Bill rounding

Since the use of 1 cent coins ended years ago, shops would round down to the nearest 5 cent on their bills. Or so I thought.

It came upon me recently when I was at a supermarket checkout, that if I pay cash, I get to pay a rounded amount which is lesser then if I were to pay with a card (whether debit or credit).

Simply put, if the cash register flashes $9.04, I can pay $9.00 in cash while my receipt will show ‘Rounding adjustments’ to deduct the 4 cents. If I pay by card, there’s no rounding, I will be charged $9.04 flat and the receipt will likewise reflect this figure.

Quickly, I checked with another supermarket and this one declares a rounded figure on the register. Hence no matter which mode of payment is chosen, the same amount is charged. In my case (2nd receipt from the left), $19.30 was the rounded figure I paid with a card.

Did more checks on bookstores, restaurants, shops and not forgetting the other receipts I had on hand, only to confirm fears that they won’t do rounding when we do cards. So for how long have I have been paying extra cents just because!

The few people I talked to just heard it from me…can you believe us?!

p.s. No rounding on credit card/utility bills when you pay cash at the counters, you would have to pay more or risk late charges on unpaid cents.

Funny but true [4]

Western food

In unison we decided on western food for dinner before heading home to watch last night’s table tennis matches at the Olympics on TV.

Site seeing: offsetting carbon footprints

As a traveler, I’m aware of the greenhouse gases I contribute, so with that, there’s an extra trip to make:

Go Zero, where

* $10 offsets an average trip including air travel, a one-night hotel stay, and rental car for one person.

* $25 negates air travel, four-night hotel stay, and rental car for two people.

* $40 equalizes the effects of air travel, four-night hotel stay, and rental car for four people.

Tin and tin

Tins, that’s what we call these canisters though they are unlikely to be made from tin, right?

So what is made of tin and what are tins made of? These questions were floating in my head the last few days and to stop myself from guessing, I went searching for answers on tin - the can, and tin - the metal. Maybe Tintin will like this assignment?

Well here are my quick jots:

• Pewter is a tin alloy.
• Tin is used in soldering.
• Food cans are made of steel. Beverage cans are made of aluminium. Some cans are bi-metal.
• A food can has a thin tin coating on both sides to prevent the steel body from rusting. Tin doesn’t rust but steel will.

To find out if both my tins (pictured) are made of steel, I used a magnet. Both held up the magnet, proving themselves to be steel. I went further to stick magnets on food cans too. This magnetic trail has led me to another. Will be back with more jots.