Chilean Pesos and Currency Exchange Rate

So if you have been following along, you will know that the last post I made was also about money and how to budget. This entry is about what the money looks like, and how to quickly convert it to US dollars. I will also put the exact conversion, but for budgeting purposes, I recommend using the quick conversion. It will allow for a little more wiggle room in your budget (you will see why in just a minute).
So, let's start with the coins. You will see one, ten, 50, 100, and 500 peso coins.
One peso = 1/5 of a cent. (.17 of a cent)
Ten pesos = two cents. (two cents)
50 pesos = ten cents. (nine cents)
100 pesos = twenty cents (there are two different coins used for the one-hundred peso, both coins are displayed). (17 cents)
500 pesos = one dollar. (85 cents)







Next, paper money. There is a 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, and 20000 peso bill.
1000 pesos = two dollars. ($1.70)
2000 pesos = four dollars. ($3.41)
5000 pesos = ten dollars. ($8.52)
10000 pesos = 20 dollars. ($17.04)
20000 pesos = 40 dollars. ($34.08)


As you can see, the quick conversion is much cleaner looking than the actual amounts, and it gives you some room for budget adjustments later on. So, how do you get the quick conversion of Chilean Pesos (CHP) to US Dollars (USD)? Super simple. Let's say you're shopping at Jumbo, the supermarket. You've just gotten into the check out lane, everything is bagged, and they give you the total owed. It looks something like "19.950" (they use periods in place of comas and vice versa when it comes to numbers). You can either round that up as say it's 20000 CHP and almost 40 USD or if you leave the period where it is and use it as a decimal point, take the number you have and double it. So 19.950 CHP becomes 39.90 USD. Obviously, it is not exactly equivalent, but it is close and quick enough for you to use when you are on the go. You don't even have to be "good" at math to be able to do this little trick.