$avin it - 2/24/09 - Hollywood

So I had eventful time in Southern California this past week. I had a blast cooking, spending time in the Inland Empire and then going to the Razzie Awards to assist with parking. For those who do not know, the 29th Annual Razzie Awards were created by John Wilson and is a tradition the night before the Oscars to give out awards for the Worst Films of the Year (the nominations also come out a day before the Oscars). If there is the best, then why not the worst too right? Ironicially the awards show took place on Hollywood Blvd. (the 4800 block to be exact) at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre which is on the other side of the Kodak Theatre where the actual Oscars were held. On a side note, congrats to all of the Oscar winners!

Even the Pantages Theatre felt small compared to the Kodak...Poor baby...

Mike Myers' "Love Guru" took home three awards and man, I wanted to see that movie too! I guess it really really sucked! Good ol' 007, Pierce Brosnan got himself an award for Worst Supporting Actor in "Mamma Mia." I always wondered if he could sing...I guess not! And Paris Hilton won Worst Actress Award for her role in "Hottie and the Nottie" And a director I have never ever heard of till now won the Worst Career Acheivement Award. Uwe Boll, I don't think I will ever seen your films, because the clips that were shown at the Razzies was crap!

Uwe Boll; How we love ya! NOT!

So my buddy whose name is Marc Anthony (wait for it, wait for it...) agreed upon three highlights of the evening....

1. Seeing Ross the Intern from the Jay Leno show was sweet (He really sounds like he does on TV!)

2 Hearing then seeing an aftermath of a three car accident on Hollywood Blvd. was way more interesting than watching the Razzies at one point only because one of the drivers got out of his car and started dropping 'f-bombs'.

3. Watching "The Biggest Loser" and seeing one of the contestants complain about another one saying, she had "Thirty years to lose all the weight by herself."

So also I tried Tommy's Burgers for the first time and that stuff was delish! The chili dogs were huge and the chili fries were excellent! That type of food hit the spot! As for the rest of the trip, a little of McDonalds here, some CPK there and all an all a nice fattening food type of week with a whole lot of change to $ave!

Total change - $2.23

February $aves - $5.24

$avin It - 2/16/09

This is a late post for President's Day, but it was alright. I don't know why, but I am addicted to two types of fast food french fries, McDonalds and In 'n Out. So I went to McDonalds for fries and a drink. I wasn't too hungry from lunch, so I decided to just eat a snack. Stuff's so good!

Anyways, today's lunch was so good, I didn't eat dinner tonight! I was just too full to eat. Cooked up this excellent Corn Chowder and Cheese Enchilada's with my bestest friend! I will make them again because it is so easy to make!! Amazing!

Great...I am craving the food again...

Anyways, some nice $ave's from McDonalds yesterday. A total of 70 cents to be added! YEAH!!

Total change on the day - $0.70
February $aves - $3.01

$avin It - 2/13/09

Condolenses to the family and friends of the airline accident that took 50 lives in surburban Buffalo recently. Sad story...

Today was an interesting Friday the 13th. I found 10 cents in my bathroom near the hamper and then went to Office Max to purchase a new mouse for my laptop and found a nickel. Then I found three cents at work and receieved 92 cents in change after purchasing a bag of chips and an apple soft drink...

Speaking of Pennies, what do you use them for?

Seems like most coins that are found on the ground are pennies. It is either no one cares to pick them up because they might tweak their back or they just don't think 'one damned cent' is worth it. Here is a random list of things you can do with pennies...

1. Pay 50 cents and mold the penny into a coin from your favorite attraction such as Alcatraz Island or Disneyland.
2. Collect the pennies and save it.
3. Throw them at a random incoming freshman at your high school.
4. See how high you can stack your pennies before the stack falls over.
5. Throw it into a wishing well/pond.
6. Walk, accidently drop a penny on the ground, look down at it, and say "I'm too lazy to pick that shit up," then walk away...

Interestingly, I have done pretty much everything with pennies with the exception of number 3. I actually found a couple of dollars throughout my high school days in pennies because many of the upper classmen though that it was cool to throw pennies at freshmen. Freshmen must be worth something if you are throwing money at them right? Too bad they weren't throwing $100 bills...

Total change on the day $1.10

Time to $ave it!

February $aves - $2.31
2009 $aves - $2.31

Coin Tip: The Suzy Orman 4 Penny Rule

This is for all you coin people that just despise the copper (a.k.a. pennies)...

A while back I was reading a MSNMoney.com article from Suzy Orman who wrote The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke (which is a great read even for the older folks) and she wrote about the "4 Penny Rule."

The ideal is to always carry four pennies with you in your wallet or purse. This means that you will always get some type of silver coin back if you use the pennies. In my last entry I spent $5.43 and received 57 cents back in change. If I had given the cashier an extra three pennies, I would have recieved 60 cents back, which would likely be all in silver coins.

Certainly having $10 in quarters, $5 in dimes, $2 in nickels would be much nicer to have than just 50 cents in pennies wrapped up and ready to be Ca$hed right?

$avin' It - Birthday Style - 2/9/09

I would like to wish my father a Happy Birthday today! We went to a nice restaurant in Alameda, CA called Asena. I enjoyed the meal as I had a Whole Stuffed Eggplant with Lamb, with an Endive Salad and a Chocolate Pot de Creme. The meal was fantastic!

But, before dinner my sister and I need to get dad a card, so we bought him a Star Wars card that played the Darth Vader theme song. He really likes the movie Star Wars, so I thought that the card was a nice gesture. The card was $5.43 and the change I received was 57 cents!

Time to $ave it!

February $aves - $1.21
2009 $aves - $1.21

$avin' It - 2/8/09

Currently, I have $15.50 ready to go to the bank, but I have decided not to count this for Ca$hed total, so my jar is starting out with $1.45.

So my mom wanted me to purchase some green onions for our chicken dinner, so I went over to Safeway to get some onions. I spent $1.38 and received 62 cents back in change. I also found two pennies, so that makes a total of 64 cents! The find just made my day even better as I found $5.00 at the golf course earlier that morning!

Time to $ave it!

February $aves - $0.64
2009 $aves - $0.64

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, $ave & Ca$h Your Coin!

My sister and I were never fans of shopping when we were younger, so to keep ourselves occupied, we always had a "friendly competition" to see how much money we could find at the shopping center. Little did I know that this would actually help me learn about money and the nuiances of the classical phrase, "A penny saved is a penny earned." I continued to stick the coins into a big jar and after saving, the total added to over $100 dollars. A hundred dollars may not be much, but to a kid, its a gold mine. How much candy or soda's can you buy with that much money?!?!

So what is this blog for? Well, back in college my buddy (who I am still good friends with today), hated the ideal of having change. Any penny, nickel, quarter, he despised, so I when I went with him to get fast food, he said that I could keep the change. Sometimes it was 37 cents, sometimes it was 15 cents, but in the long run as I saved the change, it began to add up.

I have to give credit to CNN.com article about The New York City Changepot in order to get this blog started. I really did not think that someone could blog about saving change over a period of years, but I guess any thing is blogable nowadays...

$ave & Cash Yo Coin!

-RF