Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Thrift Booty

  After the last posting we at the Amish Viking received many emails inquiring about our approach to money. Since personal finance is a woefully under represented topic on blogs I have decided to be of service.  Several people have also asked how I balance the two seemingly opposing sides of my upbringing.  On the one hand you have my mother's influence.  This is the honest, hard working people of the rural farm.  They work for peace, understand the value of a day’s work, and enjoy knowing their money is earned with valuer.  The other side is my father and his sea faring people.  They don't mind taking what's theirs, even if at one time it belonged to you.  They actually prefer showing up in the middle of the night, dumping your belongings into a trunk and leaving before the sun rises.  Most have enjoyed several stiff drinks before the work begins.  
  I have found some middle ground.  Recently my job in a large office building has decided to move.  As you may have read in past postings I don't mind picking up a penny from the ground.  I don't mind taking any of your change, but I will not do it without your knowledge or atleast the comfort of knowing it was left on the ground without a second thought.  How does this apply to an office moving buildings; there are many “without a second thoughts” going on in there. 
  I have decided to check abandoned and empty desks for loose change.  Its going very well.  As of 2 days before the official move I have found $2.78.  I call this approach to personal finance Thrift Booty.  (Clearly in the personal finance world booty is a synonym for lute or plunder.  Keep it family). 
  In further blog postings I hope to expand my approach to Thrift Booty and all the financial wonders it offers.  I endeavor to leave no path to Thrift Booty un-explored.  This does not mean however that I am beginning a personal finance blog, I will simply offer my insight on Thrift Booty as it arises. 
  Do you have any suggestions of how I can follow my desire to take what's yours while keeping my Amish principles intact.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

$4 or $5 at most

  Today I found 2 pennies on the street on my way to lunch.  This might sound like nothing, but I have found a penny while walking around at work every day for the past 2 weeks.  That brings me to 11 cents.  If this average holds till the end of the year I’ll be able to buy a coffee.  If I find some dimes I might be able to make it a latte.
  It is also possible that my luck will be multiplied.  What follows happened a few months ago, all the names have been changed to protect my profit.

 Yesterday I decided to change our loose coins into bills.  It worked out very well.  Our bank has a machine that you dump your coins into to be sorted and counted, and then it produces a receipt of what you have.   Take the receipt to the counter and get the bills, pretty simple.
  As I began the process a woman came up to ask if I had used the machine before or if I needed any assistance.  I smiled, thanked her and said, “No, I’m fine.” 
  I had the little mug that we keep in the drawer by the front door.  It is a Japanese style mug with no handle, about 2 inches wide and 3 inches tall.  Small enough to fit in a desk drawer.  I assume it holds about 4, maybe 5 dollars of pennies, nickels and dimes, no quarters because they go to the car for parking meters.
  So I dumped the coins and the computer on the machine made its electronic counting sounds, much like a Las Vegas slot machine.  I realized later that I didn’t hear any actual sounds of coins moving, but no big deal.  Then the computer said, “Oops, I was not able to count any of your coins, please press More if you have more coins or End if you are finished.”  I pressed End and the computer made more electronic counting sounds, but no true coin sounds, and the same Oops message came up.
  Thankfully the bank was nearly empty, no one was in line behind me, so I went to the counter and asked for help.  Soon one of the representatives walked over to help and commented on our cute little mug.
  At this point another employee came over to help, his name is Martin.  He opened the front door and slid the actual counter out.  As he took the top off the machine I saw a small mountain of coins.  He looked up and asked how I carried all of this change with me into the bank.  I smiled and said, “Martin, I don’t think all those coins are mine.”  He kept working and asked me to hold a bag of coins he had pulled out of the machine, say 6 lb worth.  As Martin kept retrieving the coins looking for the one that had blocked the sorter another employee walked over to help.  At this point I put our little mug in my coat pocket and sat down.
  They figured out where the problem was, fixed it, and began to feed my change back into the machine.  The other employee went back to work and again it was just Martin and I.  I said, “So Martin how does this work?”  Martin responded with, “If we find loose change at the end of the night we have to reconcile our balance sheet, so as far as the bank is concerned this is your money.”  I sat back down and tried to stop smirking.
  Pennies kept falling on the floor as Martin fed them to be counted, so I dutifully picked them up and returned them back to the machine.  Now the machine was making actual counting sounds and it was feeling more like Vegas with every passing coin.  Martin hit End and my receipt came out.
  All told our little Japanese mug was holding $49.89.  I staggered over to the counter, handed my receipt, and reminded myself to act natural.  I’ve been chuckling under my breath ever since.