You Found a $20 Bill -- Now What?

Find a $20 bill in a pants pocket or last year's purse, and it feels like a gift.

But what can you really do with it? You can blow most of it at the coffee shop. You can take in that summer blockbuster you've been dying to see. Or you can do something that will make a lasting change -- and actually make your life better in some way.

From food to home to finances, here are eight smart things you can do with a $20 windfall.

Best buy for $20? Clean windows, says Christopher Lowell, designer, author of "Christopher Lowell's Seven Layers of Organization" and host of the weekly Web series "Ask Christopher."

His pick for the job is a garden hose attachment that holds window cleaner and turns your hose into a window-washing machine. It's a great move, especially for summer, he says. "You don't realize what an emotional uplift it is when you walk into your house and see all your windows clean."

Use your $20 to make more money, says Jill Gianola, CFP, Gianola Financial Planning LLC, and author of "The Young Couple's Guide to Growing Rich Together."

Her choice for the windfall is "a good, unbiased personal finance book." Her top picks are " Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People," by Jane Bryant Quinn or "Personal Finance for Dummies" by Eric Tyson.

Then take the remaining money and buy a Dome Home Budget Book (about $7 on Amazon) to track household income and spending "for at least three months," Gianola says. After that, choose one or two spending categories and reduce your expenses by 20 percent to 30 percent per month.

"Put the money you saved in a bank account or IRA," Gianola says. "You can get good ideas from your personal finance book." Reward yourself after you've saved $100 by taking $20 for "a special splurge -- lunch out, a night at the movies, etc."

"There are a few little miscellaneous things I find I'm always glad I have," says Richard Trethewey, the plumbing and heating expert for "This Old House" and "Ask This Old House."

One handy pick is Teflon tape. If you have a leaking faucet outdoors, or shut-off valves in your basement, attic or closets, you can loosen the top nut and wrap this around the threads to tighten the seal, "and you feel like a master plumber," he says. The cost is about $2.

Another all-purpose tool is electrical tape. There's almost "no limit" to what you can use it for, says Trethewey. And "in a pinch, you could use it to patch a leak in a drain line under your sink. It's elastic and it really holds. You can use it in a variety of ways." A roll runs about $2.

"Another thing I'm always glad I have is a five-in-one or 10-in-one screwdriver," he says. "With a good grip, you don't have to carry six screwdrivers in your drawer." They start around $9.

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