I estimate that I make a cash transaction about twice a month. A couple years ago I had the epiphany that pennies, nickels, and dimes are pure nuisance, so I did with them what I would do with any other small, practically worthless objects: I tossed them in the garbage. I’m just cheap enough to keep quarters, plus they have much more practical utility; but anything smaller than that goes right in the trash after the transaction is complete.
This means that for each transaction I toss an amount between 0 cents (if I get all quarters) and 24 cents, averaging 12 cents disposed per transaction. Two cash transactions a month means I’m tossing an average of 24 cents per month, or $2.88 per year. This seems like an utterly trivial loss to me and well worth it for not having to deal with the accumulating coins. And I don’t buy an environmentalist angle either – again, the quantity is simply trivial.
Nevertheless, it never fails that anyone who sees me do this or hears about it is utterly shocked by the very idea. (Actually, my wife is the only person who kind of understands…we really are a match made in heaven). It’s yet another example of something that seems plainly obvious to me but is baffling to others.
So I put it to you: does tossing small change seem crazy?
Your reasoning seems fine. It seems crazy to me, but that’s because $2.88 / year is not a trivial sum. It’s also very bad according to magical thinking (throwing your money away is symbolically. . . throwing your money away), but I’m guessing that doesn’t worry you.
Might I suggest instead of throwing it away, though, you just walk off and leave it there? Unless you’re fighting inflation a little at a time by destroying wealth, too.
I put all of my change except for half-dollars and sackies into glass milk bottles. Last year I had three quarts of change that came to about $350. I don’t know how long it took to accumulate that much, but I have half a quart now.
I throw my change in a tub. Here we have €2 and €1 coins that are substantial enough (roughly $2.50 and $1.25 a piece) that I fish out at regular intervals, but smaller coinage accumulates. I usually just use it for change in our store. It is surprising how much you can save by this method.
Throwing away a few dollars worth of change in a year doesn’t seem crazy, but goes against most peoples’ notion of wastefulness (even though a lot of us throw away much more than that in food waste). At that rate, it would take you ten years to have $30 in a coin jar.
I stop to pick up stray change on the sidewalk, so of course I don’t toss my own change. In a week, I pick up about 5-10 pennies, 1-3 nickels and 0-3 dimes. I probably get two quarters a month. I’m not sure what their ultimate fate is, since all my loose change gets expropriated by my family.
A few years ago, I got fed up with having any kind of change at all. Anything that was less than a $20 got dumped into jar*. I now have a honkin’ pile o’ change.
*technically one jar for paper, one for coins, but who’s counting?
I don’t throw small (1p and 2p) coins away, because the more they get thrown away the more they have to be manufactured again, which is truly a waste, so I just keep them in a coffee jar andfeed them into a coinstar type machine every year or so for a massive £7. It’d be better if they all disappeared though
I have a tub on top of the clothes drier. Every year or so, one of the kids puts up a whine to take it to the change machine at the grocery. Usually nets $70-$80 free bucks.
How so? I suppose to the very poorest people in the world who live (the equivalent of) on a few cents a day, an extra couple of pennies would be a significant raise; but there’s no practical way for me to transfer this wealth to them. Tossing the coins and sending a donation check from my house costs me less than transporting the change to the poor.
I’ve considered this, but I just know it would mean a look of shock every time. (Actually, this problem makes me thankful for tip jars).
And aren’t I increasing inflation by removing money from the system? (Again, trivially, but as long as we’re being technical…)
Although I avoid using coins, I tend to collect a lot of them. (Damn those 1 yen coins…) I keep something like 5+4 yen to round out some purchases, but the rest goes to a “Save the pets” charity box in my closest 7-11. Sometimes, I buy some drinks from a vending machine to use up my 10 yen coins. I never throw any coins away.
My dad doesn’t like to have small change anymore. He does a lot of cash transactions, tho.
He does save pennies, for a “retirement fund” jar he keeps as a joke.
It works out for me because he cleans all of the nickles and dimes out of his change bowl every month or so and gives me a bag of change. Every so often he’ll go through my change and take out pennies. I think I make out on the deal.
Between his change and my change, I end up with about $60 a year. I take it to CoinStar and exchange it for an Amazon gift card (they don’t charge a percentage for gift cards) and buy myself something for Christmas.
As for throwing away change…never. I don’t think it’s evil or anything but it’s still worth actual money, and it’s small enough not to be intrusive. So I would never consider throwing it away.
Like many others who posted here, I just throw my change in a big jar. Every year or 2 I take the jar and cash it in. 2 years ago I financed a week of kayaking on the Green & Colorado Rivers with this money. The jars are almost full again, so it looks like it’s time to plan another little getaway.
I can’t imagine throwing money away. Why don’t you just say “keep the change” and walk away?
I accumulate much more than 3-4 dollars a year in change, which is why your idea seems to not make much sense to me. If I were doing what you do I’d be throwing away over $100 year, easily. The laptop I’m typing this on was bought from the proceeds of my last change jar dump.
$2-3/year, sure. But I don’t know many people who would be restricted to that little change in a year.
For a while, I’d get rid of my change at the you-scan line at the grocery store. Plunk in several dollars in change every so often. There are three other checkouts for the one line, so I wasn’t holding up a single person while I did it.
Now, I must use my credit card more often; I don’t generate much change anymore.
