We are building up dollars with fractions

We have been finding an average of a little more than $.20 each day since our initial quest of The Lincoln Penny Project. Some days allow us to be out hunting more than others, but it's still awesome to be able to pick up a coin of any kind that will add to the pot. So far the project has brought in over $33.00, which isn't bad for picking lost money up off the ground over the last few months. It's not that we are going out of our way to locate this lost change either....Well we might park farther away in a parking lot from the grocery store, but this allows us to get in some more exercise while our eyes peek at the pavement.

Look at the portion of a $1.00 bill that we found. This is obviously a fraction of a dollar, but unfortunately can not be used. All of the pennies, dimes, nickels and quarters that we find on the ground soon adds up to the mighty dollar.

What could $33.00 do for a charity? What if 100 other people or families did the same things as we are doing and donated it to a charity. We challenge you to not go out of your way and look on the ground-you will be amazed at the amount of change that you will end up finding. Just think if 10 people found $.05 per day-this would equal $182.50 in one year. What if 1,000 people found a nickel a day? This would calculate out to $18,250.00. One million people that found $.05 each day would bring in $18,250,000.00 in one year. It sure makes our $33.00 look small, but this shows the power of community involvement with small amounts of money from everyone. What if everyone in the United States put $.05 each day into a pot for one year. You work out the math on this one....Incredible! That's what fractions of one dollar do for you. They eventually add up to a big number.

Daily total find: $.27

Grand total to date: $33.66

New car wash stop brings in $.27

Another job site took me to a different car wash. It's always great to run into a new place for coin hunting-especially when it produces the mighty round object(s). Most stops produce some kind of find-and this one brought in two dimes and seven pennies.

Daily total find: $.27
Grand total to date: $30.54
120 finding days averages out to $.25 per day

High fives for The Lincoln Penny Project!

Breakdowns of the week.... Topping the $30.00 mark!

Here's another week for The Lincoln Penny Project. Let's see how we did!

Last week's grand total was: $26.92

This week's grand total is: $30.03

$5.00 (1) = $5.00

$1.00 (2) = $2.00

$.25 (49) + 2 Canadian (51) = $12.75

$.10 (52) + 1 Canadian (54) = $5.40

$.05 (25) = $1.35

$.01 (367) 3 wheat backs, 3 Canadian (373) = $3.73

This is an 11% increase from last week.

$.14 for the day!

When Andrea came home, she said that she tracked down $.07 for the day (one nickel and two pennies). I found the same amount-with the same coin combination. How many times does that happen....never. At least it hasn't happened since The Lincoln Penny Project started on July 12, 2009.

Daily total find: $.14
Grand total to date: $28.81
113 finding days averages out to $.25 per day

Breakdown of finds for the week

Here is another breakdown for the week. We have been doing this breakdown post for over a month now. It's awesome to see the pot grow, and the weekly percentage increase shows great returns. Remember this has not taken a lot of effort on our part or we haven't gone completely out of our way. These are things that we do daily for our job, our business and our way of life. These are places that we have to go to, or places that are next door to the places that we need to be at. Again, this might exhaust an extra 15-30 minutes a day from our schedule. How much time do you waste? To us this is just part of our day-or our 15 minute break. If you are not looking, you will not find. Keep your eyes on the prize!

Breakdown of finds:

$5.00 (1) = $5.00

$1.00 (2) = $2.00

$.25 (41) + 2 Canadian = $10.75

$.10 (50) + 1 Canadian = $5.10

$.05 (19) = $.95

$.01 (312) = $3.12 (includes 3 wheat back pennies)

Total finds to date: $26.92

Pennies prove to be the easiest to spot and nickels are the most difficult of the coins to find.

Percentage of increase from previous weekly breakdowns.

9/29/09 Total finds to date: $13.33

10/6/09 Total finds to date: $17.23 (22.6% gain for the week)

10/13/09 Total finds to date: $20.02 (14% gain for the week)

10/20/09 Total finds to date: $21.28 (6% gain for the week)

10/27/09 Total finds to date: $26.92 (21% gain for the week)

Happy Hunting!

Here's my morning cup of joe!

The ordinary Jane might go to the local coffee barista and pick up an average cup of joe. It might mean that this person goes 15 minutes out of their way for their morning fix. It could also be that this person might go in the afternoon for a second run-which calculates to shelling out some dough. We all get a set amount of time in a day-and how we use that time is precious. Here's what I'm getting at. I don't like coffee and I'm not much of a time waster. The time that I waste really doesn't feel like lost time.

Our family recently got on the money finding kick. Here's the scoop.... Lost change, coins, bills are everywhere. We are not putting a lot of time into hunting, searching, looking...etc., but we are finding. It's amazing. It's not a lot of money, but it's still incredible to come across a find of any kind. Why do people throw their money away? We are baffled. Are you?

What would you do if you found lost change on your errands? Our plan is to keep some for a rainy day fund or Disney fund, but also give back to a charity of our choice. We have considered the backpack program for hungry kids, a food lifeline program through Washington State or to cancer research. Granted it's not a lot of money yet, but each week we add to the pot.

We are spending less than 15 minutes a day on our quest for the coin, and it's not everyday that we are able to search. This equates to $1.00 per hour.....Can we raise this hourly rate? How about averaging more than a quarter a day. Come back to see how we are doing. We welcome you!

Daily total find: $.85

Grand total to date:$26.37

106 finding days averages out to $.25 per day.

This could equate to $91.25 per year.

First wheat back find since this quest began!

Wow! Finally the first wheat back penny uncovered. It's not like we took a metal detector over some land, dug down several inches and pulled up a treasure. This Lincoln Wheat Back Penny was sitting out in the open for all to see. It's a 1954S that's in decent shape for being 50+ years old. It was found at one of my favorite car wash stations. I needed to vacuum my truck out and noticed the Lincoln's Wheat Back staring up at me near my left front tire.

Before I used the vacuum, I toured the station-doing my rounds for the find. This one stop produced $.53 (2 quarters and 3 pennies). This sum was the same as yesterday. An earlier stop at Wal Mart brought in 6 pennies. The early morning find's total is $.59. Not bad!

Back to the car wash station. One vacuum area had a set of keys on the pavement. I snapped a picture of it and held on to the keys. The attendant was just pulling up while I was vacuuming. When I finished the job, I brought the keys up to him-letting him know what I found. He thanked me and asked if I wanted a free car wash. I thanked him and said I need to get to a job site. What an awesome day!

Update for the rest of the day. We ended up finding an additional $.36. The find came up with a Canadian quarter, one dime and a penny.

Total daily find: $.95

Grand total to date: $22.23

101 finding days averages out to $.22 per day.

Look what Max found!

The first find of the day was when I was passing out flyers around a job site we were working on. I found Mr. Roosevelt face up as I was making the rounds.

Max and I stopped by the our favorite car wash on the way home after our post office visit. Max couldn't believe what he saw in the garbage; a shiny Washington Quarter. He also found 3 pennies right by the vacuum section. The last find was another quarter-which I spotted on the ground near one of the car wash stalls.

Daily find: $.63

Total to date: $17.86

87 finding days averages out to $.20 per day