Don’t worry, I’m not about to start espousing the merits of the ConLib government. Today I’d like to talk about change in the monetary sense.
I’ve become mildly obsessed with paying for small items with very specific amounts of change. I’d normally hand over a few pound coins for whatever I was buying and get a fistful of coppers in return. Many people, as in the photo above, collect this useless amount of cash in a jar to eventually be taken to a bank or a lazy money counting machine that charges you a fee to convert it back into usable cash. I too did this and have a heavy tin of coins at home that serves as an excellent paperweight and/or projectile weapon as the situation dictates.
Recently though I’ve been getting rid of my change in a slightly more creative way – I’ve been overpaying. Occasionally you may have been asked by the cashier, when trying to use a £20 note to buy something worth £1.10, if you’ve ‘got the 10p’. The reason being fairly obvious that if you overpay by the 10p you can receive larger denomination of change in return (in this example, a tenner, a fiver, and four pound coins).
I’ve been taking that to the next level by overpaying pretty much every time if I have the coins to do it whether I’m asked to or not. My regular coffee costs £1.73 – a very inconvenient amount – and so on several occasions I’ve handed over £2.23 in payment in order to get a nice shiny 50p back, and suddenly instead of having a load of pennies I didn’t want I’m back to a nice usable silver coin.
Not only does doing this making me feel stupidly clever somehow, I also find myself getting downright annoyed if I don’t have the change to make this possible. I console myself with the knowledge that if I can’t do it this time I’ll definitely have enough coin flexibility so that I can do it next time. The other fringe benefit to this eccentric practice is seeing how many cashiers comprehend what it is you’re trying to do when you give them too much money. Thankfully many deftly ring it into the till and hand back correct change, some almost hand it back before doing a double-take and realising my intent, and others stare at me blankly and say ‘You’ve given me too much money’, prompting me to explain my overpaying logic.
Not for the first time, I think I’m a bit odd.