Good technology

Some of you may take my aversion to newfangled devices (e.g., iPods, cell phones, Blackberries, etc.) as evidence of a technology animus. That's not the case at all. I have a cordless phone and an answering machine. I love my toaster oven/microwave combo. Plus, I have TiVo (well the DISH Network version) and I cannot imagine life without it. Heck, I even have a handheld GPS receiver. No, I'm no Luddite. It's just that before I rush out and embrace some new technology, I have to be convinced that it's going to improve my life substantially. Every once in a while, though, I come across one and I embrace it whole heartedly. Such an occasion arose last night.

See, we had a function today and I was supposed to bring 3 gallons of Milo's ice [or iced; I've waded into that minefield before] tea. If you don't know, Milo's is an Alabama restaurant famous for its burgers and tea. In recent years Milo's has begun to franchise and they also sell their tea in grocery stores. I don't drink a lot of sweet tea, but Milo's is pretty good. I was appalled, however, when I discovered just how much Milo thinks of his tea. $2.50 (American) for a gallon of tea! Egad! As I had committed to the tea (and I had promised Milo's), I bit my tongue and bought 2 gallons of sweet. I drew the line, though, at paying that for a gallon of unsweet tea. I'd make that myself. I mean, c'mon. What could Milo possibly do to a gallon of unsweet tea that would add that much value?

Anywho, ... I got home last night and began to heat water for the tea when I made an unpleasant discovery. I had not a single bag of tea in the house. Much as I hated to, I headed out to the grocery store to buy some tea bags (it took 36.5 cents worth of tea bags, by the way, to make 1 gallon of tea). As I was headed to the store anyway, I decided I'd take along my bowl of change. You have one; a bowl/jar/bottle where you pitch your change when you empty your pockets. Usually I put off thinking about my jar of change until it's overflowing and then I spend a few hours rolling all the change. Then I still have to get around to doing something with it.

Within the last couple of years I've noticed these Coinstar machines at local grocery stores. You dump your change in and the machine counts it for you. The only hitch is that Coinstar charges 8.9 cents per dollar for counting. I was not going to pay that (remember, I refused to pay $2.50 for a gallon of tea), but lately I've noticed signs on the machines that led me to believe the fee would be waived if you accepted your payment in the form of a gift certificate from one of several retailers -- one of them being Amazon. I buy stuff from Amazon all the time, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Let me just say, I'm now a HUGE Coinstar fan. I dumped in my bowl of change and got a promotion code giving me $77.87 of Amazon credit. Plus, I can go ahead and enter the code now and Amazon simply credits my account that much. It's like Christmas in February. I think I can honestly say that as long as this "tie in" remains, I've rolled my last tube of coins.

I do want to point out, though, this is not the most unusual way I've gotten rid of excess change. I mentioned that I dislike rolling coins, but I am willing to do it for quarters, dimes, and maybe even nickels. Pennies, though, are a different story. It's just too much effort for 50 cents. Hence, in years past I've had a separate penny tub where my hundreds and hundreds of pennies go. What happens to them? Usually nothing. Like nuclear waste, they simply accumulate. Once upon a time, however, I sold my penny tub in a moving sale. I wasn't trying to sell it, but a woman made an offer and I took her up on it. True, she got a "deal", but I wasn't going to roll the darned things anyway, so I felt like I'd gotten money for nothing. I know I'm not the only one, but I am proud of the fact that I once "sold money". I use that story when discussing trade in econ.

So, if you can't find anyone to buy your change, give Coinstar a try. Make sure, however, that you use one of the machines with the gift certificate option.

P.S. I have switched to the new blogger software and I hate it. It's not a technology that I willingly embraced. I'm having lots of trouble with comments so I'm sorry if you try to comment and it doesn't go through. On a related note, I'm also having trouble posting comments on other blogs. Melusina -- if you read this, I tried to assure you that I'd help out with your baseball "jones", but I couldn't get it to work. I accidentally ended up posting my comment twice and then neither one actually showed up in your comments section. Grrr!