One of those little symptoms emblematic of the coming financial experience...
I'm fairly well situated for now. I live on my SS, which is fairly lucrative thanks to a career that saw me with some good earnings years. I live in subsidized senior housing, which seems fairly set for now.
Every day (well almost) I walk down to the local 7-11 and buy the daily paper. I could subscribe and get it delivered, but I need the excuse to get up and out and exercise. 
Anyway, over the last couple of months I've seen something that I suspect is an economic indicator. Usually, early in the month, I pay for the $1.50 paper with two bills and then later in the month I'll dig quarters out of my spare change catcher and pay exact change.
Well, over the last couple of months, say since last Thanksgiving or so, when I pay with paper money, I've been getting more 50 cent pieces in change. I know the store doesn't like those because the typical till doesn't have a slot for them. I've also got one dollar coins on those rare days when I pay with a larger bill. Kind of odd, and I was thinking people are getting tight around the house and searching for those coins that they don't think of using normally, but that's what they have to spend on their morning coffee and snack. I know the store probably turns those around as quick as possible when they get them, and there has definitely been an increase.
The store gets a lot of kids, too, because it is on the intersection between the local elementary school and some high density housing a couple of blocks to the north. Some morning I'll go in and there will be kids stopping to get snacks and shit on their way to school.
Maybe the uptick in the use of odd coins from spare change doesn't really mean anything, but maybe it does. It has a "people are scraping the bottom of the barrel" vibe to me. Buckle up, folks.
= new reply since forum marked as read
