Have you ever heard of the Penny Fairy? No? Is she the sister of the Tooth Fairy? Well, no. Have you seen random pennies on the street and wondered how they got there? Let me let you in on a little secret. The Penny Fairy is me and I was dropping pennies out of the goodness of my heart up until a couple of years ago. Let me explain...They say that opposites attract. If one is messy, the other is neat. If one is an introvert the other is outgoing. And if one is thrifty or frugal, the other likes to spend…
Over the years, honey and I have learned so much from each other. I have taught him that it is okay to spend a little more and take care of yourself. And, he has taught me to save. Honey started by introducing the concept of keeping all your change at home. You see, there was a time when I spent, continued to spend and spent some more. And when I used cash, the pennies, nickels and dimes I got back in change weighed down my purse. I used to lighten the load by dropping it in the change jar or charity box at my local coffee shop or whatever store I was in. But then, I discovered that I liked to drop pennies on the street.
Yes, I said drop pennies. It was my own charity to the streets and to all my unknown friends. I imagined the smile that would appear on a little girl’s face… you know, the one who was skipping down the street, twirling her ponytail and stopping when then found the change. It was her lucky day!
One day, honey discovered my secret identity the Penny Fairy while we were walking down the street to catch the cable car. He caught me reaching into my pocket and casually dropping a penny as we walked by.
*Scene*
Honey: "I think you dropped some change."
Me (starting to blush): "No, I didn't."
Honey: "Did you just drop those pennies on purpose?"
Me: "Uh, well I always have. I love to think that I am making someone else happy when they find a lucky penny and pick it up! They’ll have good luck all day”
Honey: "If you keep all your change, you can use it for other things like coffee, laundry or put some towards your savings."
Me: "A savings? What's that?"
Honey: "Boy, do we have work to do!"
Me: “You know, they call me the Penny Fairy."
Do you have a secret identity? What superpower would you have if you could choose just one? Signing off as the Penny Fairy for the last time…
107 comments:
Hahaha/... this is adorable. Its so sweet to drop pennies, do you make wishes in fountains too? I do. Thanks for being a penny fairy!! xoxo
What a sweet idea. I hope you continue to be the penny fairy - (in congnito, of course.)
The Penny Fairy! That's brilliant! Every child I know is delighted to the point of squealing joy whenever they find a penny on the street. Awww. I love that you were doing that on purpose! :-)
But saving change is good too. I saved coins for about seven years and amassed about $900!!
Oh, I wish that I had thought of that! What a great idea!
Dollface: Doesn't everybody drop change on purpose? :) And I make wishes wherever I can get them :)
lisa: Maybe we can all try to be Penny Fairies. I won't tell if you don't?
Cora: $900 that's amazing. That takes true dedication and *sigh* no accidentally on purpose penny drops. I save so much better now I promise.
Audrey: I love my second identity and I'll let you borrow her anytime.
Whenever He-weasel finds a penny he gives it to me and says, " I don't need luck as I have you." Sweet, huh?
La Belette: So sweet and I know he means it! Please use my secret identity as well.
"I have taught him to spend a little more and he has taught me to save, but there was a time that I spent, spent and spent."
Um, welcome to my life.
And I still drop pennies... but not to be the Fairy. Because I HATE the useless things with the fire of a thousand suns. :-)
I just love that! YOU are a very special lady. Xx
Lilu: I hear you my sister. There has to be a better way. Oh wait I put it all in jars now. Start droppin it does a body good.
Donna Maria: And so you! Thank you.
I don't intentionally drop my pennies, but if I go to reach for one and it is face down, I turn it face up for the next person.
Oh fancy: That's so nice of you. I will have to keep this in mind to turn it face up.
I never thought about calling it this, but I drop pennies too!!
I have a blog award up on my blog for you!
That is cool! I am the "Parking Meter Fairy" I love to give people with expired meters more time, but that's because I cant stand the "Meter Maids!" btw, thanks for stopping by, can I still join the Facebook group even though I am in Sacramento? Thanks again!
Namine: Thank you so much for the blogger award and I will show it proudly.
Counselormama: Please join. We would love that!
That's such a nice idea. Now, I can tell my kids who the penny fairy really is.
Lynnette Labelle
http://lynnettelabelle.blogspot.com
Hmmm....I think I am gonna hold out for the quarter fairy. Now that being said if I could have a super power it would be to draw the stupid out of people as if it were a venom!
