Budget Sense

What are the best places or spots to find money in the form of loose change in public? speaking from personal experience, the list of three places below is guaranteed to help you find money the next time you happen to be in one of them. Remember, take it only if the money can’t be returned to its rightful owners; just trying to keep ourselves honest here!

3 places to find loose change money in public

• Vending machines and self pay parking : though more and more people are starting to use their credit cards to pay at these machines, some are still the old-fashioned way, only accepting coins. If you look closely or reach with your finger, it is amazing how much loose change is often left at the slot where rejected and returned coins are deposited.  And this is more prominent for parking lot self-pay machines. I don’t know why that is the case, but I guess people are in rush to get where they want to go, or don’t know how much money is needed exactly, so they deposit their loose change to pay, take their parking pass and leave. Try this the next few times you are paying for parking or at a vending machine.
• Near the cashier at gas stations and grocery stores: this one never fails. Can’t go a few visits without spotting some loose change on the floor, at the foot of where you pay at a gas station, grocery or convenience stores in general. There is no secret to this, while people are trying to pay, they take out the money out of pocket, and unknowingly some of it drop and they don’t even notice. Heck, they probably do but don’t bother when it is a nickle or dime. Funny story: two weeks ago, I was at the check-out lane, paying for some items at the grocery store. An old lady that was ahead of me called me to let me know that I dropped some change. When I looked, there was 2 quarters that someone else had dropped. I told her I didn’t drop them and if they are not hers, I would take them. It wasn’t hers, so I went ahead and took them!

• At the foot of Drive-Thru ATM Machines: this one has always puzzled me. Why the hell would there be loose change at the bottom of drive-thru ATM machines? it is not like the ATM is dispensing coins. So how do they end up there, especially when drivers are in their car to withdraw the money?  Obviously, compared to the two spots I discussed above, this one is more rare and not as frequent. But I would say I still find coins here at least 3 times a year. It all started 10 years ago when I was approaching an ATM machine with my car to withdraw some money. As I got closer, I noticed lots of change on the floor (right at the foot of the machine) . When I opened the door, there was close to $1.50 or more in there. I didn’t make anything of it and thought it was just by accident. But in the next months and years, this would repeat, and I don’t remember one year going by without finding some money at the foot of drive-thru ATM machines. My only explanation as to how this is happening is that people have their cards in the same pocket where their loose change is, so in a rush to take it out, some coins go out flying through the window! I don’t care how it happens (well I do feel bad for those who lose their money, but it is only few cents anyway!) as long as I spot and take it!

There you have it! Finding loose change at these spots won’t make you rich now or ever, but it will give you that cool feeling of finding money on the floor. Just put it in a piggy bank and in a few years, there may be enough there to buy you something worthwhile!

The banking industry is changing. It is currently undergoing one of its biggest shifts. The future is all about technology. Your bank’s mobile app is

Self-checkout and automation are costing our society jobs

slowly but gradually replacing your visit to your local branch. And as more people become comfortable with banking on their computers and smartphones, there will be less and less need for physical branches. This will mean the loss of of jobs. In fact this may already be starting to happen in some parts of the country.

This increased banking convenience for us is coming at the expense of bank jobs. And banks certainly don’t have a problem with having less staff, it will just mean more profits for them and their shareholders. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in capitalism and shareholder equity, but I also believe stakeholder (works, consumers, vendors etc.) come first and until these are taken care of, shareholder equity won’t matter much for the economy as a whole.  Therefore, I believe it is more important than ever before, to visit your local branch and use the services of a teller. Even if it is something as simple as withdrawing money which you could do at the ATM machine. Unless you see a long line-up, always try to go inside to do your banking. Those few minutes you spend inside ensure that you are helping someone keep their job. Multiply that by millions around the country doing the same thing and the result is tens of thousands of bank employees keeping their jobs. And when these can keep their jobs, imagine the trickle-down effect that can have for the economy.

Banks are not alone at this. We are increasingly seeing more and more self checkout counters at grocery and big box stores. They are there for our convenience, but if used a lot, it means job losses for employees at thousands of big box stores and grocery stores nationwide.  Similar to your visit to the bank, and unless there is a long line up at the other check-out lines, skip them as much as you can. Ensure someone or a lot of people are able to keep their jobs. And it is only costing you a few minutes if not less. Heck, lately, I have been seeing more people at the self check-out counter than at ones attended by a real human cashier!

Restaurants have joined this trend too and introduced self-ordering and paying systems, where you can order and even pay through an automated system, and skip straight to pick your meal. Don’t bother! Skip the new automated ordering screen at McDonald’s and go to the counter instead. Help a student, a mom, or someone else keep their job. And by the way, even if you choose to the cashier, I don’t know if you are saving any time by ordering yourself. I mean the cashier knows the menu and the ordering system better and would probably be faster at taking your order than you can do it yourself.

The irony is, we may have inadvertently used these new technologies and skipped the human interaction for the sake of convenience and saving time, and in the process have cost us or someone we know their job. And if it hasn’t yet, it may happen in the future, where there is less demand for humans and more love for machines. In a previous post, we had discussed the ‘Amazon effect‘ and how it is killing jobs locally. Coming up in a future article, we will expand on that further and how buying online is also killing jobs. we all want to save money and time, who doesn’t? problem is, we are falling for it so much that we are overlooking the big picture, where we are losing thousands and thousands of jobs every month due to some form of automation. When these jobs are lost, we are losing much needed tax revenue, spending money and more, than can keep the economic cycle and prosperity going.

Be wary of automation at your local bank, grocery stores and other big box stores. Use them only sparingly and always look for real humans to check out. It will only mean less jobs lost in the future. And when when more people are working, it can only be good for the economy.