I know how it is- for years I used to throw all my pocket change into my backyard, thinking some day I would get a nice metal detector and learn to use it by digging it all back up. Finally, I got one (a White's V3i) and set to work recovering my dirt-versified Retirement Fund.
Its amazing how much of that money has apparently turned into nails, bottle caps, scraps of fence wire and tinfoil!