For Openers...
JARC
PRESENTS
Money-Saving Tips
For The Homeowner
ERICA RAUZIN
Special to The Jewish News
uite by accident, my hus-
band has found the perfect '
way to keep me from spend-
ing money.
Each week, our fiscal allo-
cations include "household" cash for
my wallet. The three (or four, in a
crunch) $20 bills constitute my walk-
ing around money for the week, pock-
et money, the cash I need to keep the
various housekeeping fires burning.
I use checks for grocery shopping,
kosher meat pick-ups, major dry
cleaning, and other higher hits, but
the household cash covers the rest of
it. Usually, I go through this cash with
astounding speed. By the time the
children have collected $5 for a book,
$8 for a field trip or $12 for a CPR
course, I'm half done. Once I've
picked up a magazine, a frozen yogurt,
a box of Shabbat candles here, a pair
of socks there, I'm ready for the next
week's cash infusion. That folding
green stuff melts away.
About four weeks ago, instead of
the three familiar 20s, he passed along
a 10 and a 50. The 10 got spent
almost instantly, in the space of time
it takes three kids to say good morn-
ing. But a week later, the 50 still sat in
my wallet.
A $50 bill still looks like really big
money to me. I found, to my aston-
ishment, that I was not able to spend
it. I couldn't ask another human being
to break that big bill for some tiny
purchase.
I could not hand the $50 over for a
S1.25 cup of non-fat, sugar-free frozen
yogurt, so I went without the yogurt.
I couldn't imagine giving the lady at
the drug store $50 for a magazine, so I
drove on by. I spent 10 minutes at the
expressway toll boOth emptying my
llowz By You
EVITA
tied them loose in my pocket instead
of in a purse, but if my husband keeps
bringing home household money in
50s, I may never own another coin.
My husband thinks this idiosyn-
crasy of mine is the greatest savings
device that's ever come along. He's
even found a way to improve upon it.
Last Monday, he said, "I have enough
household cash for you for a couple of
weeks," and he handed me a $20 and
a $100 bill. "Gee, thanks," I said.
"That's okay, honey," he grinned.
"Keep the change."
pocketbook onto the passenger seat
and scrambling for a quarter among
the stray mints and purse lint because
I couldn't give the $50 to the toll-
taker.
Having that fifty immobilized me
completely.
In fact, I'd still have it if I hadn't
gone through the drive-up window at
a totally strange bank to ask the teller
to break it for me, so I could go back
to leading a normal life.
This entire matter astounded my
husband, who doesn't have this prob-
lem in any form. if he had needed it,
he would have asked Moses for change
before crossing the Red Sea.
My little shyness about cashiers has
no part in his make-up. He sees every
transaction as an opportunity to neat-
en up the change in his pocket. He'll
fork over a $20 bill and a quarter on a
$10.15 purchase to get back $10 and
a dime instead of a five, four singles
and 90 cents in coins. Why? Beats me,
but to him, it's tidy and logical.
I concede that I'd be more con-
scious of the weight of coins if I car-
❑
Phruedgy
(A little taste of Yiddish.)
Nit kain enter iz oich an enter.
No answer is also an answer.
But does that mean that no
question is a question?
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quotables
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"In a state where 230,000 children are going to school tomorrow without a
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President Edgar Bronfinan.
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FOR
INFORMATION CALL:
BY fdeudel
HERE'S tvl FUMPRAISWG PLAN,
RAB13 I , we RA 15E DUES TO AN
AOSUR DLL HIGH LEVEL, WHICH
(,OM_ FORCE PEOPLE To QUIT
(N DROVES „ ,
Thursday,
November 5
Masonic Theatre
8:oo p.m.
This WILL CAUSE A SERIOUS
FINANCIAL CRISIS SO WE'LL
EMERGENCE CAMP4161U
HAVE
TO SAVE OUR CHUL toe'LL RAISE
ouLKsii
.
i4066
DON'T BE
WE Po THA T
EVERY
O.K., BUT
THISD EAR
( 24 8) 352-5272 v/tty
ACTOALLO
GO BANKRUPT!
WE'LL MAKE MILLIONS!
RI DI CULOUS, /RUNG!
Jewish Association for
Residential Care
28366 Franklin Road
Southfield, MI 48034
9/11
1998
Detroit Jewish News
5