Laundry Economics

The washer and dryer in our apartment complex run on quarters. Laura and I usually pay for everything with debit cards. This means we have very little cash and even less quarters. On laundry day, quarters seem so valuable, I'd buy them for a dollar each. What actually happens is that I drive around town for a while looking for a bank that is still open and will give me a roll of quarters. I don't think banks are ever actually open - they are just buildings to provide walls for ATMs. I've tried grocery stores, but they are very possessive of their quarters. Maybe they have to do laundry, too.

Today I had a small victory in this battle. We needed exactly 5 quarters to finish our laundry. I went to the grocery store and selected 2 bananas. I then went to the self checkout aisle and paid for them in cash. Here's the good part: I did it as two separate purchases of $0.27 and $0.20. Total change: $1.53. Total number of quarters received: 5!

Yeah, so this is actually pretty lame. But I felt awesome about it. I don't know who "The Man" would be in this case, but I'm pretty sure I just stuck it to him. Booyah!