Found change challenge

"Find a penny, pick it up, the rest of the day you'll have good luck"

A silly saying but good words to live by in my opinion.  I was out in the field for work the other day which involved me walking up and down a busy street in my town, cataloging the condition of the public right-of-way.  Over the course of the day I found a dime and three pennies.  The next morning I found a dime left over in the checkout at the U-scan and a penny in the parking lot when I went grocery shopping.  Yet another dime appeared on my walk around the neighborhood later that day.  It occurred to me that I find a lot of spare change as I walk around.

I asked S how much change he finds throughout the year and he says he rarely finds any. I don't think it's because I am extra lucky that I stumble across free money more than other people.  I think the following things lead me to find free change:

1. I notice it when I see it.  My sister used to call me hawk-eye when we were little because I could always find dropped earring backs, needles, and other tiny objects that get lost when dropped onto a busy backdrop.  But I don't think I have keener eyes than others, I think I just recognize the value in loose change where others would blindly pass over a spare penny because it is worth so little.

2. I go out of my way to pick up spare change.  It's one thing to notice dropped change, it's another thing to walk over and pick it up if it's not in your direct path.  I always go out of my way to pick up spare change.

3. There's no shame in my game.  I'm not embarrassed to pick up a penny on the road just because I happen to be walking with a co-worker or because it's on the floor in a busy grocery store.  

Sunday evening I decided to do a little found change challenge.  For the next year I'm not only going to pick up any loose change I randomly come across, I'm actually going to start looking for it (I'll do some posts along the way on ways to find spare change).  I'm going to set aside all this found change in a jar.  Next July I'll count up the change and see how much free money I can find in a year.  I've even convinced S to participate so hopefully he'll start keeping his eyes open for loose change too.