This morning my friend La Maya and I joined a Starbuck’s drive-through line. Wanting to empty my purse of heavy change, I handed her $2.25 in quarters to cover the cost of a café Americano.
She put the change aside and paid for both coffees with long green.
Why?
Because, she explained, she stashes every quarter that comes her way to defray the annual state automobile registration fee.
Car registration in Arizona is exorbitant—ours is among the highest in the country. Last year, La Maya said, she paid over $140 to register her Toyota. Though she’s not one of those folks who resent paying taxes, she does regard the auto registration fee as a gouge. Which, of course, is just what it is. It’s particularly galling to see that the state has built a huge, expensive bureaucracy for the purpose of collecting this particular rip, especially when our hatchet-faced governor watches a man die unnecessarily for lack of adequate Medicaid coverage and remarks “we can’t afford it.”
La Maya says it makes her feel slightly less annoyed to pay it when she has a chunk of the bill set aside in her small change collection. Last year her quarter stash covered more than half the bill.
Good idea, isn’t it? When I have loose change (not often, because I mostly pay with plastic), I also toss it into a jar. But it’s not dedicated to anything, other than collecting dust and taking up space. This way, once a year you clear the clutter away, and you use it for a specific purpose.
You think that’s high? You got it GOOD! We pay $300 a year. And petrol is $1.90 a litre here. Thank gosh we only have one car.
@ eemusings: LOL! Yeah, I should’ve made it more clear that I meant “in the U.S.”!
Yeah, I realise it’s in the US! Or am I not allowed to participate in whining about the cost of running a car too? Hmph. 😛
@ eemusings: Absolutely! Whining is crucial to car ownership, especially if you own a clunk like mine that has noplace to plug an iPod. The choir training is good, too: you can harmonize with the fanbelt.
When my ex- and I were in England, we were thankful that we didn’t have to get around in a car. Housing on the public transit lines was radically expensive. We did find a decent place in Tunbridge Wells (a miracle, since the military seemed to have first dibs on all the rental property in Kent), but it was so far from the nearest bus stop that living there through the winter would’ve been impractical. I had to spend about half my time in the PRO and half at the Kent Archives Office, with a few excursions to the British Library, the Bodleian, and waypoints.
We ended up paying through the schnozola for a flat in Kensington, a short walk from the underground. It was easy to get to the PRO and the British Library. The cost was blinding, but I’m pretty sure the cost of renting a car for several months and paying the astonishing fuel prices would have been even more blinding. If that’s possible.
From London I could get to Cambridge and Oxford, too, without too much suffering. We had Britrail passes, which at the time kept the costs down, in relative terms.
He was a train buff. So while I was working he spent hour after hour riding around the countryside. Loved it.
It’s funny, I really don’t associate England with the military for some reason! I know there are big military areas in the US and there are some in NZ too, so it only stands to reason England has them as well.
Can’t wait to do Europe one day and go swanning from country to country on the train 🙂
I love Starbucks! And you know what…you just gave me an idea that for some reason never came to my mind before… I am going to use my loose coin for my latte!
I never spend a quarter until I check it’s date.
With the price of Silver now, they are worth over $5