What should I do with the $85 I just found on the street?

November 12, 2007 10:05 PM

What should I do with the $85 I just found on the street?

I asked the people in the vicinity if it belonged to them, and no one claimed it. This is inner city, so there is no finding the owner. It's enough that I feel a responsibility to do something good/fun or both with it and I also feel a sense of having been given a gift and a desire to pay it forward in some way. I'm also a student, so whatever I do with this this represents something I wouldn't have otherwise been able to do.

What would you do? What do you think I should do?

posted by paddingtonb to grab bag (40 comments total)

Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away. Give it to a soup kitchen or shelter.
posted by brain cloud at 10:09 PM on November 12, 2007

Donate it to the nearest foodbank.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:12 PM on November 12, 2007

Sockpuppet theater!
posted by iamkimiam at 10:13 PM on November 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Go to a grocery store and load up a cart with as much nourishing food as you can possibly buy with your $85. Then talk to a manager about donating it all to a local soup kitchen at a reduced cost. Deliver the food to the soup kitchen (help to prepare/serve it if possible) and then buy yourself a treat with the cost difference (assuming that the grocery store gave you a discount).
posted by mezzanayne at 10:13 PM on November 12, 2007

You have no moral obligation to do anything nice with it. You could buy porn and weed, and while away your hours with total impunity and without guilt (except as induced by weed and onanism).

OR

You could give it all to charity, then regret your kindness and forgo any later donation b/c of a bad memory of this experience.

OR

You could spend half on something that's fun for you, and another half on something that will reward you in a greater sense: a soup kitchen, a friend in a road race, whatever... you'll buy yourself some self-respect, have some giggles in the process, and double the chances of your charity in some later day.
posted by mr. remy at 10:19 PM on November 12, 2007 [4 favorites]

I'd be thinking along the lines of buying $85 worth of burgers and driving out to where the homeless veterans hang out and drop them off a care package. Yeah, it's not a soup kitchen/shelter type idea but I am pretty unconventional.
posted by zek at 10:20 PM on November 12, 2007

Most grocery stores now have a canned food donation bin out front (check as you enter). Buy 85$ worth of some good quality soup and donate!

I think it would be great if you donate back to the community where the money came from (rather than to a global charity).
posted by special-k at 10:21 PM on November 12, 2007

buy baby food and diapers and donate it to whoever is doing a food drive for thanksgiving.

go to your favourite local coffee shop when it is not too busy and buy everyone there whatever they are having.

spend $45 of it on whatever charitable idea tickles your fancy in this thread, then spend the other $40 on yourself. being a student with no money is rough, so enjoy it!
posted by gursky at 10:23 PM on November 12, 2007

a desire to pay it forward in some way.

Seconding weed and porn. Don't waste this good fortune on someone else. You're in college and you deserve a break!
posted by dhammond at 10:25 PM on November 12, 2007

If you do the soup kitchen thing, call them *first,* before buying. Ask them what they need most right now.
posted by mediareport at 10:26 PM on November 12, 2007

I don't understand how everyone in this thread is so selfless. Is this the kind of advice you all actually follow yourself, or is just stuff you tell other people to do? I might be a selfish prick, but if I found $85 I would spend it on beer and books. Then again, I'm a poor student who lives in the inner city.

Since I doubt you're actually going to donate your hard-found money to charity, I'd recommend buying a nice cut of meat and a few bottles of wine and having a laid-back dinner with your closest friends. Or taking your mom out to lunch and a museum. Or buying a 40 bag of weed and getting people together to go to an amusement park. I don't see anything wrong with "paying it forward" in a way that shows your appreciation for those close to you.
posted by nasreddin at 10:41 PM on November 12, 2007

I think you should use it on anything you might need, and pay it forward in the future, when you've got more capital. Taking this opportunity to commit to something along those lines would be cool - say, Red Cross training next year or $1000 to Planned Parenthood by your 25th birthday. Any ol' goal will do.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:52 PM on November 12, 2007

Buy something you've always wanted but considered to be too expensive or not worth the money. This was you can rationalize the purchase as being okay since it's free.

If you really want to do something that has some aspect of altruism, throw a party. Anything that gets me free beer is altruism in my book.
posted by christonabike at 11:10 PM on November 12, 2007

As long as you've made proper efforts to locate the owner (and it sounds like you have) then the money is yours. Lucky you!

I'm sure there's something you've always wanted to do, but couldn't justify the expense --- now's your chance!

If there's money left over, then give it to charity, but you don't owe it to anyone.
posted by robcorr at 11:16 PM on November 12, 2007

I say you need to use this money to spread joy (and pay for something you could never normally rationalize) I saw throw an $85 crazy event for your friends, it's not enough for a real party, but it's more then enough to do do something pointless but memorable. For example I remember once someone dropped nearly $100 on a crazy White Castle slider eating contest among our group. Just out of the blue, it was unexpected and wonderfully horrible, and we all remember it years later.

Surprise your friends by doing something no one in their right mind would normally do, that your college friends will remember forever an an absurd and wonderfully stupid idea.

Adding another memory weird of college fun is the best gift you can give with that money, and as a bonus you will be rewarding those you care about in a quasi selfless gesture.
posted by Jezztek at 11:21 PM on November 12, 2007

If there's a supermarket nearby, they might have a way to donate for Thanksgiving. I'd at least keep a little of it for myself, and the using it on friends idea is a good one. But put most of it to charity, so you won't feel so bad about the person who lost it in the first place. I'm sure he or she would have no qualms about it being put to charitable use.

