As of March 30th 2008 this little project had reached the end of a year's worth of scrounging, finding and discovering the discarded monetary scraps of the British (and Canadian for 5 days) population.
Between my last post and the end of March another £3.68 and strangely 7 euro cents.
This has brought the total of the 2007/08 project to a surprising £34.90 with an additional $0.02Can and €0.12. As yet I'm still to decide upon a charity to donate to but will post here once I've sent them the money.
I've decided to carry this project on for another year simply out of curiosity. As the dreaded 'credit crunch' hits the world markets I'm interested to see if the amount of florr currency dwindles as people keep a closer eye on their own pockets and possibly be more inclined to pick up Street Change themselves as the belts are tightened.
Since March 30th a paltry total of £0.44 has been found on the streets of Bournemouth and London. Let's see how that total grows over another year...
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Monday, 7 January 2008
A new year, a first find...
A visit into the towns clubs and bars Friday night yielded a shiny new 20p piece on one of the dancefloors. And so the quest continues...
Tuesday, 1 January 2008
A much needed update...
It could be said that I have been 'rather', hmmm perhaps 'extremely' is a better word to use. I have been extremely lazy when it has come to updating this blog. The proof lies in the four months that it has been since I posted last.
That laziness however has not extended to this project as a whole. I have still been on the search for that elusive "Street Change" and suffice to say the amount collected from the floors, streets and fields of the UK has increased by quite an amount since August...
Reading Festival:
This is where a grey area enters this project. The aim is to find spare change, actual money, be it local currency or foreign, on the ground or left by others (I've found small bits of change left on bars in pubs and clubs during the past 9 months). All told in actual change terms my friends and I found £2.37 and a 5 Euro Cent at the Reading Festival.
That said the organisers of the festival ran their own incentive project surrounding the paper cups used to dispence the alcoholic refreshment (much neeeded on a hot Summer's day when there's a rock festival on!!!). They were offering 10 pence for every paper cup returned to designated collection points around the site the obvious idea being to save on paying people to do the work for them. Of course the majority of these cups are on the floor (usually - the Festival-going public appeared to forget that practise this year for some reason... ;) ). Basically I took this to mean that as the cups actually had a monetary worth at this years festival, if they were found on the floor this could qualify as 'streetchange'.
From this little endeavour an additional £6.50 was collected but I shall dub this the "Reading Cup project" and always list this as a seperate entry to the grand total.
Reading Festival Total = £8.87 + 0.05€
Bestival:
Just to prove that not all festivals are as beneficial to this project a measely £0.45 was found at Bestival, held on the Isle of Wight in September. That said Bestival is a truly great festival and I know that the organisers make sure it's one of the most charity minded regular festivals held out there. I'm guessing that everyone was handing their change in for good causes that weekend.
NFL:London Weekend:
My first note!!!!
Was lucky to find this little beauty right at my feet inside the stadium while I was queuing to buy an overpriced hotdog. The game between the Dolphins and Giants may have been lacklustre but this was an unexpected gem.
Total found from the weekend = £10.44
And while smaller hauls have been collected from other visits to various towns around the south of England their contribution has added up to almost the same amount that was found in the first 6 months of this Street Change challenge.
That's an additional £6.53 to the total!
So the grand total running from March throught to December 31st 2007 now sits at....
....wait for it....
£31.02 + €0.05 + $0.02CAN (I'd managed to lose one of the cent pieces I had found in Canada and found it under my desk a couple of weeks ago)
That laziness however has not extended to this project as a whole. I have still been on the search for that elusive "Street Change" and suffice to say the amount collected from the floors, streets and fields of the UK has increased by quite an amount since August...
Reading Festival:
This is where a grey area enters this project. The aim is to find spare change, actual money, be it local currency or foreign, on the ground or left by others (I've found small bits of change left on bars in pubs and clubs during the past 9 months). All told in actual change terms my friends and I found £2.37 and a 5 Euro Cent at the Reading Festival.
That said the organisers of the festival ran their own incentive project surrounding the paper cups used to dispence the alcoholic refreshment (much neeeded on a hot Summer's day when there's a rock festival on!!!). They were offering 10 pence for every paper cup returned to designated collection points around the site the obvious idea being to save on paying people to do the work for them. Of course the majority of these cups are on the floor (usually - the Festival-going public appeared to forget that practise this year for some reason... ;) ). Basically I took this to mean that as the cups actually had a monetary worth at this years festival, if they were found on the floor this could qualify as 'streetchange'.
From this little endeavour an additional £6.50 was collected but I shall dub this the "Reading Cup project" and always list this as a seperate entry to the grand total.
Reading Festival Total = £8.87 + 0.05€
Bestival:
Just to prove that not all festivals are as beneficial to this project a measely £0.45 was found at Bestival, held on the Isle of Wight in September. That said Bestival is a truly great festival and I know that the organisers make sure it's one of the most charity minded regular festivals held out there. I'm guessing that everyone was handing their change in for good causes that weekend.
NFL:London Weekend:
My first note!!!!
Was lucky to find this little beauty right at my feet inside the stadium while I was queuing to buy an overpriced hotdog. The game between the Dolphins and Giants may have been lacklustre but this was an unexpected gem.