Lynette: I am honored.
~k: The quarter fairy is a great idea. I think I would love to have xray vision. On second thought I wouldn't make it through one day :)
I have heard of people that drop money like that! I think it is adorable. You are great:)
Ah shucks thanx Debbie! And so are you....
oh! you are a dear. It was meant to be that I came upon your blog today bc guess what? I found TWO pennies today...heads up so it was extra special. So special in fact that I changed my facebook status to say "Monica still believes in picking up pennies for luck." so...thank you Penny Fairy:) you made my day!
Hi Chessa: Welcome and you're welcome as well. I dropped those pennies there for you. Love your blog and I just became a follower.
Penny Fairy,
You're been making my mom's life better for years. She religiously believes in lucky pennies. Thanks for helping my mom get lucky. That came out wrong.
Love,
JPP
I think this is awesome. From someone who has 2 little girls - one who absolutely lights up with joy when she finds a coin on the ground - know that you do good work - no matter what your husband says ;)
Liza: Oh thanx Liza. That's right I do good work! You made my day. Thank you so much for your comment.
I always flip over the pennies I find on the sidewalk so the are heads up. That way people only get "good luck". I call it "The Karma Flip". LOL
Thank you Penny Fairy, my daughters LOVE you! If you run into The Button Fairy say "hi" to her from us, we love her too.
I love finding pennies in the street...it just makes my day. Please don't stop being a penny fairy...what is more valuable...100 pennies or 100 smiles?
grin baby grin
popping in from sits..congrats on being the FB
Oh I love this post! What a cute idea.
What a great idea!! I love doing secret things to make people smile.
Believe if or not I have done this in the past. But I've always been a massive saver, too.
Aww, this is so cute. I like that you were the penny fairy. Saving is good, but not to the point of greed and not being willing to give to others. My husband and I are the same way except in our case he's the spender and I'm the saver.
I love that you dropped pennies to brighten someone else's day and think you should not retire as the penny fairy.
My other identity is Koko the clown. I used to dress up as a clown and just act silly for our AWANA club--it was a lot of fun but eventually the kids did figure out it was really me, but they still liked Koko anyway.
Happy SITS day to you!
That is the cutest thing ever. I love that idea! haha x
I think the Penny Fairy should definitely continue!
That's sweet, I like that! Saving change is good, don't get me wrong, but it's nice that you're trying to brighten the day of strangers. Talk about a good deed! Happy SITS Day!
My secret identities:
Laundry fairy
Dusting fairy
Grocery fairy
That's an ongoing joke in my home.
Heehee, I'm an all around-house nymph:)
Oh, I love this! I love your RAK! At this time of year, I am wrapping up my charity donations for the year, and no matter how much I give, it never seams enough. Everyone has their hand out and they all want my last dollar. Their greediness just takes all the happy warm feeling out of charity donations. But this is so fun, so selfless and spontaneous, and no one is expecting it.....and demanding more.
:-)
You have given me an idea for my years end donations.....and instead of pennies I will be dropping one dollar bills. :-)
Thanks...
I love you Penny Fairy!! LOL! Great idea!!!!
Awww... it's good he wants to help you save, but I'll miss the Penny Fairy.
But your cousin the Quarter Fairy? She was my favorite growing up. ;-)
What a great idea! Wish I had a hubby who taught me to save though. We are both spenders and it's doesn't exactly work that great!
Hi Happy SITS DAY!!! What a cute idea! Honestly though I would still do it without telling anyone..or do you??? Enjoy your day!!!
What a wonderful Idea... I still like picking pennies up... my kids adore finding spare change.. shh don't tell anyone I like to spend too
That's adorable!
I think I'm the "100 different ways to make chicken and call it dinner" fairy myself.
That is so sweet. I hope you still have a chance to indulge your Penny Fairy occasionally. Btw, do you know where I can find the Dollar Fairy?
That is so sweet! Think about how many faces you've brightened! Maybe you can still do it a little bit here and there so the Penny Fairy doesn't die...
Don't worry, I will continue your work. I drop pennies too.
That was YOU?
The kid and I found 8 pennies along the sidewalk the other day.
He was ecstatic!
Happy SITs.
hahaha.. what a cute idea!
