I have mentioned it before on this blog: I am essentially a cashless person; except for the rent (paid by check) and laundry (paid by quarters) my cash usage in a given month is almost zero. But finally, I am using cash for something interesting. 
The spark was provided by Jeffrey Strain’s post 5 Great Ways To Leave A Tip @ Personal Finance Advice. Although, I don’t like folding and crumpling currency, the temptation to try a few origami tricks with dollar bills was irresistible. Having some crisp dollar bills at hand (read here about how I got these) just added fuel to the fire. So we indulged ourselves in some dollar bill folding exercise yesterday and created the following things.
A shirt
One-way arrow
A shoe (boot)
A gift box
A basket
The gift box required two dollar bills whereas the rest of them required only one. Initially, we thought this stuff might be complicated, but we were able to finish the five shapes in less than an hour. Try searching for “dollar bill origami” on Google and you will come up with a lot of designs that can keep you busy for hours. For example, try this elephant. I started on that but it got a bit tricky after a while…so couldn’t really finish it properly.
For instructions on the shirt, boot, and the box, click here. For instructions on the dollar bill basket, click here and for the one-way arrow, click here.
As long as you don’t tear a bill into two, this thing can be a lot of free fun.
Btw, it can become addictive pretty fast…and one more important thing: origami is not just about *folding* paper, you should also be able to unfold your creation without any efforts…or learn to kiss good bye to the bills.
Update (Feb 28): Daniel of FinanceGuide101 was kind enough to share a photograph [via www.winonatong.com] of a rose made of a dollar bill:
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I love it! What an excellent idea!
Wow! Can’t believe you made those yourself. I like the shirt and boot a lot. I used to use candy papers to fold small things, but these are just amazing.
BTW, I like the “As long as you don’t tear a bill into two” advice. Otherwise, it won’t be as frugal :D.
Maria: Yeah, go ahead and try it, it’s a lot of fun too.
Sun: I hate to admit this, but it took me more time (and efforts) to take those photographs than it took me to create those shapes. Either I am good at origami…or I am really bad at photography…it does seem more like the latter.
Looks cool! I am going to try doing it myself.
BTW, Imaginary Diva’s Blog is down for the moment. She’s finally found the light and moving on to Word Press.
One more thing…Imaginary Diva will probably be pestering you soon about Word Press.
Hi golbguru,
Interesting post! Well I have found this Dollar rose, well I don’t know how to post it here so I am going to send you.
Glad that I found something to entertain you for a bit. Your origami is quite impressive. Although a lot of other sites have shown one or two of the origami they made, I think you are the winner on the largest variety
This is so cute. I love it!!! Great origami stuff Golb :).
Golbguru,
You’ll have a second career alternative when you retire:-)
It was fun in Japan when the waiters and chefs entertained us with origami. Thanks for reminding me of some great times.
Saving Advice: Thanks are all due to you. I never thought about these things before..it’s always good to learn something new, keeps the brain running.
SVB: I am now on to the dollar bill elephant…it’s one hell of a project (70 folds) I am not sure when I will finish it.
Super Saver: Thanks for the suggestion (Domo arigato gozaimasu)…I guess I am working towards it (considering the fact that I can speak very little broken Japanese)..origami was the only thing missing.
You can find more origami folded from euro bills on this website:
http://www.origami-kunst.de/galerie/geldscheine/
Thanks for making this available as you just made my son’s day! He loves this stuff. -Ruth
Andy: thanks for the link.
Ruth: you are welcome.
Great stuff!!
i was wonderng if you could help me with making the one dollar boot, im having trouble with the instuctions on http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/boots/ and got confused half way >.
There are many more samples here:
http://members.cox.net/michelesfolds
and some other diagrams here:
http://members.cox.net/michelesorigami
hey umm… how do you do that dollar bill with the shirt thing…
1st picture
anyway please answer…
dying to know…
thnx……..
yeah… how do u make the t-shirt dollar bill thing????
can you send me the instructions of how to do a rose with a dollar bill
Can you send me the instructions of how to do a rose with a dollar bill? Thank you very much…
Great origami… Can you send me the instructions how to do a rose with a dollar bill? Thank you very much…
Love your creations! Can you post or send me instructions for the rose, please? Thanks oodles!
hey guys, here is a link to make some roses, I haven’t tried it yet (I’m currently short of bills to make some)
http://www.winonatong.com/archives/2005/09/how_to_make_a_money_rose.php
here is another link for a much simpler flower, sorry its in spanish but I think its pretty well explained with the pictures, also I haven’t tried this one
http://bricologia.blogspot.com/2005/12/regalo-original-de-boda.html
WE ARE LOOKING FOR A FISH OUT OF A FIVE DOLLAR BILL.
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