My newest fascination has come from an article I remember reading several years ago. Apparently, Americans literally throw away billions of change every year! I know, pretty unbelievable–except that I thought back to my high school and college days, and remembered throwing away a few pennies found in the corners of rooms while vacuuming and sweeping. (I can’t believe I confessed that to you all).

How can I–and the rest of us frugalites–cash in on some of that? For the next month I have decided to go on ‘moneywalks‘, and put any change I find into a big change jar. I will also add any loose change found around our home. At the end of the month I will cash this jar in and put it towards our honeymoon account.

Last night I took my first moneywalk and was very happy to have a reason to go outside and walk around. Around 7:00pm I walked up to Hermann Park, utterly convinced I would find lots of loose change from the July 4th crowd the night before. Some pitfalls: shiny, silver bottle tops, dogwalkers (who, it appears, do not just drop change out of their pockets like I had thought they would), and competition from homeless people who are undoubtedly looking for change as well. In the end, all I found was a mutilated penny.
 

Who knows, it could be a fun and lucrative hobby to have (this family has accumulated $1,100 since 2005 and will be donating it to charity once they reach $10,000). If nothing else, it is a motivating force to get me outdoors and exercising!

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