I am not a person who normally checks receipts or change when I buy something. I assume they charge me the correct amount and I assume they give me the correct change. I suppose that is a bad way to be but, generally, it is how I am.

I vaguely remember a couple of times during my much leaner (in more ways than one) years of college when I bought things and either wasn't charged enough or the price was discounted more than I expected. I was pretty excited about it. After all, these were big corporations I was buying from and I was a college student working three part-time jobs just to get by. They could handle it ... and that was as far as I thought.

Recently, though, and I don't know why, but I have been watching such things more closely. We have had some unexpected expenses at home and things have been a bit tight on cash. Maybe that's the reason. I don't know.

But, in any event, I have had three times in the past two or three weeks where I caught the fact that people had actually not charged me enough for something. One time it was just a soft drink they missed on the meal bill. Another time, I don't remember what it was. But, one of the times it was a very significant amount -- a couple of hundred dollars.

As I reported the store or restaurant's mistake each time, I could not help but think about my college days when I would have taken great joy in an unexpected windfall, even if it was just a few pennies.

Transformation in process I hope ....