Man, it’s been forever since we last did one of these! Have you been missing them like I have? Remember our last one? Haha… “Would you rather be RICH 100 years ago, or Average now?” – they’re always entertaining ;) Even if there’s no real point to them other than having fun (but that’s what Fridays are for, yo!).
So let’s continue the tradition, and see what your pretty little brains would prefer today… Here’s our next question in the series: Would you rather…
Win $15,000 in dollar bills, or win $20,000 in quarters? (And you can’t exchange any of it or deposit it at the bank! You MUST use it for spending in person only.)
Haha… changes everything huh? ;) Initially I thought I’d go for the $20k in change, but man – do you know how HEAVY that would be? Carrying it all around with you to lunch or the grocery store, or even paying gas with? It would get pretty hard. And also pretty irritating – you’d have to literally count it all out *every time* you went to pay for something! And the more you need, the more that line behind you backs up and people wonder what the hell your problem is for handing over hundreds of quarters, haha… is the additional $5k really worth the headache?
On the other hand, thousands of dollars in $1 bills ain’t that fancy either. Though MUCH more do-able, of course, and at the end of the day it’s all still FREE money. And maybe you’d get lucky enough to find one of those treasure hunt dollars too! Haha… that would be awesome. The only thing that really sucks w/ either choice here is that you can’t use any of it online for anything. No paying buying things off Amazon, no paying bills unless you can physically walk into the places and pay cash, and no saving it all in the bank. You can ONLY use it to pay for things in person. (These are my rules, buster – no going around them! ;))
Which do you think you’d pick? The $20k in coins or the $15k in bills? I’m gonna finalize my decision and go ahead and take my chances with the quarters. I know I’ll regret it half-way through (and be known as the “quarter man” around town), but I just can’t lose out on that free $5,000! Worst case I’ll just have free parking for the rest of my long and sexy life ;) I don’t have a problem with that!
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PS: Here are some others we’ve contemplated before:
– Would you rather… have $5 million dollars -OR- the ability to teleport?
– Would you rather… Keep the next year of your life, as-is -OR- lose a year but get $100,000?
– Would you… for $15,000 in cash, give up sex for a whole entire year?!
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The quarter’s would weigh right at 1000 pounds, I think. But I’d still take’em. If you spend your money the “right” way, you only have to carry them one place…
Quarters! is it breaking the rules if I roll them?? MUCH easier to pay with. Back in the day I remember paying for stuff with rolls of change–my dad would empty the change out of his pockets every evening into a hat, and once in a while he’d call my sister and I into the room, hand over the hat, and say, it’s all yours! We’d roll it and pay for toys and candy with it–the cashiers loved it because they always needed more change. And we were probably pretty cute with our blonde pigtails. :) That was the best!
I’m going with the $20k in quarters.There’s no time limit so I can slowly build my reputation as the ‘Quarter Lady’ and start blogging about it – lol!
I’m with you and I would take to 20k in quarters…its 5k more!!! Have you ever paid for things with the rolls of money? I roll up our loose change once or twice a year and use it pay for fast food or something like that and the people always look at me so strange. Once a person behind the counter even said, “we can’t take that” … what a stupid thing to say!
So I know this post is ancient, but actually, you’re not allowed to take rolled coins as payment because so many people were rolling a bar of steel and add a few nickels and quarters to each end, and trying to pay like that. OR if they weren’t that sneaky, they’d only roll 38 quarters instead of 40, shorting my drawer $.50. Across three rolls, that’s $1.50, and if my drawer was short it came out of my check. If my drawer was short three times across the lifetime of my employment, I lost my job.
I love you, promise, but your rolled coins are SO NOT worth my job… So, what I always did was to say, “I’m so sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to break your beautiful roll and make sure I count this correctly — again — I know, but if I don’t, my boss will have a fit!”
Quarters. I don’t care if I made a scene at the grocery store, I want more money :)
I would probably just buy something big and turn it all over at once, like for land. I wouldn’t care how long it would take to count them, or how many people, I would just sit back and watch. If I couldn’t use quarters, then I would go some place else that would take my money.
I remember in high school paying for gas with whatever change I scrounged until my next paycheck. Most people don’t care because they are used to it and the ones that did never got business, ever.
Well, I’m Canadian, so we don’t even have $1 bills, but $1 coins! So if I’m getting coins either way, I’m taking the quarters!
