# Saving up your change...does it work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 26, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549 "2004-08-26T03:10:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Oat1957](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Oat1957](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oat1957)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/21 "2004-08-27T01:39:47Z")
We get $300-400 a year out of our change jar. We use it for spending money while on vacation somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/22 "2004-08-27T02:58:07Z")
i have always saved my change. i use a large vase that originally held a couple dozen roses i sent my wife at work. my current savings accumulation is for my next computer. i take it to t he bank coin counter when it gets full and deposit the money. i am at about 1200.00 now, working towards 2000.00. ---
**Author:** ![Morelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Morelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morelin)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/23 "2004-08-27T03:55:23Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > I just started saving change in a jar a few months ago. The different thing about this is that besides quarters, I consider change to be garbage. I would literally just toss change out on the ground. I still throw pennies away when I get them (I toss them into the parking lot of wherever I’m at…I hate pennies.) and I only save nickels, dimes and quarters. So far I’m about a quarter of the way up on a pretty decent sized vase. I have no idea how much is in there. Oh, so it’s your fault they’re so many pennies on the ground. My mother absolutely CANNOT walk by a penny on the ground. She always has one of her kids pick it up and keep it. If I were to pass a penny and twenty feet down the road mention it, she would have sent me back to get it. I have therefore taken it upon myself to never ever pick up another penny for as long as I live. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/24 "2004-08-27T10:30:59Z")
When I was younger I used to just toss pennies in the street, mostly because I loved the expression some people had when I did. Eventually I found it was too much work to even bother sorting them from the rest of the change. Today, I throw all my change into a coffee can before bed. Going back out into the world with coins seems, I don’t know, just wrong. They’re like division remainders, they’re just a formality. You don’t actually use them! Taking a rough guess it takes a little less than a year for me to fill one of those cans. I don’t like to cash them in, its nice to be able to just let them accumulate. Once I had 3 and half full ones. When I do get desperate and cash one in (I call it ‘going to the mattresses’ from the Godfather) I find that a coffee can of mixed change is always about $330 after CoinStar’s 9% (don’t get me started, they’re way worth it!) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/25 "2004-08-27T14:34:47Z")
Someone how managed to read “saving your change” as “shaving your garbage” and I thought, hmm, that’s an interesting term for one’s genitals. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/26 "2004-08-27T14:48:32Z")
I think saving change can make a difference. I think a lot of people basically throw away their change- at my work (a coffee shop) many people will buy a $1.50 drink and drop the .50 change in the tip jar, just because they don’t want to walk around with it. I know customers who will come in twice a day, 1.00 x 365 is $365 dollars in saving, just for coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Joe\_Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Random)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/27 "2004-08-27T15:37:51Z")
> [@Hail Ants](#): > > Going back out into the world with coins seems, I don’t know, just wrong. They’re like division remainders, they’re just a formality. You don’t actually use them! I use them all the time! You see, I don’t like accumulating large amounts of change, and the only way to avoid doing so is to carry around enough coins in my pockets that I can give someone exact change when making a purchase. Otherwise, I’d get even **more** coins, and that’s what I’m trying to avoid. Because of my habit of always having coins on my person, my spare change jar has, after a year of saving, no more than $2 in it. And that’s just how I like it. Screw the CoinStar machine and its 9% fee. Screw having to trudge down to the bank to offload buckets of spare change. I just avoid getting change in the first place, and as a result, I keep more money in my bank account, where it can accrue a tiny (but existent) amount of interest. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/28 "2004-08-27T18:26:40Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Yes it does. It is the same reason that automatic withdrawals taken from your bank account are one of the best ways to save. The reason is that you don’t miss money that is taken away before you start spending. > > I have the same system as your friend. Most of the time, my pockets are buldging with change because I don’t spend it with normal purchases. I don’t even think of it as real money. When it gets too annoying in my pocket, I take it out and pour it into a large jar. When I want to buy something optional and feel guilty about the cost, I sometimes remember my change jar. I take it to the bank or a Coinstar machine and usually end up with $75 - $200 that I didn’t even think about. It is like a free gift. The only drawback is you have to pay Coinstar nine cents on the dollar for the privilege. What disgusts me about that fact is that here you have your change, which you _already_ worked hard to earn, or at least somebody did–maybe your parents or spouse, and yet you have to pay a premium on top of that to convert it back into a useable form. Oh well, Coin\* is a private business and enough people patronize them to make it worthwhile, so maybe I shouldn’t carp. As you might guess from these remarks, I don’t think saving change is worth it. I’d rather go to the ATM less often, so I try to spend change as I go. Right now I have over $2 change in my pocket and plan on spending it later with a couple of $1 bills for lunch. