I’ve been rolling an idea for handling money around in my head, for a twilight zone/ creepshow/ twin peaks-ish setting/system tentatively called Nowhere, Texas. It takes place in the titular town of Nowhere, Texas, where anything can and does happen.
The mechanics of the money die are fairly simple, and based somewhat on the Usage Die of The Black Hack.
You have a job, ranked in tiers from 1 to 4. A tier-one job might be a convenience store or janitors service (note: these are not a commentary on the necessity or quality of a job, simply a reflection of their relative financial compensation). A tier-4 job could be CEO, investor, or pro boxer.
Each tier is assigned a money die. Tier one receives a d4, tier 2 a d6, tier 3 a d8, and tier 4 a d10. They are representative of your relative spending power. Any item that a PC may wish to purchase will be assigned a tier (1 through 5, or perhaps even higher for truly special items) based on the value, legality, and relative scarcity of the item. Negligible items, such as a pack of gum or cigarettes are tier 0, and PCs are always assumed to be able to afford them.
For example, a book of herbs and their medicinal uses at a chain bookstore might be priced as a tier 1 item. A sledgehammer, box of bullets, or a meal at a nice restaurant might be a tier 2 item. Rent payments, and antique sword, or a bribe to a museum curator might be a tier 3 item. A laptop, junker car, or a handgun could reasonably fall into tier 4, and so on and so forth.
Each tier of item requires that many rolls of the money die. Tier 1 requires one roll, tier 2 requires two, etc.
On a 1 or 2 of the money die, the size of the die decreases one step (d10 to d8, to d6, to d4, or to 0). If your money die is reduced to 0, youve bankrupted yourself attempting to purchase the item, and can not roll again. The item is essentially put on layaway, however you cannot actually receive the item until you’ve rolled the requisite number of times.
“Refilling” the money die can happen in a few different ways. If the PCs find some cash, or do someone a favor, their money die can increase by 1 or 2 (though increasing by 2 is substantial). Doing their job for a certain amount of time (less time for lower-tier jobs, more time for higher-tier jobs) resets the dje to its full value.
Example: John, a bank supervisor (tier 3, d8 money die) is attempting to bribe a museum curator to allow him to borrow a centuries-old spear to try and kill a birdman, a 9 foot tall humanoid crow.
The DM decides that this is a tier 3 request. The curator values the spear, but it will (theoretically) be returned, is only being taken for one night, and its absence can be dismissed, given the curators position within the museum.
John rolls once. A 7. A success, and the money die retains its size. He rolls a second time. A 2. The bribe is costing more than he had expected, and John’s money die decreases to a d6. He rolls a third and final time. A 1. Damn the luck, the curator is uncertain about John’s promise to return the spear before dawn.
After 3 rolls, John acquires the spear, however he only has a d4 money die remaining. Most of his liquid assets have gone into acquiring this spear, and leaves him in a difficult spot if he wants to try and purchase a bag of protective herbs (tier 2) later.
Thats about the long and short of it.
Recently, and thanks to middle-man negotiation by my girlfriend, I’ve come into a dragon’s hoard of Dragon magazine issues, specifically somewhere between issues #80 – #160. Always looking for new reading material, and here we are. 
The Urban Druid 