Pin money.
I have never heard a man use this term I have known for as long as I can remember. It has always been the women who have said it.
Women of my family, working around the kitchen table, kneading dough for kourambedes, brushing butter on paper-thin sheets of phyllo, working grape leaves around ground meat, casually mentioning that Patty was taking in laundry for some extra pin money.
Ma, slipping a few dollars to her friend Laura for coming over on her day off to give us a perm, saying it was pin money.
My Aunt Christina said it to me the first time I baby sat as I walked past her kitchen window with 50 cents held like Midas’ gold in the palm of my hand. “Now you have some pin money, Penny” as she smiled down at me.
“Penny, put this away for something special. It’s your pin money” said my Aunt Babe after my first week of stocking shelves for Burney Brothers Bakery at a grocery store in the City.
I mentioned it the other day as I thought out loud about ways to make some extra money and was asked what pin money was. Pin money, to me, has always meant small change or a few dollars, squirreled away here and there for something extra. At 50¢ an hour, it netted me the $3 I needed to buy a mohair sweater, spun in sunshine yellow, from the Ben Franklin Five and Dime when I was twelve years old. Quarters stashed away in a little tin can allowed me to purchase a leather-bound book held together by a strong, gold cord. “A Treasure Chest” is filled with wonderful quotes. It followed me to college and marriage and children and sits on a shelf. It was a book recommended to me my high school creative writing teacher. The chord remains taut. I still have a change purse where coins are tossed and eventually go toward something special; a book, a present, a new scarf.
Pin money, it seems, claims many origins, most of them about the purchase of pins. One source calls it “a small allowance to buy clothes”, another for the purchase of pins, which were once an extravagant expense. Pins were, and still are, used for dressmaking, though they were paid for dearly in the past. Centuries ago, men would leave “pynne money” to wives or daughters in their wills. Nineteenth and twentieth century women were given an allowance, pin money, for expenses and, perhaps if one was frugal, a pair of silk stockings.
Pin money.
To me, too, that expression has always meant whatever might be squirreled away for little “extras.” I suspect I first heard it from my great-grandmother, although I’m not certain. It’s just one of those phrases that always “was” for me. Interestingly, as with so many other things here, the expression apparently commenced in England: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/pin-money.html Another thoughtful and thought-provoking post, Penny.
LikeLike
Yes. That is it, exactly Karen. I always “was” for me, too. In fact, there are a great many of them in my lexicon from family. That is a great link and explanations of pin money. Thank you for sharing it, Karen, and for you kind words. I hope all is well with you.
LikeLike
I love thinking of the origin of the term, thanks to Karen for the link, and thanks to you Penny for this thought provoking post.
To me it has the connotations of being for the little extras as you say, but for me it has a very middle class feel to it. 19th century working class women didn’t have pin money…they worked as hard as their men folk in factories, or before that in the fields ( and raised the children aswell, of course). It was the middle and upper class ladies who could afford the little luxuries, whose husbands might give them a little pin money for what they considered fripperies.
I do love the origin though…and will regard my pin cushion as one of life’s little luxuries from now on. J.
LikeLike
It is a good link, isn’t it Janice? I’m so glad Karen linked it.
You are so right in that it was the upper classes who could afford little luxuries, and I love that word “fripperies”. By the time it reached my family, pin money was for those extras in life. No one, it seems, uses the phrase any longer. Enjoy that pin cushion, Janice.
LikeLike
The term pin money was used in our family. It was not money given, but money earned. It always meant small amounts. By the way, I still have my Treasure Chest. It is no longer on a shelf, but it is in a box. It has been with me through many changes in my life as well.
LikeLike
It was earned in my house as well. I just don’t hear it any longer, though I do obviously use the term myself. Isn’t it wonderful to still have your Treasure Chest? I think it is still being printed, though mine is from the sixties. I still refer to it from time to time and used it often back in the days I was making junior high commencement speeches. It still has my maiden name (another phrase, no doubt) in it. I’m so glad you have yours as well, Janet.
LikeLike
Dear Penny, this is one of my favorites among your many wonderful postings. Why do I like it so much? Because I can see you as a little girl baby sitting and clutching the “pin money” you earned. Because I can feel the eagerness in you as you went into Ben Franklin’s and bought that yellow sweater. You made those days of your life so real. Thank you for sharing them. Peace.
