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Dryer Lint and Pennies
By Daphne | February 21, 2008
There are a lot of things that we waste. We all know about saving electricity, or conserving water. What about dryer lint?
This is something that everyone has access to if they wash then dry their clothes in a dryer yet all we do with it is throw it away. You may have more use for it if you have a home with a compost heap or fireplace. Two uses I saw for this would be to put the dryer lint in your compost heap and also use some of it to help get a fire started.
For true penny pinchers, they will find a use for dryer lint. It is something that is to be thrown away. Unless I amass a great amount of it there is no use for dryer lint.
Just as people find no use for dryer lint, some people are finding that there is no use for the penny. I’m never one to step over a penny unless it’s in the street and I will be run over. Pennies are not fashionable and people just throw them away because you can’t buy anything with just one penny anymore. Though if you put several pennies together you can use them to purchase something. Even if you added a few pennies a day to your debt at the end of the month or to your investments you would decrease your debt.
Look around your house, you can’t spend dryer lint, but you can spend a penny or save one. Anyone who wants to get rid of a penny because there is no use has never gone out of the way to save a few pennies.
If prices were rounded up you would have greater inflation than we are experiencing now.
In an interview with “60 Minutes” the U.S. Mint Director comments on this…
“We’ve taken a look at the studies of countries who have gotten rid of the lowest denomination coin. There’s always at least a one-time inflationary hit upwards,” U.S. Mint Director Edmund Moy says.
People have different reasons for holding on to the penny. Sentimental reasons, or inflation or knowing that even with the cost of the penny being more than a penny to make the Federal Reserve still makes a profit because other money costs less to make. So the penny (and nickel) are the government’s loss leaders.
Since “60 Minutes” had a segment on television this month about doing away with the penny, this has made me think about the coin again. Maybe it’s because “Old Abe” is from my home state or because rounding cents up to the nearest nickel would cause needless inflation and hurt those who need money the most, I favor keeping the penny. Besides more people are likely to contribute to a penny drive than they are to a nickel drive. There are more uses for pennies than for dryer lint.
A one-time hit is something we don’t need. With the current economy, it may be more than a one time hit if we abolish the penny and round things up. We still use the mill equivalent to 1/10 of a penny. You see in the extra 9/10 you pay for gas, or other values such as property taxes or electricity which are all rounded up.
For more information on the penny, see Americans for Common Cents and “Does Doing Away with Cents Make Sense?”
Topics: February 2008 |