The Cookie Jar and Tiger Kitty

After we had set up our retirement budget and had been living on Social Security for a while, I began to notice a strange phenomenon; my wife never came in under budget on the grocery bill. At times in the summer, there would be considerable home garden produce for the table which I expected would lower our food bill, still she spent every last cent allotted in the budget. I could not complain too vociferously because after all, she was usually staying within the guidelines we had set down, yet I was curious why she never went under. After a “discussion” I discovered we had two different ideas of efficiency. I considered our budget limit to be a sort of bar or benchmark standard. If at times we could come in under the bar and beat the benchmark, then we were being really efficient and thrifty and we should be proud of it. My wife, by contrast, felt that if she ever spent under budget, she would have failed to utilize all the resources at her disposal and therefore be inefficient. In plain English, if she did not spend every cent, then she would never see that money again. In fact, she feared that if she spent less, the budget limit might be lowered to that lower level. (Where did she ever get that crazy idea?)

Thus the cookie jar came into being. Now when we come in below budget, we put the money in the jar and spend it later when needed. If there is a meat sale, we can use the funds to exceed the budget one week and stock our freezer. If we want to eat out or take in a flick or take a road trip, we rob the cookie jar. Dollars, a few fives, and loose change began to flow into the jar. We seem to go under every couple weeks.

After the cookie jar “understanding,” I began to look around the house to see if there were any other money caches which served as “balancers” when we wanted extra cash. There is the penny jar where we throw unwanted change which we roll and spend about once a year. On her washing machine, is a plump tiger kitten bank, which my wife uses to claim any change people leave in clothing that they have thrown into the hamper. Seems every time I lift it, it feels about full of quarters and dimes. I have an old biker billfold where I put my extra change (if I remember to get it out before my jeans go in the wash) and there are a couple coin trays in our vehicles which come in handy when we overfill our tanks by a few cents or need to feed a meter.

Lastly there is the dish of “funny money”. (two dollar bills, Susan B. Anthonys , Sacagaweas, Canadian coins, etc.) Kids seem to really like getting funny money as presents and think every yellow coin is gold. I don’t discourage the notion and let our Susan Bs serve as emergency gifts.

All in all, I was surprised just how many little piggy bank hoards we have around the house and how they help to grease the budget when we unexpectedly need to rob Peter to pay Paul.