I’m going to be the lame one and go for the bills. Yeah- I wouldn’t have that extra $5,000… but I’m really small and I don’t care HOW you transport those quarters. I wouldn’t be able to carry them or even drive them around in my little car. I hate change and it’s annoying.
I love this question since it reminds me of my Dad! In high school whenever I wanted to go to the movies or something with friends and I asked for money, he would always say… you can have $15 bucks orrrrrrr all the change in my change jar. The first time I picked the cash and he counted the coins to tell me how much I missed out on. From then on, whenever I went out with my friends I had a ziploc bag FULL of change. They still make fun of me for this. But he was always crazy with money anyway, he would only give it to me if it was some sort of game… And the man is obsessed with fear factor, so it often involved me eating disgusting things or running barefoot in snow or asking the neighbors for something weird like toilet paper or an egg yolk…
Anyway I got off topic, definitely change. :)
I would take the quarters… being a coin collector maybe I would get lucky and fine so mint errors or maybe there would be some 1964 or older coins and increase my take! I could always just you my quarters to buy a truck like a fellow Hoosier has done before:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318018,00.html
Quarters for sure – especially if I could pay the IRS the taxes on the winnings in quarters with the same restrictions…
Quarters all the way. I have some routine weekly expenses that would be pretty easy to use them on without feeling too ridiculous. $50 week on my bus pass which I can add to at local grocery store customer service desks. Weekly Friday starbucks for $5. It would take 7 years. I wouldn’t carry more than I was going to use each day.
Quarters – I’d never have to go to the bank to get quarters for laundry ever again!
Definitely quarters!! I can picture myself dragging money to buy a car with quarters right now! :)
It would be tough to forsake the extra $5K but I couldn’t deal with all those coins! Keeping it simple would be worth the $5K – plus it’s found money so not really a loss or cost to me.
I’d take the quarters, buy some money orders, some envelopes, some stamps and pay down/off some debts. Would spread it around because that’s a lot of quarters to give to one store.
kristin
Definitely $15K in dollars :) I HATE change.
Let me just say that I’m going to a bachelor party in April, and I sure could use $15k in singles. ;)
This is actually a really tough one! Of course my first reaction would be the $20,000 in quarters, but I think when push comes to shove and I’d actually have to carry all of that around, I think I’d end up settling with the $15,000 in dollar bills. Even that would be a pain to carry around.
Lol! I think I’d rather do the $15k in bills. I’m certain I’d go bananas trying to cart around all those quarters.
I feel crazy saying this but I would definitely take the $15k in dollar bills….my time to lug around and count quarters will easily be worth more than the extra $5k.
I would go with the quarters and just keep them in a trunk somewhere. If I only took out 14 each day, this would fund my daily latte purchases for about 15 years, if I did the math right! Or laundry would be free for the rest of my life.
Quarters. I think if I played my cards right, I could pay for one huge item with my truckload of quarters, like maybe part of the down payment on a house.
Haha! Great Series! :)
I would take the quarters, of course. Somehow the idea of being a crazy quarter lady is quite appealing to me. I could invent an awesome contraption that dishes out just the right amount of quarters from my magic sleeve when making purchases. I could put quarters under my hat and in my shoes. I would bring the quarters into crossfit and use them for my workouts. I would have a monthly quarter bath and make it rain quarters at birthday parties. I would give out quarters on the train. Plus they would be handy for the kid’s allowance and we could put them in a treasure chest and play pirates.
Good times!
Definitely quarters….I would have laundry quarters for a lifetime.
20 grand baby!
My friend LOVES to roll change (so I let her) and I’d have her roll my winnings & pay for things that way.
FYI: I always use paper money when paying for things & I save my change. Then I have my friend roll my coins & end up with a few hundred dollars every year or 18 mos. Great way to ‘save’ without ‘saving’.
I usually use the money for when I vacation. However, since I haven’t taken a vacation, it’s sitting at home collecting dust. Hmmmm…maybe I should deposit it in the bank?
definitely the quarters, no question, I’d always take more money.
I would just use it in 5 dollar increments. Put it in my change cup in my car and use it for coffee, or tolls, or whatever
This is strange, but hardly 30 seconds had passed between me opening your e-mail titled “Would you Rather” than a friend of mine asked me “Would you rather me ask him?” about work… weird.