I agree too that opposites attract though.., my dh is the frugal, organized one.. im the spending money like water-complicated one :)
Do kids still get excited when they find a penny on the ground, not sure but love the idea of the "Penny Fairy". Now every time I see a penny on the street I will think of you, the Penny Fairy!
Cute idea!!!
I love that! You are making someone's day even better. And you can tell honey that if you dropped 1 penny a day for 20 years you would have only spent $73.00! (And I am sure that over 20 years it won't be missed). If that fails tell him you consider it charity and you are expecting a tax receipt any day now.
What a great secret identity you have!
My daughter is one of those cute little smiles when she finds a penny... In fact, pennies are all she cares about!
so sweet!! Maybe I am the Make my twinkies laugh by jumping up and down with many silly faces a.k.a. the" Silly Fairy!LOL I just made that up!!
What a great idea! I don't think I would have thought of that. Of course, since I'm trying to collect 100,000 pennies for charity (check it out on my list if you want), I'm the one who's THRILLED to find a penny or two lying unclaimed on the street. My secret identity would be Fat Girl. There's also a post on my blog about that. You can check it out here: http://growingplacesnow.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-own-superpower.html
You are too cute! It's true. I still get excited when I find a penny heads-up. I'm not sure if I have a super power. I guess to my husband, I'm the Laundry Fairy.
Happy SITS Day!!
LOL, what a cute story! My kids love the Penny Fairy! (thanks for all your hard work! ;) )
I think the Penny Fairy is a great idea! I'm sure you've made a lot of little kids happy. :-)
pk @ Room Remix
I think that's a great secret identity!
Happy SITS Day!
I love this post! My grandfather used to hand out pennies to children by the fountain at the mall. So sweet!
LOL...I thought you were going to say that you would drop them...and THEN you saw him picking them up.
your ending was good too. LOL
That's so sweet! So you probably dropped one of the pennies I picked up...
Even though pennies aren't worth much today, I always smile if I find a penny on "heads". If it's on "tails", I leave it on the ground.
This has to be one of my favorite posts in this town! (my son's saying - this is my favorite [insert favorite here] in this town! So you win!
I want to be a Penny Fairy, but there can only be one. So, I will reveal my super power - which is not as beautiful as yours...I can tell when a food has been frozen at restaurants vs. when it's fresh. I know. I am the Frozen Food Fairy. Told you, not nearly as sweet but hey, we all gotta have something.
Happy SITS day!!!
xx
Cristina
This is just darling! I hope your honey understands.
@cheapchichome.blogspot.com
That is so cute...made me giggle out loud!! Happy SITS Day!
That's a cute story. I don't think that very many people would be so generous as to drop the pennies, they are probably looking to pick them up. Thanks for sharing your story! Congrats on being the featured blogger.
Super cute! Thanks for a fun post to start the day!
Dear Penny Fairy,
please start dropping dollar bills.
Love,
Broke Fairy
Happy SITS Day!
That's a sweet idea! I guess I have a secret identity on my blog, but it's not a good deed like the Penny Fairy. Great post, happy Sits day!
Oh my goodness, this is so cute! :) I love the idea of a penny fairy because I'm totally that girl who finds a penny and picks it up.
What a cute idea! I love the image of the pony tail girl.
It's possible you and my husband may have been in the same Penny Fairy class! He does this all of the time and I'm constantly begging him to give me his change so I can put it in the jar! But who doesn't love finding a penny on the ground? I know I do!
You are SO sweet and thoughtful!! I always drop my spare change in our change jar but I love the idea of leaving pennies in random places for others to find!
I know everytime my kids see a penny on the street, they get all excited!
this totally sounds like something I would do! Though... I'm pretty okay at money saving...
Thanks for hosting the housewarming party. The Penny Fairy is such a cute idea, it is unfortunate that so many people see pennies on the ground and just walk right over them, but then there are others (like the girl w. the pigtails) that delight in those little treasures that us adults deem so insignificant.
I love this post and how it shifts my thinking into another space. Secret identity hmmmmm. . . if I told you it wouldn't be a secret anymore ;-) Happy SITS Day!
That is so sweet! I never thought to do that, but I might have to borrow your identity, too, sometime!
Happy SITS day by the way!
I don't have a secret identity (that I can share...or else it wouldn't be a secret) but I do like yours!! And I thank you for making it all the way out to the East Coast to put a smile on my face!
