Thanks again for all of your comments, so great. Many of you are thinking so wisely, and have given yourself deserved pats on the back for figuring out great ways to save in so many areas, without living like homeless people…..keep it up and keep them coming, it’s awesome…..

Change is a great thing, in life, location, employment, wherever….this is a short life and I am a strong believer in packing a ton into it…..

Pocket change, also amazing. Three stories:

My mother, who passed away a much wealthier woman than we had any idea about, walked around New York and never passed a coin on the street that she didn’t pick up….I could insert any number of ethnic jokes here, (yes, shockingly, I am of the Jewish persuasion), but I’ll leave that to your own thoughts (which are fine by the way, I could tell about 200 jokes here but I won’t—-ok, just one….2 jews are in a room and there’s a nickel on the floor: THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN)….the point being, that quarter that you find on the street buys the same thing for you as the next person who finds it (personally I am a fan of leaving it, or moving it to where someone else can find it, maybe someone who might need it a bit more than I do?)

When me and my pals all moved here to Los Angeles from New York to be actors and writers, we were poor. I mean, actually, truly, REALLY poor. Like 6 of us in a 2 bedroom apartment poor, rotating who got the couch (the 2 guys who had the lease got the bedrooms). We obviously didn’t go out at all, we had ONE car between all of us to drop off at auditions, and one of us (who became perfectly successful as an actor) could live for a week on one pack of store brand bologna. Our release was “wine fridays”. We had a bowl next to the front door. You put your change in when you came in every time, and at 3pm on Friday, one of us would go to the local ghetto liquor store in Venice and buy as much cheap rotgut wine as possible. Sometimes, wine Fridays would last an hour. Sometimes until midnight in a good week of change. Of course we were young, without kids and wives and cars and mortgages, but I often remember it as the happiest time of my life. So there.

I always went to Jazzfest in New Orleans, and still do, every year. I have a friend who, long before kids and a house and all that, would save only his quarters in a jar. Just the quarters. When April came along, he had enough to go with us to New Orleans. Then he stopped. Too much effort. I never understood it, it’s the happiest place ever, a joyful and inexpensive vacation. If you have never seen about 6000 jews rocking out in the Gospel tent at Jazzfest, with people being saved by Jesus all around them, then you aint lived baby…..

So what’s my point…..change works. UNICEF and March of Dimes helped countless millions of people based on it. And if you need it, you can help yourself. Just never forget it IS MONEY. And in case you live in Los Angeles, a cup of coffee at Phillippe’s French Dip downtown is still NINE CENTS.

In summary, let’s say 2 bucks a day in change, in a jar——thats $730 at the end of the year. That’s Chanukah (that’s right, I said it—CHANUKAH)….or a few car payments (more on that later), or for many people, A MONTHS RENT…..just keep it in mind……

“One thin dime won’t shine your shoes—-on Broadway”…….what about a whole bunch of ‘em?

Talk to you later…please keep signing up to follow this page, that count really helps me out, but at the very least, I hope you keep reading and enjoying it……

WG