Total found from the weekend = £10.44
And while smaller hauls have been collected from other visits to various towns around the south of England their contribution has added up to almost the same amount that was found in the first 6 months of this Street Change challenge.
That's an additional £6.53 to the total!
So the grand total running from March throught to December 31st 2007 now sits at....
....wait for it....
£31.02 + €0.05 + $0.02CAN (I'd managed to lose one of the cent pieces I had found in Canada and found it under my desk a couple of weeks ago)
Sunday, 12 August 2007
Spending money to find money...
I've noticed that the more money I tend to spend, the more money I find. Now while I'm happy that 'charity' generally benefits from this I'm wondering why my bank account, albeit indirectly for I'm not giving my money to a cause, is taking the hit! :)
I've also noticed a small trend in my streetchange location method. I tend to find only small bits, coppers if you will, when I'm actively seeking floor-fundage yet I tend to find silver coinage by simply looking down at my feet from time to time. This was further backed up this week when I found 5p at my feet when I was buying some new headphones. Then I found 5p at my feet when I went to get off the bus on the way home.
My ex-housemate's stag-do shenanigans last night yielded an additional 61p to the cause bringing the weekly total to 71p and sending the total to date over the £5 barrier.
I've also noticed a small trend in my streetchange location method. I tend to find only small bits, coppers if you will, when I'm actively seeking floor-fundage yet I tend to find silver coinage by simply looking down at my feet from time to time. This was further backed up this week when I found 5p at my feet when I was buying some new headphones. Then I found 5p at my feet when I went to get off the bus on the way home.
My ex-housemate's stag-do shenanigans last night yielded an additional 61p to the cause bringing the weekly total to 71p and sending the total to date over the £5 barrier.
Sunday, 5 August 2007
Wet month but dry in the streetchange stakes...
Yep, it had to happen. July proved to be a useless month for finding change. I have thought long and hard about it and I can attribute it to several possible factors.
1, Bournemouth is full of foreign students at this time of year.
Milling around in large numbers, waiting an age for their bus, these are the people who are more likely to find fallen change. Their limited knowledge of the currency will also mean that they're more likely to pick up money on the floor without the usual stigma attached to picking up 'coppers'.
2, Bournemouth is full of foreign students at this time of year.
A large number of English people have this weird idea that foreigners are stealing English jobs (idiots the lot of them) and this could lead to a greater vigilance by English people during the Summer months when numbers of foreigners are up.
3, Interest rates are up.
Penny-pinching and tightening of belts due to the Bank of England interest rates continuing to go up will lead to eagle-eyed individuals roaming the streets of Bournemouth. It could also stop people dropping money in the first place.
With these three factors in full effect July was dire indeed until last week when Simon produced 2p that he had found at Castlepoint. I found a 1p and 2p haul at a Bournemouth pub and then found another 2 p at the busstop straight after. A few more findings later and the total found this past week is 11p.
1, Bournemouth is full of foreign students at this time of year.
Milling around in large numbers, waiting an age for their bus, these are the people who are more likely to find fallen change. Their limited knowledge of the currency will also mean that they're more likely to pick up money on the floor without the usual stigma attached to picking up 'coppers'.
2, Bournemouth is full of foreign students at this time of year.
A large number of English people have this weird idea that foreigners are stealing English jobs (idiots the lot of them) and this could lead to a greater vigilance by English people during the Summer months when numbers of foreigners are up.
3, Interest rates are up.
Penny-pinching and tightening of belts due to the Bank of England interest rates continuing to go up will lead to eagle-eyed individuals roaming the streets of Bournemouth. It could also stop people dropping money in the first place.
With these three factors in full effect July was dire indeed until last week when Simon produced 2p that he had found at Castlepoint. I found a 1p and 2p haul at a Bournemouth pub and then found another 2 p at the busstop straight after. A few more findings later and the total found this past week is 11p.
Sunday, 1 July 2007
It keeps rolling in...
Yep, two weekends have passed since the last update and the discarded shrapnel of the Bournemouth citizens continues to be discovered. Last Saturday yielded a mighty £1.05 from my housemate's evening jaunt around the clubs and this Friday delivered the coppers to the cause, seeing the total rise by another £0.22.
We're approaching the point where an internet saving account will begin to accrue monthly interest so i'll start looking into them this week.
Thursday, 21 June 2007
Well what are the chances?
A quick search to see if the name Street Change had been taken and lo, there is a like minded individual out there!
http://streetchange.blogspot.com/
It seems we share some similar ideas although I'm not restricting this to a year, I plan to keep it going until there is a sizeable amount to give to charity. I'm guessing around the £20 mark would be the rough aim. I'm thinking about setting up an internet bank account so that the randomly found pennies can have a chance to accrue other pennies in interest.
I guess the American continent is covered though. I may end up sending the $0.01 Canadian his way should the opportunity arise.
http://streetchange.blogspot.com/
It seems we share some similar ideas although I'm not restricting this to a year, I plan to keep it going until there is a sizeable amount to give to charity. I'm guessing around the £20 mark would be the rough aim. I'm thinking about setting up an internet bank account so that the randomly found pennies can have a chance to accrue other pennies in interest.
I guess the American continent is covered though. I may end up sending the $0.01 Canadian his way should the opportunity arise.
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