Who knew reading could be so financially rewarding?
Last week, while flipping through a book (which, incidentally, ended up in my DNF pile), I found a crisp $5 bill was tucked neatly between the pages. (Maybe the previous reader had been using it as a bookmark?)
It was the first time I’ve ever found actual cash in a library book, but I’m hoping it won’t be the last!
Strangely enough, this isn’t my first unexpected payday. Last year, while looking at a fanny pack at a thrift store (just checking the zipper quality, I didn’t even buy it), I discovered a $10 bill. Talk about a surprise bonus.
Your turn.
- Have you ever found money stashed inside a book or bag? (I’ve found plenty of receipts, some cryptic notes, and grocery lists.)
- What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever found lost money? (John once spotted a $50 bill peeking out from a snowdrift on a hill near our house.)
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Yay! You should buy yourself a coffee! Or an ice cream! 🙂 I found 20 euro when I was hiking in Slovenia; it was on the trail and luckily I was looking at the ground and not the scenery! I also found $20 in a parking lot in Florida once. I had some friends who found some high amount, like over $1000, when we were in high school and they actually turned it into the police, who told them that if nobody came to ask for it, it would be given to my friends. Nobody came and they ended up keeping it! I always wondered if it was drug money, or if some poor old lady couldn’t pay her rent after that….
It is hot and muggy here today so ice cream is calling my name!!
Wow. $1,000. That is insane!
Cha-ching! Nothing is more satisfying than found money. I’ve found $20 twice in my life.
I’ve talked many times about the Dover Mysteries by Joyce Porter, which is a series that spoofs the the great British mysteries. Well, one of the plot devices in the first book is something that is left in a library book. That’s why I love hearing about things found in books.
Have criminals left incriminating evidence inside library books, I wonder? Treasure maps?
I’ll keep myself happy with $5!
How fun! Time for a little treat, I say!
Public toilets! I think I’ve found money there two or three times – and yes, I absolutely picked it up. I’m not too proud when it comes to free cash! 😅
Nicole’s right – definitely time to treat yourself, Elisabeth!
Now a public bathroom is NOT a place I would think to find money. I suppose it could easily fall out of pockets. I think I’d be too grossed out to pick up change, but bills are another story! And, at least in Canada, our bills are washable!
Yes, I would do something fun with that money, rather than just buy groceries or something like that. I’ve definitely never found money in a library book, but now every time I check out a book, I’ll be hoping. Maybe that person was using it as a bookmark, OR maybe they purposely put it there as a fun surprise for the next person : )
I wondered if it was purposeful. If so, what a lovely sentiment! I put notes in library books for a while, but it never crossed my mind to leave money. I think I’m too cheap for that!
What a fun surprise! How are you going to spend it?! My vote is ice cream.
It is SO humid here today, so ice cream is sounds very appealing…
Sometimes when I place books into a Free Little Library I’ll put a dollar bill in it. It makes me happy envisioning someone deciding to read a book I liked— then finding a bit more than the words.
Aww. That is such a lovely idea. We don’t have anything below $5 in bills, and I feel like a $1 or $2 coin would more easily fall out?
This is a twist on the question since I both lost and found the money. Once when I was in university, I put on my vest in the spring only to discover I had left (and forgotten about) 200$ in cash in the pocket in the fall. As a poor(ish) university student, this was a most happy discovery. One might wonder how I forgot I had 200$ in cash in the fall, but object permanence has never been my strong suit 🙂
I almost always find cash in my winter jacket. I tend to carry a few bills in my pocket when I’m at the ski hill (and my ski jacket has all sorts of unusual pockets). Inevitably, I don’t use the cash and it just…sits there from year to year. It’s always such a delight to find it the next year. I’m tempted to go check this very second to see if I left cash in there again at the end of this season?
One thing I can guarantee – it is NOT $200! $10, maybe $20 if I’m lucky 😉
I volunteer at a thrift shop whose proceeds all go toward disease research. You would be amazed at the amount of money we find in the pockets of donated items or in purses. We have a money jar that we put it in that eventually goes to support the cause.
That’s a wonderful way to use the leftover change you find. I will admit I am surprised you find money in pockets of clothing and purses. Don’t people check their pockets before they wash them?
I’m not complaining about the $10 I found in the thrift store fanny pack, though.
One time I bought a wallet from a thrift store and found a coin in it… I think it was a quarter.
Hey, every little bit helps. When I was a kid, that could buy a decent amount of penny candy. Now…not so much!
Well I am guilty of having left small amounts of $$ in winter coat pockets only to be delighted to discover them the next season.
The donations we get are often people downsizing or estates where family members are emptying a house. So yes – lots of times they are on a deadline and maybe don’t check carefully.
Many people have a small stash of emergency cash somewhere in their house. When we cleaned out my mother’s house when she went to a retirement home we found a total of $300 in random places.
I had a work colleague whose parents stashed cash in drop ceilings and loose gems in soap shards in their shower (to fool any burglars 😳). So they told their kids to be watchful of what they tossed if they died unexpectedly.
And finally, a neighbor bought an older house from the estate of a man who was quite elderly. A couple years later during a remodeling project they found thousands of dollars hidden in a wall. They didn’t touch it. They went to a relative of the previous owner and had them come and retrieve it. (That is integrity).
Okay, hiding loose gems in soap? That is a new one to me. Yikes. I feel like I should start dismantling my house and hope for the best? Can you imagine if there’s a secret stash of gold bars behind the walls. I’m thinking probably not…but you’ve given me hope.
