How would you like your change?
Two tens have the same value as a twenty. Wadded up or neatly ordered, paper currency has the same value either way. But a lot of us may have strong preferences for how we hold our cash.
I bring this up because I reached into my own wallet this afternoon to find a single, two fives, and a twenty. They were out of order, a couple upside-down, and one of the fives was folded awkwardly. Grrr.... Slightly annoyed, I pulled the four bills out and reordered them neatly, all facing the same way, right side up, and ordered in lowest value to highest, from top to bottom.
No OCD here, just a preference for having my cash in order. I couldn't tell you why it matters to me, other than having taken to heart my retail training from 35 years ago, when the bills were to be stacked just so in the drawer.
Other peeves? I don't like receiving change with the clerk handing back the bills into my palm first and then dropping the coins on top of them. What am I supposed to do with that? Instead of cradled neatly in my palm, the coins are loose, on top of a relatively slick surface. I now need to pick them up with the hand I have free and maneuver them into the coin slot of my wallet, still grasping the bills with the other hand... Awkward.
And what about those coins? How many do you carry around? Do you just keep all the coin change you receive and use it as you spend? Do you drop the coins in tips jars, charity boxes, or a coin jar at home for later consolidation? If you save them, how is the cash used later?
I usually have a few coins with me, but they are heavy so I don't keep a lot. When I have too much change, whatever that means, I drop the excess into a coin cup at home. Jim drops the pennies in another jar and raids the rest for coffee. I've never asked what happens to the pennies.
Our younger generation hardly uses cash or coins at all. My son pays for almost everything with a debit card, so he rarely has cash. This may be the way of the world ultimately, but right now the parking meters still take coins.
How do you like your change? How do you carry the bills and coins? What do you do with coins?
Since the name of the diary is "Cash", I thought I'd link to a song from favorite Johnny Cash. Thoroughly appropriately, it is the Ballad of Forty Dollars.