Today I beat the Machine!

I never thought that a trip to the vending machine would teach me something about finance, challenge me to use my critical thinking skills and problem solving skills, but today it did!
I have to preface this story by telling you that for the past week, I have been fighting with this one vending machine in the Library which will accept coins but not dollar bills. I rarely have coins on me, but I tend to have a few dollar bills in my wallet. So, here I am, very thirsty for a Diet Pepsi, in front of this vending machine in the library which will accept coins but not paper bills, determined to get a drink. On that day, I have six dollar bills in my wallet, and I proceed to try each one of them to see if the machine will accept one of those bills. I try the first one, the second one… no success. I try the third one, and … oh joy, the machine accepts that dollar bill! I’m thrilled!! It appears that today, the machine will comply and accept my dollar bills and provide me a drink. So I keep going. I put the fourth dollar bill, which the machine rejects. I don’t despair. I try my fifth and then sixth dollar bill, which it promptly rejects. Now, I’m quite puzzled, but still hopeful that the machine will comply. So slowly, very slowly, I try again the first and the second dollar bill… which the machine rapidly denies.
At that point, I’m thinking that this is quite silly. I have a dollar in the machine, the soda that I now want more than ever is $1.25. I look into my wallet, desperately hoping I have a few coins in there, but of course I find many pennies but that’s about it. I pause…. and begin to think. I look again at my coins and decide that after all, I might have enough. I start putting coins in the machine, very slowly. I use up all my coins and the red display on the vending machine indicates that I have put in $1.20. At that point, I wonder if the machine will think that I suffered enough and let me have my drink for $1.20. With hope I press the button, and the machine seems to laugh back at me by flashing the $1.20 sign and then indicating that the price of the drink is $1.25.

I’m frustrated, but this teaches me my first lesson. No matter how close you are from being able to purchase an item, even a small one, not having enough money, even if you are only missing 5 cents, is still not having enough money to purchase the item!The machine is teaching me financial planning.
Now, I know that at this point I could have pressed the “change return” button, get my money back (hopefully), and go back to my office thirsty and frustrated. But something in me pushed me to persist. I really wanted that Diet Pepsi, and to tell you the truth, I was not sure that the machine would comply with my request and give me back my money.
I start to look around. I’m feeling like a 4th grader in front of a difficult math problem. I look back at the machine, I look at my dollar bills. I try another one of the five dollar bills I have left… the machine at this point does not even want to begin to take my dollar bill. I look around once more. This is when I notice the other vending machine next to the soda machine. I begin to wonder if this other one will accept my dollar bills. Like the 4th grader who suddenly sees the solution to the impossible math problem, I realize that I could buy something inexpensive with one of my dollar bills, get some change back and use the change to buy the coveted soda. With a lot of excitement and anticipation, I see that I can purchase cookies for 85 cents. Eureka! I quickly put a dollar in the other machine, which it promptly accepts. I purchase the cookies, the machine gladly gives me back 15 cents, as if this is what I was supposed to do all along. I look at the 15 cents with extreme giddiness!! This will work!! I take a nickel put it into the soda machine and quickly press the Diet Pepsi button, as if I’m afraid the machine will change its mind. I was never so happy to hear the sound of the soda as it fell to the bottom of the machine!! Success!!
At that moment, I felt extremely competent! I know it’s really silly, but I felt like the 4th grader having just solved a very difficult problem. The machine had just allowed me to exercise my problem solving skills, which I guess I was grateful for. Maybe this was all a ploy to get me to spend 85 cents I did not want to spend or eating the cookies, which I did not want to eat. But beating the machine that day, gave me great joy and satisfaction!! This was the best Diet Pepsi I ever tasted, and it surely made for a funny blog!