Kicking. Squealing.
My twelve-unit apartment building is equipped with one washing machine and one drier – both which cost $1.50 worth of quarters to operate for one full cycle.
Because of the strictness of the exchange – only quarters can be used and it is not possible to pay for slices of time - quarters cease to be money and become laundry tokens which take on a value different from their face value.
Such was the case when – after searching all of my couch cushions, pockets, kitchen drawers, and car cup holder – I could only scrounge up $1.25 to finish drying my last load. At that point I’m not sure how much I would have offered a stingy neighbor to buy one quarter off of them. Considering that my only alternative was to drive to the car wash a few miles away to pike $5 worth of quarters from their little machine, I probably would have been willing to give up that $5 bill to some entrepreneur who happened to have a quarter lying around just to save the time and gas (hypothetically, assuming he wouldn’t give it to me or that I couldn’t beat him up).
While I’ve become a fan of apartment living (on-call repairmen and the freedom of not being stuck in a long-term obligation) the premium that I now place on quarters is quite taxing. I’m constantly on the quarter grind. When I’m not talking to my girlfriend about my stupid cat it’s all “You got quarters? Where are your quarters? Save that quarter. Go get some quarters. Don’t forget quarters. Hey, that’s a quarter. Guess what I found? A quarter! High five!” It’s really fucked up.
Since you like apartment living, consider renting one with a washer/dryer hookup. You get the apartment you like without the hassle of going to the laundromat.
Of course I always views laundromats through the prism of a mother of 5, so it may not be worth it to you to make that investment.
When I lived in apartments I would keep a couple of rolls of quarters in the house. It made me feel like a millionairess.
I remember those days. I ended up finding a laundromat run by an immigrant who would do the laundry for about $1 per load than I could do it myself.
Before the immigrant, paying for shit with shit with exact change was always, “Don’t use the quarters. Nickels and dimes only.”
Terry,
My mom used to have to take my brother and I to a laundromat to do our laundry. I once said that I loved laundromats and she gave me a funny look and said, “You do? I hate them.”
Ha. You’ve just described my life. Don’t forget quarters for the gas station vacuum.
Like cigarettes in prison.
(on-call repairmen and the freedom of not being stuck in a long-term obligation)
LOL. Reminds me of a guy I knew who kept an apartment but lived with his girlfriend. Once in a blue moon he’d show up at the apt building and we’d ask him where he’d been. He’d tell us and then we’d ask him why he even bothered keeping a pad, to which he would respond, “A man never lets go of his cave. He’s gotta have that fall-back position.”
[Chuck: I did this for a while, sorta.]
Plus I don’t believe in laundromat game. Women just want to get their clothes washed, not be gamed while their watching a spin cycle. You’d better be one funny charming motherfucker if you think you can make a gina tingle in a laundromat.
[Chuck: Agreed. In my low cost of living city, laundromat ppl are generally poor and ugly anyway. In big cities I can see the value since better looking chicks probably go to the laundromat. But its sort of like the gym. They're balls deep in their iPod or laptop, and it's hard to strike up a conversation.]
All silver and pennies go into a crystal vase my mother left me. Last time I went to Coinstar I had about $200.
-Never at a lost for quarters.
Going to the laundromat might be easier than doing laundry in your building because the mats always have those machines that allow you get change or there is an attendant on duty to change dollars.
[Chuck: It's really a pain and I'm tired of fighting with Mexican women and their ninos for the good washing machines.]
Along these lines, the soda vending machines in my employer’s breakroom raised thier prices to $1.10 for a 20 ounce bottle, up from an even dollar. There has been much griping, not of the increase in cost, but of the need to find change to go along with the dollar bill everyone is more likely to have in their wallet at any given time.
[Chuck: It's really stupid for the vending company to up the price by that extra dime. At these low price levels when coins become commodity in themselves and the price point is really inconsequential, the company is losing more margin by not selling soda b/c people don't have the dime than they're gaining by the markup in soda cost.]
Go to your bank every three or four months and get rolls of quarters as required.
[Chuck: That requires planning and forethought. I don't think I'm up to the task.]