At this point in my life, $5K isn’t that huge. I’d take the dollars.
Quarters. Think I’ll start a small business of exchanging money for small fee. Remember that guy at arcades in the 80’s? Let’s make those quarters work for us! I think I’d like to swim in those quarters first!
Ha! This is great! I’d take the 20k in quarters just because my credit union has a free Coinstar type machine in one of the branches nearby. I’d spend $20 bucks on a Uhaul to transport the quarters to the bank and laugh as I watch the employees faces as I stand at the machine all day depositing quarters making a huge racket. Then I can go out and spend money like a normal person. $4,980 dollars is huge!
Going with the quarters. I’d allocate them to paying rent, and hand my landlord a bag of quarters every month. Ha!
It looks like QUARTERS are in the lead! 22 choices vs. 8 for dollars! This is fun :)
@JamesBrett – Yup! You don’t have to bring ALL of it everywhere, just what you need at the time.
@sense – Awww, I like that idea from your dad, I’m gonna have to steal it once my future kids are old enough to play with money ;) And EXCELLENT idea too w/ the rolling up of ’em. I’d never do it cuz it would take *forever* but it’s not against the rules!
@Elle – Haha, that’s true :) If you hit it big time and got news coverage (esp since it would mean a magical genie existed!) your blog would totally blow up ;)
@Alexa – HAH! No, I’ve never heard of or seen anyone do that actually, but sure why not? I just dump all my coins in a jar and then every 8 or 9 months take it all to one of those coin machines at the bank (so it’s free) and exchange it all for dollar bills. I don’t have the patience to roll ’em all up :)
@LB – Ooooh I like the land idea! Pay partially in quarters, and the other w/ a check. Just a one-time counting debacle, that’s not too bad.
@Melissa – Hahhaa…. touche!
@Emmy – Awwww, your smallness is cute though – I love it :) You’re one of the most unique ladies I know!
@Laura – Hahahhahaa… I LOVE YOUR DAD!! That is probably gonna be me 100% when I become one, haha… that’s awesome. I’d totally take him up on all those dares too – money is money!
@Brian – That is funny :) And good call on the quarters then too in that case, it’ll make for some good entertainment too searching for special coins!
@Nick – Now THAT would be awesome, haha… I’d love to see that :)
@Michelle – Haha… I like how you determined exactly how long it would last ;) Good choice.
@Kristin – Damn straight!
@Tessa – Check out the link that Brian posted a few comments above! Someone did that! $25,000 worth, haha…
@Ten Bob Millionaire – True true, it just appeared magically to you :)
@kristin – Haha, yes – it sure is. And it would take a dozen hours or so to count it all out anyways.
@Leah – I don’t blame you :)
@Kevin @ Thousandaire.com – Haha… that would be one helluva party then too!
@Kelsey @ Zero to One Million Challenge – At least it’s faster to count, too.
@Kacie – You don’t have to bring them *everywhere* with you! Haha… just the amount you need at any time ;)
@Sharese – Yeah, it’s a tough one :)
@SmartAssetTeam – Haha, yup! Would last quite a long time divided up that way.
@Christa – That would be AWESOME! It would take forever to count, but it sure would make for an interesting story! :)
@Mrs. Money Mustache – Hhahahaa… good times indeed! You better invite me to those birthday parties too, I love it when it rains quarters! ;) (Tell your sexy husband I say hi)
@Matt – Though hopefully you wouldn’t have to be using public laundry services for the rest of your life ;)
@Kathy – Really? Your friend likes to do that?? Is she 5 years old? Haha… I hope you take her on the vacation with you then, it would take her a good 10 months just to roll them all ;)
@Nicole – That would do it :)
@Tiffany – Hah! It’s a sign that you are on the right track today ;)
@Emily – What if I rolled them all up for you and charged you $2,000? ;)
@Brent Pittman – Haha, no – that story doesn’t sound familiar but your “swimming in coins” idea does. Nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh DUCK TALES!!
@Long – ERRRR disqualified! You can’t take anything to bank, you lose ;)
@Kris @ SimpleIslandLiving – I’m sure he’d love you for that too ;)
I would definitely take the quarters! There is no way I would miss out on that extra $5,000! I would take the quarters in a huge sack and take my wife and daughter on a road trip of a lifetime! I would dub it “The around the United States with Quarters!” Road trip. It would be fantastic and other people who didn’t take the quarters would be very sad.
