My dad always kept a ginormous bank around. He got into the habit of giving the bank as a wedding present, so when I got married I got hundreds of dollars in change just from that bank.
Change jars are a function of people who hate carrying change and also pay in cash. I usually cash in Between $100-200. The lower the amount the better. I might start throwing $20’s in a safe because I never seem to budget for the mid year property tax. Yesss I know it would be better in the bank but somehow it seems to excape through the checking account.
3 years ago I put a $1,000 deposit on my house using change I had collected in about 12 months.
It was quite funny because I wasn’t aware that I needed any cold hard cash up front to buy my house. I had cashed some RRSP’s and was waiting for that money but my realtor said I needed $1000 by Wednesday (this was a Monday). So I went to my coin collection (it was going to be my Fijii fund) rolled it and took it to the bank.
I also “Never. Use. Change.” But now I Hardly. Use. Cash. I would say 90% of my purchases are all Interac now so I don’t accumulate that much change. Also I play 9-Ball in the fall so all the loonies I collect go toward that.
MtM
I have a change jar too, but it never fills up because I keep fishing out money for coffee.
Logically, though, I don’t understand how the change jar method actually leads to saving money. If I have change, I spend it… but if I don’t have change, I get more money out of the bank, or put my purchases on debit. Am I just weak?
I think you are doing the correct thing.
I don’t consider coins real currency, so a item that costs $1.07 really costs $2. You don’t get back change, you get back basically a coupon for other things you buy. So if I have $0.07 worth of coupons I basically buy a $2 item for $1 in this case.
I have a job where I get tips, and usually those are in the form of change. So when my purse starts to weigh close to ten pounts, I empty out the change. I also keep my change bucket out of sight and covered so I dont know how much I actually have. I then wait till a trip or a big purchase and roll up the change. It never fails that I have between $80-140. I used to keep the change out in the open, but then I began actually using the change in my day-to-day life, so I had it moved to a more hidden spot.
You are worthless and weak. But hey, you are a doper.
My best haul was dragging into the bank in a wagon ( before coinstar) about $1200 worth of rolled change. With our account number on every roll. What a pain that was. It paid for our honeymoon.
Before kids, I could count change and roll it for a living, I loved doing it that much. Now, with kids…GAH! I’d rather be eaten by a shark than try to get it done with two little money grabbers lurking nearby.
WHat I like to do now, after my two large banks are emptied for whatever trip we go on, is to stuff a $20 or something larger, in the bottom of the new pile of change so that way when I go to dump it out, there is that bonus.
Our last vacation I had about $500 out of two jars for stuff.Which at the rate of Exchange for the Euro when we went, it didn’t last nearly as long as I wanted but it didn’t matter anyways as it was like monopoly money! Huzzah!
And I always forget and I never dive into it during moments of weakness.
I would like to state to no one in particular that a) I hate pennies. b) I really hate pennies.
Thank you.
Forsooth! Unless these people you refer to own vending machine businesses, the fact they manage to accumulate such hernia-inducing masses of change merely indicates that they are either pulling out the plastic, or breaking twenties at a far faster rate than you.
This “change” you speak of- those are the round metal things that the vending machine takes in addition to real cash, aren’t they? It would be so much easier if the vending machines took credit cards, like all civilized stores and restaurants do, wouldn’t it?
Never mind the change jars- how do you manage to run to the store for bread and only spend 45 cents? I always end up getting stuff other than bread when I run to the store for bread.
Even though I use credit cards instead of cash wherever possible, I accumulate change (though slowly, and in my purse, not in a jar) because I’m too lazy to deal with it. I clean the change out of my purse when airport security at at least two different airports gives me trouble about all the metal in my purse on at least two separate occasions, and only then. (Bear in mind that I don’t fly all that often…)
I have a couple of mason jars I throw change into. When I run out of cash (or low on available funds) it becomes cigarette money. Just fished out a couple bucks worth of quarters today, actually. Sometimes I roll it up but it generally gets spent.
Screw change jars, I wanna know where can you buy a loaf of bread for 45 cents?
I used to do the same Hal.
All year long I’d save my coins, first in a mug on my dresser and every few weeks when it was full, I’d sort each type of coin into a seperate jar. Then in November I’d start rolling them while watching football games on Sundays. By December they were ready to bring to the bank and I’d have $500 in easy cash to spend on presents without feeling the pinch.
That ended this past year with Mrs Stone taking over household finances. She can’t stand the thought of any amount of money not earning at least some interest in the bank. So she uses every coin the instant we get it and now it’s a rare month if we ever have more than a dollars worth of change in the entire house.
Many many moons ago, I had a neighbor who put his change in a 5 gallon glass water jug. When it finally got full, he decided to drag it into the middle of the living room floor, empty it, and roll the change.
He was a pretty big guy and when he picked up the jug, the bottom exploded out and thousands of coins (and shards of glass) went everywhere!
In a backwoods economically depressed Indiana town where minimum wage is king. (For the lucky ones who still have a job)
I’m not in either group thank goodness, but I reap the rewards of the low cost of living none the less.
Nope, just walk in during their lavish operating hours. Sidle on up to the Penny Arcade, and cash in your change. You get a receipt to bring to a teller.
My favorite was cashing in a big bag of change at the Commerce Bank on 6th ave and 43rd on a Sunday morning. I believe I was the only customer they had the entire morning. Just a bunch of workers standing around bored as could be, trying to be extra helpful and chatty. Who banks in Midtown on a Sunday morning?
Let’s do a little math. A five gallon jug has a volume of 1344 cubic inches. Converting to metric gives us a little over 22,000 cubic centimeters. Assume that all coins are made of zinc with a density of 7.14 grams per cubic centimeter (in actuality, most coins also contain copper and nickel which are denser than zinc). Your jug, when full, will contain 157 kilograms (346 pounds) of coins.
We have several change receptacles around the house. The wife dumps her change into a plastic football. I dump mine into a collection of beer glasses. When they get semi-full, I roll and bank the coin. It goes into the vacation account. We do it because neither one of us likes carrying change…it’s heavy and makes noise when I walk. 
The secret is to have the change receptacles in a place where they’re useful but not accessible unless you’re using them.
For instance, we keep ours down in the basement, in the laundry room. They’re immensely useful there because I always have loose change in my pockets (in Canada, with $1 and $2 coins, it can add up.) So they fill up, but I’m never around them to think of raiding them.
Hey people! Coin jars are so 20th Century! Get modern! Get an electronic coin sorter. (This is just one example of many that are available.)
I have a similar unit, and every time I come home I just drop all my change into it. Every few weeks one of the tubes fills up and I slide the coin rolls into a sleeve. When I have a good stack I take them to the bank. Quarter rolls get diverted into my cars’ glove boxes for parking meters and car washes. (BTW: don’t buy coin sleeves! Your bank will give them to you for free if you ask.)
For what CoinStar would charge you to take $300 off your hands, you can have an automatic sorter that will give you years of service. No hours spent sorting and rolling coin by hand. No handing over 10% to CoinStar. Better living through technology! Welcome to the 21st Century!
If you find one, let me know. I used to be a change collector, until I discovered that ex-Mrs. Player was taking out the fun ones. I did a 180 and starting going out of my way to completely minimize the amount of change. It’s an obsession now.