I have a jar that I keep on the top of the bookshelf that collects all my change. Every couple days I clean out the small pocket in my purse of any change I have collected over the last couple transactions and I toss it in the jar.
My daughter who has the same aversion to coins, gives me all of hers to put in the jar in exchange for paper money. My boyfriend throws in anything but quarters. It must be a guy thing that you must have at least $2.00 in quarters in your pocket at all times or maybe he is just strange.
Every so often when the jug gets full I take it to the local Coin Star and trade it in for cash. I know I lose a couple pennies but my credit union does not offer a coin counting machine for its customers and I can’t stand rolling change. Been there, done that, for many years and that time is over.
Anyway, yesterday we traded in the jug O’change and paid for our Christmas Tree
I think we got a pretty nice live 6" tree for $40 and yes we haggled for it.
Entirely against the spirit of the thread, but I always feel possessed to point out that getting a small changepouch (if you’re a guy) allows you to use coins when you buy things so that you never have to dump it. It’s really very easy.
The last time I turned in my coins, I took an amazon slip from coinstar instead of the cash. It was awhile back though, and I don’t know if they still offer that program. Then, I used the coupon to get some books.
My bank counts it for free. I usually take it in right before vacation and use it for spending money. It has never been less that $200. I have been raiding it lately to get quarters for the parking meters at school.
When I lived closer to a do-it-yourself car wash, I used to take quarters to wash my car. I need to think of something else to do with it now that I don’t.
Years ago, when I was first married, I used to go to the pub pretty much every night. In a crowded pub, you tend to accumulate small change - it’s quicker to pay with the big stuff and get the change than to count out your coins. So, every night, I’d come home with a pocketful of 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p and 50p coins. The next day, going to work, I’d just pick up the coins of 10p or more.
One night, as my wife and I were going to bed, I dumped my coins on the dresser and commented to my wife that I always end up with loads of small change, and maybe I should put it in a jar or something and save it up. In fact, I said, what the hell happens to all those coins anyway? By rights, there should be a mountain of them here. I never pick up anything less than 10p coins!
I turned round to see my wife, grinning, holding up a jar of coins she’d kept hidden under the bed. The sly woman had been sweeping up after me and saving for months!
£60 plus change (heh!) - not bad for the early 1980s. Spending money for a holiday in Turkey.
I also got an amazon slip from Coinstar. They don’t take anything out if you get a gift card. I’ll probably be trading in some coins after Christmas. It’s always a great feeling.
IIRC, it is something like 9%. I get considerably less than that percentage in interest in my savings account, and consequently resent paying that amount to someone to count my change. Others here have beat me to it; I was coming in to recommend getting an Amazon credit because they give full credit without taking their cut. I deposit it in my account for my next purchase. It never sits there longer than a month. There are also other options where no percentage is subtracted - I can’t remember exactly, but I think that there are some other retail credits, and some charitable contributions.
I have emailed my bank customer service department to have a coin sorting machine in at least one branch for bank customers. So far, no luck.
20 gig iPod, a convertible rental whilst on vacation, spending cash while on another vacation. I have a gallon of coins now and plan to use it to help pay for a new laptop (if Apple can ever figure out how to ship it to me.)
One big coin extravaganza paid for our honeymoon to Cancun.
Another paid for all our spending money on a two week trip to Germany.
A third time would have paid for all our side trips and splurges whilst on a three week trip there, but the weeks prior I had a major medical issue that hit me outta the blue and all the co-pays and Rx’s given to me were more than I’d ever had in my life. Instead of paying out of the checking account, I paid it in the German Trip money. Probably $800 worth of mula went into various drugs and testing for my vertigo/sudden hearing loss.
Since the kids have discovered the coin jar, this money is now ransacked daily for lunch money and milk money.
I don’t get many coins saved over a year, but whatever I do have I take up to the CoinStar and exchange them for an Amazon gift certificate. I then use that towards Christmas gifts. I only get $20-30 but it’s a big help.
An iPod, and then I pretty much stopped spending cash. Now that I’m in the UK there seems to be a lot of places that don’t take debit cards, so I’m accumulating lots of change. I need to buy a jar - there’s probably a decent amount scattered accross my floor by now.
Gambling money. It seems that I’m in Las Vegas at least once a year for business, so I use it for that purpose. I accumulate about $300 a year in my change jar.
Me too. I also go with the amazon.com card. One time I got $45 gift card, and another time a $35 one. And recently I bought a “Sopranos” season 4 DVD for much lower than I would’ve.
I was quite happy when I found out about that. I obviously don’t want to give up my money to Coinstar–this is the perfect solution.
