Penny Millionaire Project – Week 23

Tuesday evening I went round to see my friend Steph, who promptly handed over a 20p. She’d found it on Friday morning during the taxi journey of shame to pick up her car, which she’d left at the pub the night before.

As you can imagine, she wasn’t feeling her best that morning, but having spotted 20p over the other side of the back seat she knew she had to get it for me. It was just out of reach, and the driver was chatting to her while looking at her intermittently in his rear view mirror, so any sudden lurches across the seat would have aroused his suspicion.

She’s worked in sales, so luckily she’s a bit of a master of slick manoeuvres for the purposes of deceiving people. When it came time to pay her fare, she put her coat down over the 20p, paid the driver, then picked her coat up, sliding one hand underneath it to pick up the money as she left the taxi. Brilliant.

Wednesday – my little sister Kirsty found two 2ps near a chip stand in Thorpe Park.

Saturday – I went for a walk into Windsor with my mum, who found a 5p outside a rather chichi interior design shop called Anemone Interiors.

Sunday – I found a penny in the gym car park.

Week Twenty-three

How much found: 30p
Total found so far: £12.68
How it could now be spent: An Alessi Otto Dental Floss Holder that I’m guessing Anemone Interiors doesn’t stock.

Penny Millionaire Project – Week 22

Wednesday – Lucy handed over two 1ps she found on the floor of Tescos by the checkouts. I’m onto you Tesco, but keep doing what you’re doing.

Thursday – Nix gave me a penny she’d found last Thursday at Waterloo station, outside a pie shop, at 11pm. She tells me she was in a group in which she was the only sober one, but hanging around outside a train station pie shop at 11pm? The jury’s out.

Friday – I wrote in this blog 2 weeks ago of my need to go out drinking more so I could start bringing home drunken people’s discarded cash, and I am a woman of my word. I’d also been told that afternoon by a colleague, ‘come on, live on the edge’, and it so happens I’m reading a book called The Luck Factor which tells me to do just that. It’s very good by the way – the first time I read it I found a job and won a tenner on the lottery in the week after finishing it. So I went on a big night out in London after work. So big, in fact, that I ended up dancing like a shiny, sweaty fool and missing the last bus home. Not so lucky.

Anyway it meant I had a convoluted tube/train/taxi journey to get me home. After surviving the tube and train legs, I emerged blinking into the streetlights outside Slough train station, wibbly-wobbly and freezing by now, to go and stand in line for a taxi. As I found my legs and began to stride purposefully over to the taxis, I spotted a penny on the floor, sigh-smiled in what I thought was a poignant, satisfied way but probably just made me look like a drunken sap, and instantly felt the evening had been wonderfully worth it.

Sunday – my little sister Kirsty handed me a 1p she’d found in Windsor College car park by the ticket machine.

Week Twenty-two

How much found: 5p
Total found so far: £12.38
How it could now be spent: A super strong nylon dog harness.

Penny Millionaire Project – Week 21

Even now, as we enter the 6th month of the project, the riches show no sign of abating.

Monday, Maz gave me a 5p and two 1ps that her dad had found on his travels. This project is beginning to feel like a real friends ‘n’ family cottage industry. I may even design a logo.

Tuesday – my mate Steph, who sells video conferencing for a living, gave me a pound coin. She’d had a potential client in at work, and had been doing the whole ‘trying to dazzle them with a PowerPoint presentation’ bit on the company’s MD.

After her performance, when it came time to clean up the room (she’s not a messy speaker – they’d had a buffet), she saw something shiny right underneath the chair the MD had been sitting on.

A glorious pound. We don’t yet know whether she won the contract, but either way she went home with some of the MD’s cash. Tee hee.

On Wednesday, Lucy handed me a penny retrieved from her sofa.

On Thursday, Kirsty gave me a 2p she’d spotted on Platform 4 of East Croydon station, and later that afternoon, Andrew pointed out a penny laying on the floor behind an unoccupied chair in our office. A good week.

Week Twenty-one

How much found: £1.11
Total found so far: £12.33
How it could now be spent: Hiring the Swaffham Assembly Rooms ballroom for an hour.

Penny Millionaire Project – Week 20

This week all the spoils came from Andrew. On Thursday he handed me a 5p, 2p and two 1ps. All in one go, just like that. Smug as you like.
He’d found them in the Hog’s Head pub in Wycombe on the table in a ‘puddle of booze’. Quite an impressive lot I’m sure you’ll agree, and it set me off thinking…

A while ago, I remember my auntie telling me that the dance floors of bars and clubs were particularly good for finding sticky coins, and she herself had found pounds on them over the years.

And now this. Andrew has twice found not just the odd coin in pubs, but piles of coins left on tables. This is all the evidence I need. I’m not a big drinker, but if I really want this project to succeed I’m going to have to bite the bullet and go to the pub a bit more.

