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18
05.08

Getting Rid of Pennies

I don’t know if it’s the same where you live, but in the States we do this thing where the cost of items isn’t the same as the price tag on them. An over sized cup of Chai, priced $2.50, is probably going to cost $2.72.

This insanity has two effects: First, people rarely know how much money they’re going to spend, before getting to the register. Second, it makes paying with exact change difficult. Prettily, evenly, priced things are corrupted by the sale’s tax.

Most Americans have given up on paying with exact change, but I like it… because I’m not fond of pennies. I want to get rid of them, not accumulate them. One cannot buy anything for a penny. :(

Do you pay with exact change?

In other news, I’ve been toying about with my abacus. I can only add and subtract, but I already pwn the calculator dependent. :)

Anyway, updates are coming to Callistonian.net. But I’m unsure of what to add first… Suggest something. In my queue are blog entries better than this one, photos (baby bunny photos, random place photos, &c.), a photo blog, foreign movie reviews, and books reviews.

» Categories: Whimsical

17 Comments to “Getting Rid of Pennies”

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I don’t think that happens in Ontario… We just pay for what’s on the price tag, plus tax.
Whenever I go shopping with my friends, I always end up being the calculator and telling them how much an item should be after taxes. XD But yes, I hate loose change so I like to use up all my coins!

Posted by: Regina · May 18th, 2008 at 8:10 pm · #

It’s the taxes. They suck. I was trying to explain them to Rachaely– how tax is added at the register. And when I think about it, it’s just… odd. I mean, WHY isn’t it just automatically inserted into the price and labelled accordingly?

I pay with exact change often. Must be left over effects of being a cashier. I want my pennies to be GONE!

Posted by: Aisling · May 18th, 2008 at 8:21 pm · #

What’s quoted on a price tag is exactly what we pay, give or take a few cents if you’re paying in cash, down here in New Zealand. GST is already factored into the price.

I rarely ever have cash on me thanks to EFTPOS, so I never have a problem with loose change. If I do, I usually just donate it to people for parking meters or charity.

Posted by: Nellie · May 18th, 2008 at 8:29 pm · #

Wow, tax isn’t added in the States? I guess I should be lucky that in NZ it’s included in the final price tag of the item…

I never knew that tax in some countries were like discluded.. (is that a word…? I don’t think; well I think you know what I mean :D)

But hmm that must suck a lot!

Posted by: Maggie · May 18th, 2008 at 9:07 pm · #

If time permits, I’ll look for pennies. Otherwise I’d think it easier to tender with cash to expedite the payment process.

When I was younger, I collected pennies. I got 32 bucks out of it :D

Posted by: TBQ · May 18th, 2008 at 10:11 pm · #

Taxes are automatically on the price tag here :) I like it, because you can immediately see what you’d have to pay :D

Posted by: Emsz · May 19th, 2008 at 2:44 am · #

I’ve never understood why you have the weird system you do. Over here, tax is included in the final price put on the tag.

As for pennies - because I always somehow end up with change - I keep mine in my pig. It’s the best thing ever :D

Posted by: Jem · May 19th, 2008 at 3:53 am · #

Prices here are also different from what the price tag says, because of the sales tax. It’s not confusing anymore, I’ve gotten used to it. It does make things harder to pay for with exact change, though. I don’t like walking around with heavy chiming pockets full of coins XD

Actually, I carry some change in a Hello Kitty head. When it becomes to much (from getting change and me not using it to pay), I put the pennies in my penny collection. Now, the penny collection takes years to get big, and when it does, I roll them up and deposit them in my bank account.

The change I do keep with me (the non-penny coins XD), I use them for buying things from vending machines and very rarely for paying at cash registers. People in line (and sometimes cashiers) seem to find it annoying that people pay with exact change. So I don’t do it a lot, only when the total price is something like $5.10 or $ 10.01 :D

Posted by: Lene · May 19th, 2008 at 5:32 am · #

I’d just like to say that if anything did cost a penny, there wouldn’t be enough tax to raise it any higher. So if you find things that cost a penny each, you could buy them all separately and only pay a penny each!

Posted by: Michelle · May 19th, 2008 at 5:40 pm · #

Prices are uneven even before the sales tax is added. :( I don’t know about you, but I’m more likely to see a cup of Chai priced $2.49 or $2.59 than $2.50 exactly… I’m used to the system we have, but now that I think about it, it would be much easier if the tax were included in the price of the item. Hmph, I don’t like thinking things are less expensive than they actually are.

Posted by: Meg · May 19th, 2008 at 8:53 pm · #

Wow, I can definitely see why that’s confusing! I couldn’t imagine having to pay a totally different price for things than the one advertised on the item! o.O

Posted by: Holly · May 22nd, 2008 at 2:50 am · #

I could never understand why the States do that. Seems like the rest of the world includes the tax in the price tag. -_-;;

I accumulate a lot of loose change. I put them in a coin jar then convert them to bills later on. :P

Posted by: Aravis · May 23rd, 2008 at 1:27 am · #

I read the title of this post as “getting rid of penises” and my first thought was “But why would you want to get rid of those?!”

Posted by: Jordie · May 23rd, 2008 at 9:55 am · #

The extra tax confused the hell out of me and my boyfriend while in Florida.

Yet I rarely pay with the exact change at home either, I get annoyed looks if I try. We had a number of penny jars until we took all £18 of them to the bank and changed them for ‘real’ money.

Posted by: Corinne · May 24th, 2008 at 2:25 pm · #

i pay in exact change when i pay in cash which isn’t that often. i usually just debit everything.

Posted by: prach · May 27th, 2008 at 11:57 pm · #

The idea of having to add tax to your purchase is weird to me. Here (The Netherlands, and probably all over Europe) what you see is what you pay, unless you’re lucky and it’s on sale or something. I would hate having to go to the store and have to calculate what the exact price is, it makes things overly complicated…

Posted by: Chans · May 28th, 2008 at 4:48 pm · #

I actually find that if I purchase something a lot (i.e. a coffee) I learn what it’s price with tax really is. Also, with a lot of common price I know. For example, I know that a $5 item is really 5.38, 9.99 is 10.75, and 19.99 is 21.51 (IIRC on that one).

And I usually pay exact change because I like to use up the change from my last purchase instead of breaking more bills.

Posted by: Robbie · July 18th, 2008 at 11:50 am · #

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