What is the most amount of money you have had at one time?

Hmm, now do you mean in cash in my hand, or do you mean in the bank at any one point?

The most cash I’ve ever held in my hand (that was mine to do with as I liked) was when I moved my saver’s account from the post office. Whenever the post office stopped doing it (it was before I moved away from Tottenham, so this was pre eleven years old). My mum and I had already taken some over to the bank across the street, but we just had to do the last part. So we drew it all out over the till; I had to put my little pre-pubescent signature on a slip of paper and then take the cash in a big brown envelope which I put in my pocket.

I remember looking at all those notes and feeling like my life had reached an important point. I had never seen so much money before. Bless me I think it was about £300. I put it in my pocket, latched onto Mum and walked proudly out of that place to simply give it all to the bank. Hmm. Well I’m glad I did because the money did come in useful when I eventually made it to uni. There was more of it by then too. ^_^

The most cash I’ve ever held in my hand that wasn’t mine, was probably the second year of uni when the electronic payment got screwed up to pay my rent for the student house. I needed to pass over something in the region of £800 which meant I had to draw it from the on campus bank and take it up stairs to the accommodation office. I remember feeling shit scared. Never mind that it was a wonderful sum of money – that I couldn’t spend on stuff I wanted – but it was also a very crowded place with people who had seen me draw it from the desk inside the bank. I think I managed to collar about three friends to stand around me as I went, because I was shit-scared of the thought of getting robbed. Lol. I didn’t, thankfully. And paid up for that semester with very little trouble.

The most money I’ve ever held in my bank that wasn’t mine was probably about seven grand. :-O It was a loan I’m afraid, nothing fancy and had plenty of places to go. It all vanished rather quickly actually, though it arranged my finances and my life in such a way that I was pretty glad I did it. It needed to be done; being a student makes it too easy to build up debt and then suddenly you realise; guh… gotta fix this. It was lovely to see such big numbers in my account though. Made me feel, for a least a second, that I was rich. Lol.

The most ever held in my bank that was actually mine was probably a couple of years ago when I got a decent bonus from my job. I’ve no idea how much it was, but even after the tax man had dipped his hand in and run off laughing, I had more money than that I remember having for a long while. It comes with my salary and therefore its one month of large figures that makes your eyes pop as you think about all the pretty things you can buy. I seem to recall that I bought a computer and paid a load of bills. Perhaps not the most exciting thing in the world, but it was stuff that needed to happen. That’s the problem with being a grown up too; its not about My Little Pony, Happy Meals and whatever else it is you think of when your 10 and holding £300. Its about wondering just how many bills that amount will pay and then how you’re going to manage the rest. Heh.

And that was before the recession when things weren’t quite so crap as they are right now. That amount of money, back then, actually went a good deal further than it ever could now. I think that’s what’s most depressing about it all. Its not the amount of money that means anything these days, at least in terms of what’s in the bank. I’m getting paid more now than ever before, but the value of those figures is significantly less than when I was getting paid almost 15% less on a monthly basis. Oh well eh?

 

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.