Ian had one of his best friends come over to our house tonight, Chris Shay. As Ian was updating Chris on our project, without even asking, Chris proceeded to pull out his wallet and said, "I've got $5", then handed it over.  Naturally, he wanted us to trade up. He got 250 dirty CENTS we found on the ground in malls and gas stations while we got a crisp-ish $5 bill. It just did not seem fair. 

Chris claimed that since he would be along for the ride, and would see our ups and downs in the project, he figured there would be less at stake to trade when the amount of money is low. He was trying to convince us that he is now entitled to 1/28 of our earnings when the project is over. We figured that would be a total of $45,714.29, should we agree to it? 

This doubling has given us the opportunity to give one CENT! YAY! 

Now our plan is to get a few free items and sell them. We will do this for as long as we can while we figure out what to do in terms of buying low and selling high. Actually spending our CENTS seems like a big hurdle right now. Do we find antiques or do something crafty? If we buy something low like an old fan, how do we ensure we make our money back? Guess it is time for us to grow a little more. 

Back to Katy Mills Mall tonight to scour coin returns and floors for change. Only .89 short of Step 10 when we walked in. While getting some great exercise in too, we proceeded to find change throughout the entire mall's walkways and our first nickel to date in a coin return. Not only did we find money, but we also found two kids' sweatshirts and a high schooler's wallet, which prompted us to take an extra detour to security. 

It was getting close to Nehemiah's bedtime, and we were still 31 CENTS short of our goal but we decided it was time to leave the mall. 

Upon leaving, the mall door slid open to the chilly outdoors, and we were greeted by a lovely cloud of cigarette smoke. Six young men were hanging out puffing their cigarettes and unbeknownst to Karina, Ian had decided to give a go at asking someone unknown for change. We think it is awkward asking strangers for money. We don't need the money and we are working off a self imposed timeline so asking strangers for change felt kind of ridiculous. However, Ian's rational was simple; if we cannot ask strangers for $0.50 now then what makes us think we can ask them to buy something that costs more later on? This was one of those times where the steps and principles of the project worked together to make us grow. 

"Do any of you happen to have like 50 CENTS?" Ian asked boldly. He was met with awkward pauses and blank looks all around.

"I have a dollar," replied one guy. 

"Cool, that would really help us out." Ian answered. 

He pulled out his wallet and handed us the dollar. We thanked him, and as we were grasping for the dollar bill, one of the other guys proceeds to comment, not so under his breath, "That's weird; white people asking for money..."

We could barely walk away without laughing. Little did they know the one who gave us a dollar also gave us an opportunity to give to others. After all, he gave us more than we asked for. Even though it's only 69 CENTS, we are still sticking to our Giving Principle (3) and will give away any extra money we make beyond the step goal. So, on only the third day in to this project, step 9 is complete!