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/29 "2004-08-27T18:45:55Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > if the total on the till comes to $3.14, before handing over the five dollar bill I count out two nickels and four pennies and put them on top of it so the clerk can just hand me a two-dollar coin back Sad but true…when I do this over half the cashiers have a hard time figuring out how much change I am due. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/30 "2004-08-27T18:51:30Z")
I’m not a coin saver and I don’t throw my change away either. If you have fairly decent math skills you can pretty much keep less than $1 in change in your pocket. Even if you end up with say 39 cents in your pocket (a quarter, a dime, four pennies) and the next time someone rings you up and your total is $3.89, you can give them $4 and 14 cents. You’ll get a quarter back but you’ll now have 2 coins in your pocket instead of 6. Now either wait till you get back less than 50 cents on your next purchase and save it to pay the change in full or use the 50 cents to pay any totals that have a change amount less than 50 cents. It’s also nice to have the 50 cents when you get a total like $5.45. If you have a $10 bill and the 50 cents you’ll get back a $5 bill and a nickel instead of 4 singles and 55 cents. Since I’ve adopted this method it seems like I don’t run out of large bills as fast. I’m also less apt to break a big bill versus spending singles because I have them. (Oh, Starbucks! All I have is a $10. Don’t really feel like breaking it.) vs. (Oh, Starbucks! I just happen to have 4 singles right here.) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/31 "2004-08-27T18:52:46Z")
> [@Hail Ants](#): > > Today, I throw all my change into a coffee can before bed. Going back out into the world with coins seems, I don’t know, just wrong. They’re like division remainders, they’re just a formality. You don’t actually use them! I like that–division remainders! Though I think differentials, as taught in first semester calculus, might be even better. Or that Greek letter they use to indicate a very small amount. Still I do use coins, as I mentioned. Just because I live in a country whose coined denominations, and the sizes of those coins, are 100 years out of date, doesn’t mean I can afford not to use them. So I live with it. ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/32 "2004-08-27T21:42:19Z")
I give all my change to my wife. ---
**Author:** ![McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/33 "2004-08-27T22:53:52Z")
I used my change to secure the purchase of my house! I needed $1000 deposit to secure the purchase, so I rolled-up my coins and I had just under $1000! That was only from about a year of saving change. We do have $1 and $2 coins, and they really add-up. MtM ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/34 "2004-08-27T23:10:20Z")
When Papa Tiger lived in Japan for several years, he’d save all his 500-yen coins, which fit perfectly inside film canisters. At the end of four years, he had enough saved to pay for a two-week trip to Australia. So yes, it can work if done properly. ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/35 "2004-08-27T23:19:51Z")
It really wouldn’t work for me, as I tend to spend my change. About all that can be found in my coin jar are pennies and Sackies. I need quarters for laundry, and I usually spend dimes and nickles (and even pennies) in the manner **Hampshire** describes. I’d rather do that than break a bill and get $.96 worth of change. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/36 "2004-08-27T23:57:24Z")
I don’t use my own money much anymore, since I mostly buy stuff online with my mom’s credit card (with her permission and presence), deducting the purchase from what she owes me, but it does work. Until I was about twelve I emptied my change into my top dresser drawer, then I started giving it to the poor box at church, and now I keep it again. Mostly it’s just really uncomfortable sitting on a wad of change, and I think sitting down with my wallet in my front pocket is even worse. Se I just empty my change pocket in my wallet into my dresser drawer. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlight\_Drive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/848f3c/32.png) [@Moonlight\_Drive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlight_Drive)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2004, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549/37 "2004-08-28T00:49:43Z")
Hell yes, it works. Last year, toward January, I bought 3 of those little .99 cent piggybanks at Walmart. I saved every nickel and dime I could scrape up, whether at from home or from my daily transactions. At Christmas, I gave each of my kids a full piggybank. Each of the banks held around 100 bucks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-up-your-change-does-it-work/261549.md?page=1)