These are the random thoughts that I have quite often. Thanks for putting another one in my head!
I would definitely say the $15K in dollars. I’m just way too lazy for change!
Doh! I’m sorry. I must have missed the bank thing. I’m at work and get distracted very easily. I feel dumb now. OK…so if I can I revise my answer…I’ll take the cash. Hee hee!
I’d take the bills. There are some arcane rules here about how stores don’t have to accept over a certain dollar figure in coins. Not every store follows it, but some do.
I’d take the quarters. The next time an aggressive pan handler asks me…”Got any change?” I can reply “You bet I do!” The I’d make it RAIN. (Safely, of course…goggles, helmets for everyone.)
I HATE dealing with change, so I would take the dollar bills….except if I lived in an apartment and needed to go to the laundromat. Hate those coin-operated machines!!!
Quarters, definitely, especially if you can roll ’em and/or dump ’em into a Coinstar machine. And since you mentioned the treasure hunt dollars, we’re still waiting to pay off our first “Eagle-Eye” spotter of any “Reward” bills. Is anyone looking? All 54 are still in play — as of TODAY:)
Bills. And I’d fill boxes with them and stash them all over the house. It’d be like Christmas. Is that cereal, or a box full of money? :)
I’d take the $20k in quarters. I’d find a way to lug them around if I had to. (Hey, free workout! Bonus!). I mean, it’s $5k more money!
I’d take the quarters…if nothing else, I could swim in it like in Duck Tales
Quarters. It’s $5,000 extra. I guess I would be parking my car in the toll meters more. :)
I don’t think you can pass on $5,000, even if you have to take the quarters into a trader and invest them that way. Quarters it is for me. I’d probably try to build a fort or something out them.
I’d have to do the dollar bills.
I cant even stand paying $10.00 in gas with quarters (which happens occassionally) SO i cant imagine spending $20,000 that way!
I think I would still take the quarters! I’d find a way to use it to pay off some bills! I was reading through your old WYR (I just started following your blog recently). There were some interesting WYR in the past! I like these questions!
Just the thought of walking around with pockets full of change is making me cringe. Imagine paying for $100 in groceries with quarters!!! The cashier would have security escort me AND my quarters out. I’m taking the $15k.
Quarters, man!!! That way I would “never” be tempted to buy large ticket items because my butt wouldn’t want to stand there and count them! It’s way harder to spend quarters than it is to spend dollars. Plus, most of what I buy is thrift store treasures to decorate my house (see my blog link), and surely I could count out 25 quarters here…..50 quarters there….HAHAHA.
Dollar bills. I’m way to lazy for all those coins.
(in Canada our $1 are coins so this wouldn’t even be a big WYR question!)
My first instinct was to say $20,000 in quarters. I assume most people would say that, but when it came down to it they’d take the dollar bills. Why? Because it’s easier and we usually take the easier road instead of the road less traveled (even if the view is better).
Let me explain– we all say we’d like to be 27 pounds lighter, right (well that’s my goal weight anyway). But when it comes down to it, dieting and exercise is hard work. Today I had two Cokes :( I’d also like to being financially independent, but I charged a Checkers meal for lunch of my credit card =double :(
I’m also positive that although most of the people who are posting that they’d take the quarters wouldn’t really do it when it came right down to it!
Lots and lots of more good answers! We’re now at 30 for Quarters and 15 for the bills! The bills hung in there during this last round, haha… we’ll see what happens when this magical money fairy shows up one day ;)
@Craig – Haha, glad I could help :) And I’d totally join you on that road trip too if you’d have me – I’ll have a sack of quarters w/ me too!
@Michelle @ Making Sense of Cents – It would take more work for sure.
@Long – No worries! Lucky for you the genie is flexible ;)
@Cassie – What? Really?
@KimmyQ – Haha… they wouldn’t mind it either!
@Sarah – I know, they suck hard. One of the best things about living away from the city is that almost every place has their own washer/dryer! Love it!
@Richard Anthony – Man, I wonder how long it’ll take for someone to turn one in? I bet it’ll take a couple of years… the odds that someone a) notices it, and b) comes to the site to check it out is very small in my opinion. And if it gets into the banks hands first, they’d probably destroy it cuz it’s been “altered” :( But I hope I’m proved wrong! You know I’m on the look out ;)
@Kandace – Haha, I like it :) Just don’t forget where they all are!
