for his change.
3. Get cash, but with a 9.8% service fee. 9.8%? They must be crazy. That's nearly 10¢/$1. No.
So, instead, we obtained paper coin rolls (free from any bank!) so we could roll the coins ourselves, and then trade them for cash at the bank (for a 0% fee).
It turned out there was over $180 in change in that bowl. As promised (for my help), my roommate bought us a pizza dinner last night (which was delicious).
Most interestingly, though, was how relaxing rolling coins (with a movie in the background) was for me. I mean, I REALLY enjoyed it. Probably way more than I should have. I was actually disappointed when we ran out of coins to roll. My calling in life is clearly to roll coins. However, banks have machines that do it for them. Another one bites the dust.
Joe's Dream Occupations:
1. professional basketball player
2. explorer
3. lamplighter
4. switchboard operator
5. coin roller
6. banana republic dictator (<--- I still have a good feeling about this one)
2 comments:
Any banana republic would be lucky to have you as a dictator, although it seems unlikely to have a new small country to rule over until the next Republican administration comes into the White House. Something to look forward to!
I just need to make sure it's a country with no natural resources that U.S. president might want for himself...
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