PS: At the library I found the two Nancy Wood’s books that you wrote about in a recent posting. I’m eager to read them.
LikeLike
Dee, you have just brought a smile to my face and have given me good feelings to sleep on tonight. Thank you.
I’m happy that you were able to get the books from the library and hope you enjoy them, Dee. Thank you for letting me know. Enjoy.
LikeLike
Pin Money! Yes! It is an interesting term and I still use it! I know what it means to me, but I’ve never once thought about where it comes from. I have my own little “secret stash” and I just know it’s there if I need it…or someone else does! And how funny to think about the fact that men do NOT use it. So right! I don’t have as strong a memory of the term being used in my family as you do, but I know it was. Women have the foresight to think about such things…the “just in case” or practical applications of having something in reserve! 🙂
LikeLike
I never really thought about the term until now, Debra, until I was questioned (by my daughter, in fact), and it set me to thinking. I really have never heard a man say it. One of the many things women just do or say, isn’t it? I wonder if some of this is our natural nesting instincts.
LikeLike
Lovely post, Penny. You have brought up memories of my first earnings, and how precious they were. I heard the term ‘pin money’ too, from an early age, though later it became, ‘buy yourself an ice-cream.’
LikeLike
I’m so pleased to know that, Juliet. Those first coins that we earn are so dear, aren’t they, and lessons learned that I hope children are still learning. Next time I have a few cents, I just may go buy myself an ice cream.
LikeLike
At one time, weren’t pins made of bone? Something highly expensive. I can totally see how that would make the term ‘pin money.’
For me, it has always been for extras, though I am bad about saving it.
LikeLike
They were, Andra. It wasn’t until industrialization that pins would be mass produced and eventually became readily available and affordable.
I’m good at saving dimes and quarters – it’s the dollars that are harder.
LikeLike
Penny . . . how is it that your writing always evokes a memory. . .a very dear memory. My grandma would give me “pin money” when I spent the night with her. She was so special to me and no matter how little she had, she would always put a little extra into the palm of my hand and close my grip as if to say, shhhhsh! I also own that book.
Love, love your stories Penny!
Mary Anne ox
LikeLike
Oh, Mary Anne, you have written of your grandma so that I feel I know her. I imagine you can sometimes still feel her hand closing on yours. Such a dear, dear memory. A wonderful book, isn’t it?
Thank you, Mary Anne. I appreciate it.
LikeLike
I definitely remember this expression. My family used it when I was growing up. And I am sure I have read novels where it is used. I love these old expressions, they have such nostalgia about them.
LikeLike
Such expressions do bring on a feel of nostalgia, don’t they, Sunday? I love when they appear in a book. I guess it validates what I had been hearing.
LikeLike
Oh, I love ‘pynne money’! That has just sent me off on a trail, Penny! Lovely post. Origins, and how people change them, are some of my favourite things…
LikeLike
Isn’t it grand, Kate? I’m thinking it would be fun to have a jar or tin or something with a label on it. Pynne Money. That would be a conversation starter.
LikeLike
I have always known that term too…but never thought about the origins of it or the fact that only girls and women earned it…this is fascinating. And I’m remembering mom saying the same thing to me when I earned my first money (babysitting too of course!)….I never ever again ever felt as rich as I did at that moment!
LikeLike
Those first earnings, our pin money, were so special, weren’t they Sallie? I sat for 50 cents an hour and thought I was the richest girl on earth.
LikeLike
I love this post and it brings back memories of my mother using that term! It was used enough to make me not even question it’s original meaning!
LikeLike
I never questioned it until just now, Janet, when Jennifer asked me what it meant. It’s interesting, isn’t it? I just read something about Pinterest and being able to pin something until you can buy it. Interesting idea.
LikeLike
I know a lot of people are getting into Pinterest but I’ve held off even looking at it. I’m not sure if I want yet another technical thing to figure out or grab any more of my attention!
LikeLike
I’ve looked at it, but hesitate to get started for the very same reason, Janet. I lose enough hours on the internet as it is.
LikeLike