Happy SITS day!
~WM
What a brilliant idea! And I'm sure you made many people's days. I'm going to work on my secret identity. And perhaps even a costume to go along with it!
I think it's cute that you blushed when your hubby busted you!
I love this idea. I would tend to think along the same lines as you on this one. However, on at least 3 different occasions in the last 3 years I have actually taken all of the saved change the Mt. HTB keeps and cashed it out.....the last time I got 300.00!!!!!!!!! NO LIE! So a penny here or there to drop is fantastic....but the 300.00 is a whole lot better! So I guess that would make me the penny gobblin!
That is too funny, Please feel free to drop all the pennies you want in front of our house.
Thats hilarious! I sure would like to meet the $100 fairy! Do you know her?
That's so cute! I love it, the penny fairy! I am a laundry change theif. Whatever is left in the laundry is MINE! I have 300 bucks towards my kids college from change and I took a ton of spending money to Italy this way.
I find a lot of quarters in our laundry.
But maybe I could drop a penny or two here and there!
You're my first visit from SITS!
I'm with Mandi on this. If you have the $100 Fairy's phone number, send her this way!
I used to do the same thing, until my best friend caught me one day and told me I was a lunatic. I mean, she tells me this constantly, but it really sunk in that day!
(Pst: I still drop change now and then, when I have a lot of pennies in my purse. Just cuz I can...it's liberating!)
Love this story!
You should google the Random Acts of Kindness website! You might like it!
What a cute story! Sadly though, the kids I know, would be like, A PENNY! What the heck. I want a quarter : )
Find a penny pick it up, put it in your shoe for good luck. *unless the Penny Fairy quits!*
I LOVED finding pennies. I would skip around all day while it slid around in my shoe. Fun. :-)
I love this post! And thank you for dropping those pennies because I always pick them up...but only the heads up ones...so do you think you can make an effort to make sure they land that way? Thanks, appreciate it. :)
I just fell in love with your absolutely kind and FUN spirit!!!
It makes me want to empty my change jar right now and grab my tribe of kids and run out in the streets to drop pennies.
FABULOUS post.
What a sweet idea! And your husband wanted you to selfishly start a savings account instead?! Cretin!
After today I think my super power would be: Get er done.
I would magically be able to get everything I need to do done.
I am new to SITS and just loved this post. OH What a beautiful secret identity to have. I can so imagine a little child finding joy in finding a penny.
your secret is safe with me.
Karen
I used to love picking up pennies. :) Until I got into med school and started learning about all the myriad bacteria you can pick up from the street. ;)
I don't think I'll let that stop me. Thanks for being a penny fairy!!
I have TWO pennies in TWO different shoes that I found somewhere...they have to be heads up though or I'll pass em' by.
Stopping by from SITS! Congrats on your day!
You are officially my new hero - The Penny Fairy!!! If only I lived there and could find one of your pennies. Lucky people!
And, you've just also given me a future MidWeek @ Midday Escapades idea. Thank you!!!
What a great story! I never thought about dropping pennies before, but maybe I could become a penny fairy too!
I love it!!! We should all have such an adorable secret identity!
I always love finding pennies and now I know who to thank - especially for the old 'wheat' pennies!
Don't you have a sweet heart? Love this!
I wished I lived in SF... so I could have been blessed by the Penny Fairy! What a great idea to put a smile on someone else's face.
:)
I had a professor in college who left a penny hidden somewhere whenever she traveled. She said it was so one day she'd have an excuse to go back! I thought it was the coolest!
haha - so the first (and last) time I tried to do that, I was also caught. I tried to be casual, but the darn thing kept making a noise, so my parents kept making me stop to pick it up! My Dad finally asked if I had a hole in my pocket. We were leaving church and I explained how I was dropping a penny b/c there was this cute little girl in church and I thought she might find it and it would make her happy. My parents told me that if I wanted to throw my money away, please hand it over and stop dropping it on the streets. And my penny fairy days were done.
I love to do that. I was always taught to think of it as a sign from God. You know "In God we Trust". So I always say a little prayer when I find a penny.
The Penny Fairy helps this college student always have clean underwear...only 25 to get a quarter! Someday, 10,000 years from now when I have no more college loans, maybe I will be the Penny Fairy.
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