@Kelli – I know, that’s why it’s a tricky one. Gotta trade in annoyance for money ;) Would be a good work out for sure though.
@George – Now you’re talkin’ ;)
@Jeff Crews – The only sucky part is if you forget to come back to top it off at any point – that’s usually what gets me all the time. I always HAVE the change I just forget to go back! (Though I guess you could pay off the parking tickets with the quarters too, haha…)
@Tyler S. – I’d pay good money to see that too!
@Discovering Adulthood – It wouldn’t be fun ;)
@Beth Anne – Awww, well welcome to my blog new friend! Glad you’ve been enjoying it so far :) If you ever have any good WYR’s yourself, email it on over to me and maybe we’ll post about it on here one day! Thanks so much for stopping by, it means a lot.
@Young and Thrifty – Yup, and then you’d have to do it again the next week, and the next week, and on and on and on, haha…
@Serena – Cool! I’ll check out your site once I post this :) I was just at the Salvation Army this week picking up some stuff for the house – bit fan of thrift stores!
@Bridget – Haha, you should post about it on your site then and see what happens ;)
@Renee – Haha, perhaps, but if they do it without thinking much when this magical genie comes, they’d be stuck with their decisions when it’s too late! And then we’d all bitch about it mid-way through spending it all, haha… but at least it was all free money! :) I think you gotta give yourself more credit too on your dieting/finance goals – maybe you “splurged” cuz it’s the weekend? I don’t know if it helps you the way it does me, but I try to give myself a few days off from things in between working hard to make sure I stay sane. If I go extreme one way or the other I usually burn out at some point :(
Quarters! I agree that it would last a lot longer with all the hesitation to use them. Imagine buying a big ticket item in quarters!
Absolutely the quarters. It’s an extra five grand. Stores often need change so managers might be happy if you paid with rolled quarters.
Besides, if you paid with singles everywhere you went people might think you were a low-end exotic dancer.
Have to go with the quarters. I would be set with the vending machines at work for the rest of my life.
20k in quarters… I’ll roll it up. an additional 5K is probably worth my time, lol.
Do you know how much time that would take?? Haha… I’ll pay you to do mine then ;)
@Donna— don’t people already think of me like that? ;)
Hey who won? This was a contest right? ;-)
$20k in quarters most definitely! It would limit how much money I would carry around with me, and then when spending it, would probably be more conscious of what I am spending it on and whether I REALLY need it.
Great question!
I would go for $20k in quarters. I’d be set for laundry for quite a while!
I think it’s safe to say that “Quarters” one this round. I’ll have to make my next one more harder so it’s a closer competition ;)
Quarters.. Think of all the gumballs I could buy.. mm.. gumballs.. and other things from those little machines that take quarters, plus, most of the meters in Boston only take quarters.. Quarters, I’d put them in my trunk, and then carry a backpack that I would put them in and walk around for exercise, and get loads of yummy gumballs.. Did I mention I LOVE gumballs?!
Haha, once or twice ;) I do like the exercising idea though! That’s a clever one.
I’d take the quarters if my winnings would be delivered to the address of my choice :)
Who cares if I have to pay in quarters? Then again, I have no qualms about paying for a dollar’s worth of stuff in pennies, either.
Hah! Where would you have them sent? You can send them anywhere you want for the initial batch, but then you’re on your own ;)
20k in quarters. I mean that wouldn’t be the only money you had access to because you would have cash from your regular job to pay bigger bills with or to use when you didn’t have time. You could use the quarters for lunches and miscellaneous purchases and only carry around what you thought you needed that day and then the dollars that you had in your pocket would feel like “savings” because you wouldn’t use them for the little things…. and then… it would seem like it lasted forever!
Oh hell yeah! You’d save a TON of your own money with this. And maybe you even get so USED to being more conscious with your spending cuz you have to use quarters all the time, that your whole habits change too? That would be cool ;)
I’d pass on the quarters even though I’d be out the extra $5000! Stores are really irked when you count out a lot of coin. The convenience of Dollars far out weighs the extra amount. Even banks look cross ways at you when you turn coins in for bills.
I’d jump for joy with the bills..
Haha, that’s def true – people do get irritated when they have to do more work :)
Quarters would last longer, for me anyway.
Def. harder to spend than cash! :)