“A bitcoin for your thoughts”: Cartoonist Jonesy rewrites outdated idioms about money for Zopa

There’s an advertising campaign doing the rounds at the moment that suggests talking to loved ones about money is the hardest thing in the world. There’s a rather large dollop of truth to this; despite it being one of the primary ways in which we make sense of the world, more often than not we’d rather discuss literally anything else: the backstop, Rotherham United’s dismal 1996–97 season, Boney M’s discography – anything, anything but money.

Finance service Zopa – who we last drew to your attention in December 2018 when it asked INT favourite Joey Yu and a whole host of other illustrators to put a spin on the classic bank notes – wants to start the conversation about all things fiscal. Which makes sense; services of this kind tend to want customers to ruminate on its relationship to cold hard cash.

So it has asked cartoonist Jonesy – best known for his regular contributions to top tier fortnightly satirical rag Private Eye – to update a few of the hoary old idioms we count out when we pluck up the courage to conversationally confront the fact that our time on earth amounts to little more than a number we’re often too frightened to look at on a Sunday morning.

“As new technology changes the way we invest, spend and lend money; the terms and phrases we use surrounding money are transforming too,” says a Zopa representative. Jonesy puts it thus, “you don’t think about it, but so much of our language is based on old sayings that just aren’t relevant any more. This really made me think about how our lives could change in the future.”

In Jonesy’s topsy-turvy world, phrases like “pouring money down the drain” or “bringing home the bacon” have muted, respectively, into “Dropping your digital wallet in the eco-friendly waste bin” and “Bringing home the lab grown meat substitute”.