Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Step 7: 32¢ to 64¢

Yesterday I found another bottle on the way to the bank, and today my wife found a nickel at the supermarket.

So that brings our Total Stake now to 41¢, 2 cans, and 2 plastic bottles. Total value: 61¢

There's a little story with each of these "nickels".

First, I realized that had he not been looking for money, he would have just driven by this bottle.  If nothing else, this exercise is helping us clean up the litter.

My wife upon leaving the grocery store, remembered that she should be looking for money. And as soon as she remembered that she should be doing that, she found the nickel laying on top of the copy machine at the store's entrance.

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Step 1 - Nothing to 1¢

Our Plan: To find a single (Magic) Penny!

After buying a few groceries last night and recycling some cans, we went looking around the plaza sidewalks for a penny. What we found were 2 cans and a bottle that we took back to the grocery store and redeemed for 15¢. This we believed would advance us to Step 5: 8¢ to 16¢.

Upon getting home, my wife reread the rules in the free e-book "How to Double Your Way to a Million" (you can get your free copy at http://doubleyourwaytoamillion.blinkweb.com) and believed that we had broken Rule #1 - Find A Penny.

After some heated debate (most of, if not all of, the heat coming from me) I insisted that we go back out, start at Step 1 again, and find a penny that night.

So together we left at 10:30 PM with the moon shining full, the night just beginning to cool the heat from the day, and the air hung heavy and still with humidity. Heat lightening occasionally filled the clouds.

My wife suggested that we start at the K-Mart parking lot.

Flashlight in hand, we searched around the vending machines in front of the K-Mart, down to the Garden Center, and across the parking lot. We searched around the phones at the Mobile station, the Burger King, the bus stop, the local diner, and then got our car and went to the Price Chopper Plaza next door.

After walking almost to the end of the plaza sidewalk there, with my wife on the sidewalk, and I in the street of the parking lot, I found a Penny! A 1975 Penny, Heads UP!

While searching for the Magic Penny we also found 2 more bottles and 2 more cans.

Before heading home, we took the bottles and cans back to the Price Chopper to redeem them, and found a third can in the redemption machine. Because of malfunctioning machines and the brands not being accepted at the store, we were only able to redeem 1 bottle and 1 can.

So our Total Stake now is 36¢, 2 cans, and a plastic bottle. Total value: 51¢

So after we get the cans and bottles redeemed, we will have advanced to Step 7 of the 28 Steps, going from 32¢ to 64¢

Right now, we our best plan is to find 3 more bottles and cans to redeem.