Penny Millionaire Project – Week 30

Wednesday – Wayne, our resident creative genius, handed me two pennies. He’d found one in the footwell of the passenger seat of his car and the other in Foot Locker.

Thursday, Nix gave me a penny that she found “somewhere or other”. That’s good enough for me. The devil’s in the details.

I also found something myself on Thursday. I was meandering past Hammersmith tube station when I spotted something shiny on the floor. I didn’t really want it to be money, because it was lunchtime and the area was swarming with purposeful types striding about carrying coffees. But sure enough, it was a penny. Damn.

There was a man hanging around waiting for someone or something, and I’d felt him clock me as I slowed down on my approach to the penny. I could still feel his eyes on me as I arrived at the point where I had to either pick it up or walk on, and my head started pounding with the feeling that a thousand high-heeled women and besuited men were all looking at me thinking ‘surely she wouldn’t pick that up, would she? Nobody’s that poor’.

I wrestled with myself, but for the first time in the project, I walked straight past some cash.

I only got about 3 metres before the guilt and shame hit me. I felt like a complete coward. So what could have been a fairly casual sweeping-up manoeuvre in passing became a double-back walk of shame and a squint around on the floor, all the while being watched by a man who’d seen everything. For a penny.

I tried to look grave, like I’d dropped something valuable, but not so grave that anyone looking on would offer to help. I found it, and with my back turned to the man stood there watching, I picked it up. Feel the fear and do it anyway, people.

Saturday, I was in town with my little brother and sister, when my brother Luke found a 2p and gamely handed it over.

Sunday – went to my nan’s house, who gave me a penny she’d found – shock horror – in Tesco’s car park, right by a children’s ride. There had been children on the ride, so it probably belonged to one of them. The brats should be more careful, shouldn’t they?

Week Thirty
How much found: 7p
Total found so far: £13.99
How it could now be spent: an Anti-James Blunt T-shirt

Penny Millionaire Project – Week 29

Monday – Nix handed over 3 pennies she’d found at the bottom of her old handbag when she was transferring stuff to a new one.

Tuesday afternoon, I came back from lunch to find a huge mound of assorted coins on my desk – a whole 66p’s worth! As far as I could remember, I hadn’t lent anybody any money, bought anyone anything or bet anyone 66p that I could do something.

I fired off an ‘all staff’ email to get to the bottom of it, but was met with a stony silence. You know what’s happened don’t you? The mystery benefactor has returned…

Wednesday night (last night), I was coming out of Bank tube station en route to the O2 arena to see the Spice Girls (brilliant by the way, but Geri and Mel B still hate each other), when a man in front of me spilt the entire contents of his wallet all over the stairs. Bingo!

I stopped to help, and he said something about needing all the money to pay for his train fare. As I helped him look, the devil in me started thinking of all the coins he’d inevitably miss, and I must confess I did look around to see if there were any high-denomination coins he hadn’t spotted. Annoyingly, the much more dominant goody-two-shoes in me found 1p, and immediately handed it to him.

He seemed disappointed that all I’d retrieved was a penny, and it took several seconds of me holding it out to him before he cracked and took it. He didn’t even want it!

Week Twenty-nine

How much found: 69p
Total found so far: £13.92
How it could now be spent: a pot of Protexin Pro digestive supplement for all large animals.

Hate your colleagues as much as Geri and Mel B do? Time to look for a new job.