money

I used to believe that if I poked my grandfather in the belly-button he would spit out quarters.

Justin

At about age 3, I thought that the tip money my parents left on the table was actually for Me as some sort of reward for finishing my meal. I'd stash the $$ in a hole in my mattress, so my mom finally found it one day while re-arranging my room. She spent the next week driving to area restaurants trying to compensate the wait staffs that had been stiffed!

Anon

I used to believe that my pennies would get lonely if I left one or two out by themselves on my dresser. Before going to bed I had to put them with the rest of my change. And I gave a great deal of thought to whether I should put them next to the other pennies I'd found them with, for familiarity, or if they'd like a change of company

Elizabeth M

When I was a kid, I thought that libraries got all their funding from overdue fines. We had a pretty lousy branch library, so I would hold onto books long after I'd read them so I'd have to pay an extra nickel or dime and maybe they'd be able to buy more books.

queeneve

I wnted to get money out of a savingts account my great grand mother had set up for me, my mom told me if I took the money out it would stop growing meaning growing in intrest. I thought my money was actually growing. I would hold dollar bills up next to each other to see if it had been in a bank to "grow". One day I asked if I could go to the bank to see how much my money had grown she showed me my bank statment, and explaned it to me. To say the lest I was disappointed.

Alyson

I used to believe the Bank was where poor people went to get money, I didn't know you had to actually have money IN there.....I would be so humiliated to go into the bank I would cry and hide behind my mom.

Sharon

i was always fascinated by the receipts given by ATM machines. one day, my brother told me that if you could get the receipts out of the tiny containers people put them in, and took them to the bank, then the bank would give you the amount of money shown on the docket. i was excited for 15 mins, thinking i would make our family rich, until i jammed my fingers in the container.

Anon

The first time that I went to Spain on holiday when I was 7, I thought everyone purchased things with potatoes. Then dad told me they were pesatas.

Helen

My grandpa was a barber, and usually when we visited them, the first thing we did was stop at his shop. Usually he had a toy for me. On this day, he gave me a dollar, then told my dad to take me to the toy shop across the street. My dad, trying to instill the value of money into a 5 year old, told me I could only spend half of it! No PROBLEM!....I ripped the dollar in half, gave one to him, and said "Let's go shopping!"

Lisa

My sister was about six or seven when my mother took up both out to Seaport Village in San Diego. It has some lovely wishing fountains. My sister and I both wanted to throw a penny in the fountain but my mother only had one. My sister every so quietly opened my mother's purse and pulled out her check book.

"That's okay mom," she said, "You can just write a check."

Katie from California

I thought that a fruit machine (gambling machine) was where you actually bought fruit and the money you won was the change.

Anon

i used to believe that money came from a plant. that if you planteted a penny you would have a penny tree and you would have tons of money. i planted over 10 dollars worth of money at the house i lived in.

blake

When I was very young, I thought that when someone mentioned piggy banks that they ment keeping money in real pigs. I thought, "No way I'll keep my money in some pig!" I decided the safest place was myself, and one day I stuffed my cheeks with all the pennies I could find. My mother soon enlightened me after finding me with a mouthful of pennies.

hydramine

For the longest time, whenever I heard about anything being "liquidated" (ie. homes, businesses, etc.), I imagined someone melting them into a liquid. It's only recently that I've realized that I thought that because of that scene from "The Wizard of Oz." ("You liquidated her, eh?")

Miss Mustard

When I was young, I thought Monopoly money was real money so I'd sneak into the game closet and steal it out of the Monopoly box and hide it in my dresser. My mom found the stash after a few weeks and asked me what the heck I was doing with half the Monopoly money in my room. I nervously told her I was saving up for a pony.

She laughed at me until I cried.

Sarah

When I first learned that gold was very soft and that pirates used to bite their coins to ensure that the loot was composed of real gold, I ran around the house biting every metal object I could find. If the item bent when I bit into it, I made sure to inform my mother of its enormous monetary value. I am sure she was delighted to find me gnawing on bracelets and spoons.

Kitty

As a child, I use to think that when people made money, they literally made money. The rich people were just much better at it than the poor people. Being ambitious and possessing an entrepreneurial spirit, I started to practice making my own money. I still can’t imagine what my parents were thinking when I proudly announced my own counterfeiting operation. I think even the Secret Service would have found it funny to see a six year old making his own dollars with construction paper and crayons.

Wonder Weirdo

Once I asked my mum what she would do if she won the lottery... she said she would faint. I didn't want her to faint and every week i wished and hoped like crazy we wouldn't win.

Anon

when I was a child whenever one of my brothers or I found a coin we had to go and show it to my dad. He told me that if I ever found a coin with the Princesses head on the back I could keep it, and if my brothers found one with the prince or king on the back they could keep it. He naturally got to keep any coin with the Queen's head on the back. I can't believe I fell for that one for so long- I think we ended up giving him a fair bit of money over the years.

Chloe in the UK

I used to believe that checks were 'make your own money' paper so you could write down any amount on them and you would have that much money. When I was about 4 I took my mom's checkbook and made each check for a million dollars so I could buy myself everything I wanted.

Needless to say, I freaked out and I thought that we'd be in so much debt because she'd shredded the check after telling me checks took money out of her bank account.

Alicia