I found $15 on a bus seat once, but someone else beat me to it on his way out, and I think it was only because he noticed me glancing over at an empty seat in the first place. I would've gladly settled for just the fiver.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 11:22 PM on November 12, 2007

Hrm... I need to stop posting in the middle of the night if my posts are going to be that grammatically garbled.
posted by Jezztek at 11:24 PM on November 12, 2007

put it in the bank and save it for later.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 11:24 PM on November 12, 2007

Buy Mario Galaxy for Wii and a sixer of beer.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:01 AM on November 13, 2007

Buy a turducken for Thanksgiving.
posted by HotPatatta at 12:10 AM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Dude! Thats like 50 junior bacon cheesburgers and 25 junior frostys!
posted by pwally at 12:18 AM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'd put it towards buying gifts for family at Christmas.
posted by stackhaus23 at 12:38 AM on November 13, 2007

Put it in the bank and live your life as usual.
posted by mpls2 at 4:34 AM on November 13, 2007

Imagine that you lost the money while trying to decide what to do with it. What would you want the next person who finds the money to do with it? Do that.
posted by studentbaker at 5:09 AM on November 13, 2007

Who's the person you know who does or gives the most to other people? Spend it on them.
posted by hermitosis at 6:09 AM on November 13, 2007

If you're short on cash now, I say put 10% straight into a charity or cause you believe in (yeah, from $85 it's not much, but it's still something), integrate the rest into your normal budget, then use it as a reminder to be more open-handed in the future.
posted by Salamandrous at 6:14 AM on November 13, 2007

How about a charitable cause that's not completely selfless, i.e., something that benefits you too? I'm fond of supporting my local public televsion and public radio stations.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:18 AM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

You shouldn't ask us.

You should ask yourself what you would want someone else to do if they were in your situation.

Then do that.
posted by wfrgms at 6:23 AM on November 13, 2007

Put it all on black. Keep half the winnings and donate the other half. Works if you win or lose, plus the money was never yours in the first place so you're not down at all.
posted by triv at 6:49 AM on November 13, 2007

Is this the kind of advice you all actually follow yourself, or is just stuff you tell other people to do?

Well, I can't really speak for the others, but from an early age on, I was taught not to pick up anything from the street, and if I did happen to pick up something, like say money, or jewelry--to donate it to a good cause.

Of course, there was that one time where I sold my mother's bracelet to buy an edition of the Kamasutra, because I had planned on committing suicide and didn't want to go before discovering the mysteries of Tantric Sex.
posted by hadjiboy at 7:38 AM on November 13, 2007

As long as you made an effort to find the owner, feel free to do whatever. I lose money, get ripped off by stores, lose expensive items all the time. Occasionally I get lucky and find money, get a great deal, or find something cool that is truly lost and impossible to find an owner. It almost evens out except I've lost a lot of cash and been ripped off by stores far too frequently.
posted by yeti at 8:12 AM on November 13, 2007

i'm with Ambrosia Voyeur, pay it forward in the future. i remember being a poor student and finding some money on the ground. i didn't have the instinct to give it away - i figured it was there for me to find because i really needed it. i ended up spending it on food. if you do have a strong STRONG compulsion to pay it forward which is not fueled by 'this is not my money' guilt - then make a note to yourself that when you're no longer poor or in need, next Thanksgiving you will spend $85 + accrued interest on food for the homeless. and on a side note, if you are so hesitant regarding what to do with this money, maybe this means that you don't really need it and it wasn't for you to find - in that case you should return to the place where you found it and put it back on the ground.
posted by barrakuda at 9:08 AM on November 13, 2007

Keep it. Buy yourself something nice.
posted by SansPoint at 9:27 AM on November 13, 2007

I found $60 once. There was no way to tell who it belonged to, based on where I found it. I bought groceries with it. Meaning, where I usually have to budget and shop off a list, I went to the store with my normal budget + $60 and bought whatever the hell I wanted. Expensive ingredients, treats, stocked up on staples. It was awesome.
posted by peep at 9:33 AM on November 13, 2007

Send your mom a really nice bouquet of flowers with a note that says how much you love her.
posted by happyturtle at 10:29 AM on November 13, 2007

adopt-a-sidewalk. take that $85 and put it in a high yield savings account. in one year, it will be worth $89.25! when the square of sidewalk on which you found it needs repair, repair it. when it needs love, love it. when it needs 85 dollars, 85 dollar it.
posted by brooklynexperiment at 10:29 AM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Keep it. It's you against the world, and the world just lost $85.
posted by jeffamaphone at 4:43 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Go to a dive-y coffee shop at a late or early hour and look for the server who looks the most down or bedraggled. Buy a cup of coffee and leave a $20 tip. Repeat as desired.

If I lost $85, I'd cry a bit and then hope that the money blesses the person who finds it. So perhaps there's something you've been needing...? It's not a crime against humanity if you buy yourself a nice scarf or a new pair of shoes, or some new sheets, or throw a ramen-free dinner for a few friends.

Or decide to give some or all of it away. Pray for the opportunity to find you. It will.
posted by orangemiles at 9:58 AM on November 14, 2007

buy scotch
posted by jannw at 1:40 PM on November 14, 2007

devote $50 to kiva.org, where that amount of money will microfinance two small businesses in developing countries. keep the remaining $35 as a treat for yourself. the money you loan through kiva keeps cycling- as the loan recipents pay it back, you can loan it out again- so you can pay that $50 forward unlimited times, and still have a few bucks left over for whatever you fancy right now.
posted by twistofrhyme at 8:53 PM on November 18, 2007