A penny saved is a penny earned.

I admit, I allow myself a few personal quirks here and there to offset my relatively minimalist and “dark” preferences in terms of decor and the like. Then again, like everything else, I prefer such things to be functional more than anything else (with the occasional exception). This weekend, I took the time to deal with one of these quirks… namely, my piggy bank.

Yes, I have a piggy bank.

Back when I was working at Toys R Us, I was getting to the point where I was wanting somewhere to store my spare change, and I figured I might as well get a piggy bank. The problem was that when I looked at all of the piggy banks in the front of the store in the seasonal area (where they were typically kept), they were all flimsy, cheap plastic and ugly to boot. Then, one day, I happened to be doing some work in one of the preschooler areas when I noticed Little Tikes made a piggy bank. This one was cute, and VERY sturdy to boot. I went ahead and picked one up… and have been using it to this day.

What I do is every day when I come home from work, when I empty my pockets, I take the silver change from my pocket and dump it into Piggy. Then, every few years or so, Piggy gets so full that I end up emptying him and rolling up all of the change and using it towards a splurge purchase. Anything that doesn’t go into rolls goes back into Piggy for the next time.

So, what will I be using with the money I’ve gotten from Piggy? Well, this time… it’ll be an iPod Classic. My current iPod is okay, except for the fact that it won’t hold a charge. (Apple has said that whatever the issue is, it’s not the battery.) Also, I want an iPod that will play video for when I go on flights and the like. I might not have enough for the 160 GB model, but it’ll go a long way towards it. Ah, well… we’ll see what happens when I actually count it.

Though I do admit, I’m looking forward to taking the rolls in and depositing them, if only to see the looks on the bank tellers’ faces. :-)