10 Uses for a Dolla Bill

I took my dog to Petco yesterday. In appreciation for giving me hours of boundless entertainment looking at their birdies, fishies, and dealing with my dog not-so-sneakily stealing a couple treaties from the doggie snack bar, I bought a $0.99 pink tennis ball. Although it was probably marked up 400x it's actual value, I made the most of my purchase by using it to encourage my rather dumb dog to go swim in a pond. The plan was that I would throw the tennis ball into the water, and then she would retrieve it. Alas, my Chesapeake Bay Retriever refuses to tap into her 100 years of breeding to hunt water foul, and I watched my $0.99 tennis ball float away.

It got me thinking, with all the problems of inflation that come with fiat currency, how much is $1 really worth to us Americans? I usually make Russel Peter inspired jokes about how many things we can buy at the dollar store for $1 (watch the video that inspired it all here)! So I've come up with 10 good uses that the American $1 bill is still good for.

1. Free Shipping: Amazon.com usually gives you a free shipping deal if you buy items $25+. To get you to that limit use this tool. You'll probably save close to $6 in shipping if you just buy another $1 item.
2. A Joy Ride: Gas is $3.80 and depending on your MPG, you can get enough mileage for a joy ride around town. Of course, if you walked or biked the same route, you'd be burning off calories and reducing your CO2 emissions. 
3. A Smile: Buy a $0.99 greeting card to let them know how much you appreciate them. Better yet, make 2 cards yourself, and spend $0.84 on postage.
4. Bubbles: Buy a large jar of bubbles, and blow them around your dog, little kids, or take them to the park and blow bubbles by yourself. Watch how many smiles light up when they see something as simple as bubbles floating by!
5. Fresh produce: Stop by your local farmers market and you can weigh out $1 worth of fresh locally grown organic fruit while supporting the local growing community. 
6. Food that keeps Regrowing: You can buy seed for plenty of perennial vegetables like tomatoes and herbs like basil or coriander. Start seed in recycled containers to re-purpose your old milk cartons.
7. A Filling Meal: Take that $1 to India and it becomes 48 Indian Rupees. Sit down to eat a meal of rice, lentils, vegetables, pickles, chutney, stew and a little sweet dessert on a eco-friendly bannana leaf.
8. Photos: Walmart sells 4x6" prints for $0.13 each. Get 7 photos of your favorite family memories, reprint your wedding photos and leave them for your husband, or print out that picture of your little sister naked in the bathtub when she was a  toddler and blackmail her with it.
9. A Splash of Color: Craft and art stores like Michaels or Joanne Fabrics have clearance bins filled with all kinds of fun odds and ends. Usually you can get acrylic paints for $0.25. Buy 4 and paint a clay pot with the seeds from #6.
10. A So Fresh and So Clean Ride: Most car vacuuming stations charge $0.75 for 4 minutes of vacuuming. While you're cleaning, you'll probably find more loose change between the seats. Make sure to save up for the next $1 splurge.