Give It Up For Change

I'm not tight-fisted, but being a full-time college student (aka: I have no real job that pays my bills while I've got my nose in the books) means that my budget is slim at best.

But at full-time broke status, even I have the proverbial 'spare change jar' that sits in my room collecting the random penny and such. I wag it off to the credit union about every three months or so and deposit its contents into my checking account.

The change comes mostly from broken dollar bills I use to get a cookie at school or a cup of coffee for that second round of studying. I realize most of us do this, although I would imagine it happens less and less often as we move towards carrying more plastic and less paper money.

That very thought entered my mind as I swiped my debit card Saturday at a local grocery. The little screen said, "Your total is: $13.09 Would you like to donate to the MDA today? YES NO "

I invariably click NO on anything other than okaying my total, but that day I was thinking about change. Not just change in my jar, but change in behavior, change in perspective, change in me. So I clicked YES and had the cashier round my total the next dollar amount.

Right, so, it was a whopping $0.91 but it was $0.91 that (had I broken paper money) would have been dumped into my change jar at home. Instead, I dumped into in a collective that might find it's way to happier child somewhere.

It felt nice.