Blogger 365 Day 140 - Change I can't believe in (yet)

     I know I haven't done a change meter update in about a month or so, I wish I could say that I have been scooping up all kinds o cash, but I really haven't.  In the last month or so I have only found .91, a paltry month to be sure.  But there is a but, as is often the case.  Technically with that additional money the change meter is now up to $505.76, but there is more money, I just haven't decided if I will add it or not.

    You see, a few weeks back I was out on my Sunday walk.  Unlike a lot of people, I am constantly studying the ground when I walk.  I scoop up Coke caps for my rewards program and if I find the occasional coin I will pick that up too and add it to my total.  But what I found the other day was neither a cap, nor was it a coin.  Instead it was a gift card, laying out in the street, looking like it had been run over a time or thrice.  I picked it up thinking it is probably just a grocery store gift card a student was given and subsequently spent and thrown in the trash once it was used up.  So I flipped the card over and it wasn't a grocery store, instead it was to Aeropostale, a clothing store.  I stuck it in my pocket thinking that I am sure this has been spent, but I will take it home and check online anyway, and if there is something left on it then I may go shopping.

     I get home and do the necessary research and there was money on it, $18.75 to be exact.  The dilemma then becomes, how does this count to the change meter?   I have made exceptions in the past where I have counted the value of things to the total provided they met two criteria; 1) I could establish for certain a value of the item.  In the past when I found a monthly bus pass on the 1st of the month it was easy.  A bus pass costs $90 for a monthly, it was the first day of the month, so the full value of the pass would apply to the total here.  2) is harder, I have to be able to use the value of the item.  In the case of the bus pass it was easy, since I use public transportation all the time.  Aeropostale is a different animal in that it is a store I usually would not shop at, it is a little to young hipster GQ-ish for my tastes and the closest location is a decent bus ride away (and out of the way at that), so it is uncertain whether I can use this gift card or not.  If I do, then I will add the total of the gift card to my change meter, if not then it is of no value to me and therefore does not count. 

   Leave it to me to make an issue out of finding stuff.  But if I didn't, oh what would I possibly blog about?