Eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty of it in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one could scarcely look them in the eye. (This shows the difficulty of obtaining even such a small amount of money.) Della counted the money three times, and it was still eighty-seven cents. But tomorrow was Christmas. (Here we understand part of the situation: though it's Christmas and she will need to spend money, what exactly does Della plan to buy or do with this money?)