'Why do teenagers throw pennies in the bin?' blog discussion 6 June 2012 at 3:17PM in Martin's blogs & appearances & MoneySavingExpert in the news 62 replies 15K views

Former_MSE_Helen

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "Why do teenagers throw pennies in the bin?" Blog.

Please click 'post reply' to discuss below.

torbrex

They simple don't know what they are worth, the smallest that they can think in terms of value is £1.

I used to work as a delivery driver for a bakers and after the school bus had gone it was a race between me and the street sweeper to see who could get to the bus stop first to pick up all the dropped coins. It was not unusual to collect a couple of pounds in change each day.

Flat_Eric

My appreciation of the value of money has diminished over the years but I still (and always have) saved pennies/coppers

At secondary I used to help myself to the pennies out of the vending machine that people didn't want. I was ribbed for it but hey more money in my pocket!

originator

I am secondary school cleaner,the rewards are astounding:rotfl:

pete_v

When I was on a British Army base in Germany ten years ago, the young soldiers used to drop their Pfennigs on the ground as they came out of the NAAFI.

I only noticed this when I saw the Company Sergeant Major's wife picking them up

Pete

JezR

1p and 2p coins should be withdrawn and Swedish rounding adopted on a 5p interval. Discuss

Beki88

They don't see the bigger picture that they will soon add up!
Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after their selves.
My son saves all his copper-and mine too and he has now got £30 saved up just from those alone

Million_Percent

I posted on another forum recently that I had seen a teenage girl accidently drop a 50p coin. She looked at it then just left it there and carried on walking. I pocketed it myself. It's like teenagers are just too cool to bend down and pick something up off the floor.

Dorastar

Well in the words of my 10 year old dd "They're idiots - it's money!" Guess she won't be chucking her away then!

As a teacher though it isn't just my job - parents need to play their part - we have loads of children who never see money anymore, they just see cash/credit cards handed over or note appearing from cash machines. Mine have gone 'shopping' from an early age for their 10p mix despite it taking a huge amount of time to choose the perfect selection!

pseeker_2

I guess the problem is that on a cognitive level they know they can't buy anthing for a penny or two. Or three,...

And then, they often don't have experience of having to EARN the pennies.

Natural adaptation follows...

The rest of it is status/power/class... show off of course :-)

I don't pick up pennies on the street, unless it's 5p min!

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Edit: ironically, i just collected 10p on the way from jog to home..

pseeker_2

JezR wrote: »

1p and 2p coins should be withdrawn and Swedish rounding adopted on a 5p interval. Discuss

no, we can't withdraw the 1p coin - it makes a beautiful sound when you flip from your thumbnail into the air!

Btw, did you know that any £1 combination of penny coins you use, it will always add up to 356 grams? clever design


As for withdrawing the pennies, it's not worth the excercise.
Empirically it makes sense, but it's not like £ is running a mad inflati0000n rate, and you need to look at span of a decade(s) for it to make sense.