I don’t get it. Don’t you people in America own washing machines if you’re living in apartment? Sure, we have washing machines in all apartment buildings, too, but I fed up pretty quickly with that option and got myself used but perfectly working washing machine. And I’m still a student who lives in a rented apartment. When I move, my machine moves with me.
Don’t you people in America own washing machines if you’re living in apartment?
That’s exactly what I was suggesting to Chuck in my first comment!
aaron and i take public transit ever since we moved back. i now break $20s and $10s in weird amounts just so i can have a shitload of change laying around.
terry, arwan:
the laundry hookups are one of those things that you think won’t be a big deal to go without and that you’re willing to forego in order to save money on a cheaper place. they’re definitely worth it and it’ll be a requirement wherever i end up in the future.
Sofia, Toronto needs to get with the times and install vending machines on the trains, streetcars, and buses along with switching to electronic fare collection. Hell, New York, DC, Boston, and Chicago have them now. Hell, even frigging Montreal has that, and they’re poorer.
FWIW, maybe you should just get a monthly pass if you’re going to live on transit.
While I’ve become a fan of apartment living
You could always rent a house or buy a condo.
you can always wash your clothes in the tub and leave them out to dry on the balcony. and you save $$$
There’s a market in everything.
But not sex or romance.
Of course.
That would be misogyny.
Sofia,
What’s the transit system like in Toronto? If you don’t have a car, can you get around?
I’ve maintained a car in Seoul for 4 years, despite not actually being there all that much. It struck me as stupid last time I was there. You can’t live without one in Boston, but I got the impression that Toronto was more like Seoul; you can get by.
Seoul is not bad careless. Excellent bus and metro lines. Traffic through the city is a nightmare though. Do they still have those masked Ajimas walking through traffic and selling water and dried squid?
You still can’t get to the costco (the only place to get non-Korean food if you don’t want to go to Shinsegae all the time and pay 15000kw for a tiny block of cheese. Not that I eat much western food there, but you get the idea).
Traffic in Seoul is insane. And the highway to Pusan last time was nuts; my little side-trip to Andong took forever because of construction. There’s 45 million people and about 95 billion cars. But Seoul is getting better. They’re getting way the fuck better about issuing traffic and parking tickets. it’s almost Boston. I’ll bet they got half the budget for the new subway line from parking tickets, the bastards. A good percentage from me.
Masked ajumas – oh yeah. Also on the subway now, minus masks. Ever miss that low, incessant drone they speak in? As if someone had installed Sell-o-Bot software in their brains, or it was the last racial memory of Buddhist chanting left.
Damn, I could go for some ojingo right now. Squid. Roasted. Not enough Korean supermarkets around here.
And PCG (my SO) has decided that Kimchi needs its own fridge because it stinks. Funny, Koreans decided that for different reasons a while ago.
LOL, I know Highway1 quite well. Drove up and down it countless times, Camp Casey to Taegu and points south. It gets very lovely once you go south of Taejon.
I love the area south of Taejon. You know what it’s like. Gwangju and Jeolla-do even more; Jeolla-do is stunning. Nice and rural and undeveloped. I have some great memories of trips there. The food is freaking amazing.
The little lady there has it for the east sea. Always wants to find the weirdest little pension. Alas, the whole situation was, as I suspected, not stable.
The alternative is owning a home, and what is the cost of that? I (we) own two homes , and I did some homework:
the costs of ( property insurance + property taxes + maintenance + repair + utilities + mortgage interest* ) divided by (value of home) =
primary home = 4.5%
vacation home = 3%
so, take the value of a home, multiply by 3-5%. That is the yearly immediate cost of owning a home.
* we have no mortgages, but that would otherwise be included in cost of owning.
IN the interim, the value of vacation home has appreciated , but the value of our primary residence has not appreciated in 20+ years.
funny. I’m so quick to proselytize on the cost of home ownership; I realize it had nothing to do with the topic discussed.
You’re a waiter, you should have boat loads of change from tips.
I’d be thrilled to even have laundry in my apartment building; I use to say that I’d have in apartment laundry by 35/40, now I’ll settle for it in building.
Pingback: Linkage is Good for You: Unfathomable Pain Edition
Pingback: Markets in Everything: Prison Phone Call Quarters « Gucci Little Piggy