Consider penny dreadful and penny gaff. Penny gaff is a British term for "a cheap place of amusement, especially a low class theater or music hall"; a penny dreadful is "a novel of violent adventure or crime especially popular in late Victorian England," when it cost one penny. The tradition of paying a penny per line of writing led to the coinage penny-a-liner, meaning "a hack writer or journalist."

Other terms that give black marks to small outlays include penny-wise and penny-pincher. Penny-wise, a shortening of penny-wise and pound-foolish, is used for "someone wise or prudent only in small matters; excessively sparing in expenditure." Penny-pincher names "a niggardly or parsimonious person."

It makes sense that penny ante, which originated in poker played for very low stakes, moved beyond the gambling tables and developed the sense "any dealings on a small scale or with picayune sums involved." But do you know how sixpenny-, eightpenny-, and tenpenny-nails came by their names? Each reflects the original cost-per-hundred for the different-sized nails.