Bring Back the Piggy Bank!

Well no photos of the trip to the Blue Mountains, it was typical winter mountain weather, foggy, rainy and freezing cold!

So after a much needed hot chocolate at the Wazygoose in Leura we hit the shops. Me with an intention not to spend anything. ( I ended up spending $30). My daughter bought herself a gorgeus tartan piggy bank! She has a dream to travel to Scotland one day so a tartan piggy bank seemed perfect!

That got me thinking about how it used to be as a kid. I remember my piggy banks. The blue plastic elephant, the tin bank building, the bright pink pig. I remember also doing my banking each week at school with the old blue passbook. Each week taking in my 5-10 cents and getting my book stamped. I felt quite grown up with my bankbook.

Then when I left home I had the huge Tooheys beer can piggy bank. That held a lot of money and it was much too heavy to lift when full. It was about knee high. Eventually we had to use a can opener to crack it open! If you're an Aussie you probably know what I am talking about.

So what ever happenned to the piggy bank? Where we dropped our coins in, listening to the clink, shook them trying to work out how much was in there and eventually broke into them to get the cash. I think once we went to elecronic banking they've dropped off in popularity. Do children still use them these days?

Anyway when we got home I did a big search for loose change and piggy banks to see what I could turn up. I was very thorough, the cops would have been proud of me. Laundry, bedroom, pockets, behind the lounge cushions, handbags, purses, change tins, drawers and bookcases we found $53 in change!

If it was a $50 note I would not just ignore it and leave it lying around. But because it's loose change I just forget about it. Not any more. Now all the change is getting collected. I will 'frisk' them every night for cash, and then each month or two I will bag it up and pay if off the loan. Every little bit counts.

So lets bring back the piggy bank and start valuing the small change. it's still money, it's just noisy money.




This a a really beautiful old china piggy bank that was given to me by and elderly relative. You can guess where the money gets put in! The base is marked: Mata Italy.