Perhaps the most interesting would be appreciated also...
Keep it tucked in your glove compartment. You never know when you'll be nearly out of gas or desperate for food on the road at a place that won't take your card for whatever reason.
Twenty bucks can seem like nothing these days. When it's a meal, a shower and a couple gallons of gas at a truck stop, it's the best double saw buck ever.
Getting an EZPass was one of the best decisions I've made since I do a decent amount of traveling. Having something that allows you to drive on through without waiting for a line at a toll, and having it all done electronically is such a nice thing.
But you are tracked, in a way which is hardly consequential given that you most likely have your phone on your person and definitely have a credit card that you are bound to use at your destination, but is nonetheless a concern.
This is good advice. I make sure to always have at least some cash in my car. Usually just $5 or so for parking meters. My wife always has a $20 in her car though. Good call.
Go see an early matinee at a large cinema and then sneak in to other films all day.
I've tried that a few times, but after just two movies, I hit a major wall. What's your record?
I've only ever done 2, but I've done it quite a few times. Never since I've been older than 28 though. I feel like I've done this with you before??
I'm sure we did. Can you even remember what we saw together last? Did we see Where the Wild Things Are?
Yep. We saw it with your sister in law in a really narrow theatre, sitting in the back row. I liked the film, but honestly I didn't care much for the experience. Should of ditched the ladies, I don't think either of them liked it much.
I wouldn't be surprised if I'm out in the BC area in the next year. We should see a movie... or two or three.
I feel like it's one of those things that I'll still do well into old age. In fact, once you reach 60 or so it'll become less frowned upon again, so why even let middle age stop you?
I don't know. I used to take that much to the casino every Friday, which I don't advise. I paid rent for 8 months doing that, but I haven't had a good run of luck since.
You might stash it in a rainy-day fund. Twenty bucks isn't much, but it helps in a jam.
Can you be more specific? Smartest how? Like, "smartest to entertain myself," "smartest to irritate other people," etc. Because you can buy a lot of crickets online for twenty bucks and then release them into whatever building(s) you want...
(Same with ladybugs!)
Edit: I think technically the smartest thing would be to invest it, but that's boring, right?
Actually: you invest a few grand, you put a few hundred into savings, and you put quarters in the parking meter or the washing machine. There is a specific set of jobs that the Yuppie Food Stamp does well.
Twenty bucks has the face of President Jackson, the man that gave us the Trail of Tears and political patronage. That bill symbolizes a lot of greased palms and greased wheels. It's still three hours of pay for a lot of people but half an hour's pay for others. It's a large pizza and a couple liters of soda, it's a replacement USB keyboard, it's a week's worth of the good frozen burritos and a couple pounds of carrots.
ATMs give us twenties: they're the fundamental spending unit. It's never a real problem to break a twenty the way it can be to break a fifty. If you still have one in your wallet, you aren't so screwed that you need to stop and get more. If you give a twenty to a friend, you'll never mind not getting it back but you're not a skinflint either.
I'm not quite sure, investing seems obvious, but there could "fun" ways to spend it. I would say I'm quite partial to thenewgreen's suggestion below.
Honestly, "investing" $20 isn't going to do much. Ever. But, nobody can ever take away the day you saw 3 movies in the same day and still had change from your twenty for food!
$20 can get you into a local band's gig, at the very least - where I am, $20 could get me into two or three in a night. Seeing five or six more-than-decent local bands is always a great way to spend a night.
Hmmm many things! Besides the obvious answer of invest/save the money. Go to a used book store and buy loads of books. There are some places which offer old paperbacks for a dollar or two. Find some new authors or new genres or a book that teaches you something new. I recommend anything by Asimov if you want excellent science fiction (that's personally where I would spend my money).
If you play PC games then wait for the steam summer sale and buy 2 or 3 triple A titles for really cheap. You can easily get hundreds of hours out of them which works out to some great bang for your buck.
If you want something interesting and unique, visit kickstarter or etsy and find something that catches your fancy. I like investing on kickstarter, a good project will keep you engaged in its progress and is a good lesson in delayed gratification.
If you're feeling curious, buy some old electronics/junk/etc and take it apart. Give yourself two tasks, one, understand as much as you can about what you took apart and two, then build something new with the disassembled bits and bobs. Make some art or a flickering light or little gizmo that spins.
If you have plenty of 'things' already then give it to charity or the homeless. They will appreciate any amount and you'll feel better having given to those genuinely in need.
Very cool Cadell. Have you contributed? Every time I try to contribute to one of these, it can't seem to understand my Canadian postal code and rejects me.
Meanwhile, I seem to recall that Astral is 14 years old which might have a bearing on how he chooses to save or spend his bucks. He probably doesn't drive or need money for tolls or parking.
Hmmm. I wish we'd known about things you can and cannot do at present, but then the conversation would have gone quite another way.
$20 can still get picnic supplies, I think, if you felt like hanging out with some friends outside. Or, $20 can buy a whole lot of water balloons.
ProTip: attach a length of twine around the knot of a moderately filled water balloon. Then, swing it in a big circle before letting it go, like a foxtail. It goes a lot further. Try to lob it in the air though, instead of smashing it into someone's face. That's no fun.