Week Twenty

How much found: 9p
Total found so far: £11.22
How it could now be spent: A Universal Oval Bagpipe Mouthpiece.

Penny Millionaire Project – Week 19

Monday – this is fast becoming Mhairi’s project. This morning she handed over a penny from the South Bank, plus a penny she’d found on the night bus the previous Friday night. The night bus penny bore no trace of kebab, nor anything else more sinister, and for that we should all be grateful.

Sunday I was in the garden hanging out my washing, when there, upon an old wooden chair, I spied a penny. This sounds like the beginning of a magical adventure but I’m afraid I just hung out my washing, picked up the penny and came inside – it was a bit nippy.

Later on Sunday, at my nan’s house, my auntie came good with a 5p she’d spotted on the path alongside her parked car.

Week Nineteen

How much found: 8p
Total found so far: £11.13
How it could now be spent: A Murder on the Dance Floor mystery party.

Penny Millionaire Project – Week 18

Monday – my little sister gave me a 5p she’d found in Tesco by the checkout. Tesco yet again. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s completely beyond them to have Internet spooks scouring blogs for any reference to Tesco and doing whatever it takes to be mentioned more…

Tuesday – a double whammy from Mhairi – a 2p that she found walking home and a 5p her boyfriend found during a nice walk in leafy Mitcham, Surrey.

On Thursday she came good yet again with a 2p from the train.

Week Eighteen

How much found: 14p
Total found so far: £11.05
How it could now be spent: A Spear & Jackson Razorsharp Garden Knife.

Penny Millionaire Project – Week 17

Wednesday – a walk around town with my little brother and sister. I’ve been looking after them for a week and it has cost me literally hundreds of pounds. My brother went some way to recouping my losses, by finding a 2p slotted between some cobbles in an alleyway. Only another 14,999 to find and I’ve broken even.

On Friday, a 20p came from Nix, who found it next to the ticket machine at Earlsfield station. She tells me she’d been tempted to keep it because she’d had to raid her copper jar to buy a loaf of bread, but didn’t. Now that’s the kind of dedicated soldier you want in your platoon.

Friday – some post arrived at work. I’ve never received anything at work, I’m not one of the important people who get mail. I was completely intrigued.

And inside the padded envelope was a business card, from a lady called Louise at UK Recruiter. I flipped it over to find this…

I couldn’t believe it! The courage and sacrifice of this mother was the highlight of my week. If he’s reading this, I just hope he understands.

Week Seventeen

How much found: 27p
Total found so far: £10.91
How it could now be spent: A Blonde Bombshell wig.

Penny Millionaire Project – Week 16

Monday – Nix found a penny underneath an Oyster machine.

Tuesday – 20p from a tube seat at Kensington Olympia, courtesy of Kirsty. Our new boy, Andrew, also initiated himself into the project today with two 5ps he had found left on a pub table. He says he shouted after the man who left them, only to be told “I’m not interested”. You see? Someone has to clean up after these people.

Friday – Kirsty gave me a penny from the road outside our offices, near the security hut. This is the second one I’ve been given from there in the space of a week. I’d hate to think the security guard was throwing them there to watch my colleagues bend over.

Week Sixteen

How much found: 32p
Total found so far: £10.64
How it could now be spent: A Volvo high mileage club badge.

Penny Millionaire Project – Week 15

Tuesday – I knew my instincts were right about new Simon! Today he wheeled over in his seat and handed me a 2p and a 1p that he’d found clearing out his desk.

Thursday – thick and fast on the colleague generosity front. First of all, from Nix, a treasure trove of coppers from a festival – a 2p and two 1ps that were sat on the edge of a veggie burger stall, plus a penny from inside a collapsible chair.

Then Mhairi came good with what is perhaps the grottiest, blackest penny I’ve ever seen, from outside the security guard’s hut at work. Grottiness aside, I’m doubly proud of her because she picked it up in full view of the security guard, a man who sees all, and whom we have to walk past every morning.

Week Fifteen

How much found: 9p
Total found so far: £10.35
How it could now be spent: A “really cute House Mouse stamp”.

Penny Millionaire Project – Week 14

Wednesday – we’ve had a new person start at GAAPweb. His name’s Simon, and he sits behind me. Today he gave me a 5p from under his desk. I think we’re going to get along.

Sunday – a lucrative visit to my nan’s house. My auntie handed over two pieces of reclaimed wealth – a 2p rescued on the way home from Asda and a 5p that was sat on the bar at her line dancing session. Yee-ha.

Not much to report this week. Still, gives me time to start planning what to spend my million on.

Week Fourteen

How much found: 12p
Total found so far: £10.26
How it could now be spent: A boys satin wedding cravat.