I never find free money. But one time I did $20 in a coat pocket and I found it the next year and I was PUMPED about it.
Yes! This happens to me almost every year. I put a bit of cash in my pocket for when I’m at the ski hill, but I never seem to use it…and I forget about it. It’s always stashed in an inside pocket with some Bandaids. But I don’t always leave it in there, so there is always a hint of mystery when I get my coat out for the first time in a season. Did I or didn’t I forget cash in there?
I am very easily amused 😉
How fun! Last summer while on my way to my week at the lake I pulled into a rest stop for a coffee and bathroom break. I came out to find a $20 bill peeking out from under my tire 🙂
Wow! That’s a first for me. You drove right into money and, presumably, more than covered the cost of your rest stop coffee!
Well that’s fun! 😀
I found $100 crumpled in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere, which was even more exciting since I was 15 at the time, lol
Wow! That’s a big denomination of bill to find. I’m much older than 15 and I think I’d be practically giddy if I found $100 these days!
Phil just told the boys a story about a time when he found a $20 bill in the skyway (elevated tunnels that connect buildings in downtown). Several walked by it but he picked it up since it did not seem to belong to anyone in the vicinity.
I never find money and I never have money, meaning cash. Like I did not have a single bill on me for our Chicago trip. I thought about it after I left and thought that I should have got some from Phil (who always has cash) but I never really needed it!
I try to always have a little bit of cash. I seem to need it a surprising amount. I’ll go to farmer’s stalls or someone will come to the door selling Girl Guide cookies or will be raising money for some charity. Lots of places take cheque or you can fill out forms, but I like being able to give a $5 or $10 for smaller amounts.
Mostly, though, I need cash for the kids allowance. We “pay” them in cash, so I always need to have at least a bit on hand.
When I was about 10, over 50 years ago, I found a one pound note on the path near our house. That would be worth maybe £10 or more now. Don’t know what that is in Canadian dollars. But the point of the story is that my mum made me share it with my two younger brothers, who had had nothing to do with finding it at all, and the unfairness rankles to this day!!
I’m siding with you! That does NOT sound fair at all. I’d still have my feathers ruffled by that injustice, too.
I must be lucky that way as I’ve found plenty of money over the years. Mostly laying on the ground. I found a ten pound note at the railway station one time with a note attached. I handed it into the police station as it seem to indicate it had been attached to a child or for a child? I don’t know. I also found a 5 pound note when a kid that I gave to my mum and actually saw her cry because it was the difference between us all eating that week and not.
I also found a $50 bill at the front door of a pharmacy here a couple of years back. The OH convinced me not to hand it in at the till because they didn’t think anyone would be as honest as me. So, instead, I donated it to charity.
Wow. I need to come visit you and head out for the day. I think I’d be able to fund my retirement. Either you have good luck…or maybe you just pay better attention than I do and manage to see it. (I think there is something to the latter comment; my husband has HAWK eyes for finding coins and such. I almost never find money on the ground. The final joke’s on him, though, because he never gets books out of the library and apparently it can pay quite well!)
I’ve found money several times, though not in books that I recall. Once I bought a pair of pants at a thrift store, and I found a five dollar bill in the pocket, which was more than the cost of the pants. Just last week, I gave away a box of stickers that had been given to me that I wasn’t using to a fellow teacher. A few minutes later, she returned to give me an old style 5 dollar bill she had found inside. I tried to get her to keep it, but she refused. I’ll use it toward supplies for my classroom.
There seems to be a theme about money left in thrifted clothes. Maybe I should stop looking for clothes and start going through all the pockets of things looking for money?
Aww. That’s so sweet of that teacher and a bonus for you and your classroom since you’ve been able to put it toward supplies.
What a fun and unexpected surprise. It seems the only money I find is in the dryer. 😉
Now that you mention it, I do seem to find a quarter or dime in the dryer each month. Always a kid who didn’t empty their pockets out before sticking their laundry in the machine.
Niiiiiice!!!!! Never happened to me. But I have found other stuff in the library books: phone numbers, lists, receipts, notes. It makes it extra special.
You’re right – even something that is “useless” to me (like a receipt, or grocery list) is highly interesting. What does the person’s handwriting look like, what sorts of things were they hoping to buy at the grocery store. It’s an unexpected glimpse into someone else’s everyday life!
I took Rae to the private hs she’s attending in the fall. She tried on used uniform skirts and there was $10 in the pocket. I gave it to the school office in case they tracked whose skirts were whose.
I don’t think I’ve ever found money in a book.
I’m sure they appreciated your honesty!
I’d never found money in a book before and it was a pleasant surprise.
I once found a $10 bill in a container of wrapping paper by the cash register at a store when I was about 10. That was a very memorable day. I found money at a pumpkin patch and an arcade. As an adult if it’s more than $10 I usually give it to charity of some kind.
You sounds like a money magnet! I do find certain people seem to spot money far more than others, and I suppose it has to do with level of observance? This one was impossible to miss. When I flipped through the book, it took up most of a page.
I found a hundred-dollar bill last summer in the Haliburton Sculpture Forest. We were the only ones there that afternoon, but I felt badly for the person who dropped it. I put it in the Sculpture Forest donation box:)
What a wonderful donation; greatly appreciated, I’m sure. Even if the original “donor” who lost the money likely didn’t have that in mind.