A Dollar Short

I knew this morning would be cool temperature, comfortable enough to walk outside.  Last night I planned my route, and I decided to include a stop at McDonalds to buy one hash brown.  My goal was to obtain a token for their new "Trick Treat Win" game.  I knew hash browns cost $1, and with tax the total would be $1.10.  So I put a dollar bill and a dime in my pants pocket.

I had a concern that the bill might work its way out of the pocket while walking, and I contemplated clipping it to the pocket.  But when I left this morning I decided it would be o.k. in the pocket.  I did decide to not put it in the pocket that I use to carry the iPod in case I pulled the iPod out to change out an ugly song.  So I put the bill in the pocket that I use to carry my cellphone.

When I arrived at McDs and was getting ready to order, I dug around in my pocket, and the only thing there was the dime!  It then occurred to me that I had pulled out my cellphone roughly 5 times to take pictures.  Obviously, the dollar bill had been pulled out at one of those times.  So much for my plans.  The cashier was an older woman and she offered to pay when I said the dollar was missing and all I had left was the dime.  How kind.  But I declined.

Lesson learned:  Clip loose bills in my pocket.

I thought of the old expression when titling this post.  A day late and a dollar short is an American idiom that has been in use for many decades.  A day late and a dollar short is another way to say too little too late.  When a person is a day late and a dollar short, he has not only missed an opportunity due to tardiness, but also because he has not put forth enough effort.  Originally, the phrase a day late and a dollar short most probably referred to not having enough money to avail oneself of something.  The oldest known use of the phrase a day late and a dollar short in print was in 1939.  The idiom was most certainly in common use before this, and probably has its roots in the general poverty common among most American citizens during the Great Depression.  The idiom is very popular in the American South.

source: Grammarist, an Internet site