A couple weeks ago I took a business trip in my car for a meeting. I drove 5 1/2 hours one way, had a two-hour meeting, then drove back 5 1/2 hours. It was a nice drive and I got to catch up on a lot of audio books I've wanted to read.
Part of the drive was on the Ohio Turnpike. At the end of each turnpike leg, I had to pay a toll. So I reached into my ash tray to pull out some change. It was jam-packed with all sorts of coins, and I sorted through them to get the correct amount I needed. On a later stop, I also looked in my coin tray which was also packed with all sorts of coins. Just like the ash tray, it was so full of a hodge podge that it was hard to find what I wanted. So I resolved to empty them both out a bit when I got home.
The next day I did just that -- emptied both the ash and coin trays completely. I put $25 in gold dollar coins in one, and a few quarters, dimes and nickels in the other. Now it's a lot easier to get the change out of both of them.
I counted the change I had dumped out of the two trays just out of curiosity to see how much I had. Coinstar says that the average household has $90 in change in different spots and since this is one of my two main sources of change (the other is our change jar inside our house), I figured it would be a good amount. Anyone want to guess how much it was? Ok, I'll tell you. The total amount I took out of may car was $28.83. Wow.
My wife put it in rolls in our change jar and we're now up to about $60 in coins there. I think we'll take it to the bank soon and deposit the proceeds.
BTW, we have $1,500 of the gold coins in "change" at home too. We probably need to take some of those to the bank as well.
How about you? Do any of you have big amounts of change around your house?
I have two jars, one for quarters and dollar coins and the other for pennies, dimes and nickles. Last time I tallied up my pennies, dimes and nickles I had $102.xx Its great for a rainy day fund to buy miscellaneous stuff like snacks at the supermarket.
Posted by: Simon Chen | June 08, 2009 at 04:33 PM
We keep quarters in a tin can and use them for bus fare and parking meters.
We keep pennies and nickels in another tin and deposit it in the bank when it's full. It usually holds about $50.
We keep dimes in a pitcher and deposit it when full. It holds over $200. A 12 oz pop can will hold about $70 in dimes.
Posted by: rwh | June 08, 2009 at 04:35 PM
I have an uncle who has done this for years. On the last count of his change jar he bought a flat screen tv and still had change left over.
Any consistent savings, no matter how small, will add up over time.
Posted by: U.S.citizen | June 08, 2009 at 05:10 PM
After finding $200 in change in a jar in my home a few years ago, I decided to actually keep carrying my change so I don't forget to *spend* it.
Now I buy my lunch at my company cafeteria every day....using as much change as possible. There's no reason to "save" change in a jar or whatever---just using it for what you need as you go makes more sense.
Posted by: MC | June 08, 2009 at 05:16 PM
Is this a man versus woman thing? I always have piles of change laying around - or did when I used cash more - but my wife almost never has a ton of change because she carefully spends it.
One other thing: we go for long neighborhood walks, and often find change on the ground. My oddest - and most valuable - find was a five euro coin, found near a hotel driveway. We almost always find at least a few pennies, and often dimes and quarters. Probably about half the change in our jar was found on the street.
Posted by: Foobarista | June 08, 2009 at 05:27 PM
I once had my bag taken aside for a special search at the airport because it had so much change in it! Ah, the days of my old job. Now I spend it as fast I collect it.
Posted by: Sarah | June 08, 2009 at 05:34 PM
We do not use cash very often. I cleaned out my whole house over the last couple weeks and only found $7.21. Most of which was pennies. (Too bulky to carry around.)
Posted by: JEM | June 08, 2009 at 05:54 PM
In my car, I have a quarter, dime, nickel holder built in to my center console. I keep that full, but otherwise keep all of my change in my wallet.
My office is kitty-corner from a branch of my credit union. I walk over about once a month and deposit my change into the small savings account I keep there. Currently I have $206 in there, it is all just change from my wallet. About 2.5 years ago, I pulled the money out for spending money on a cruise I took. Don't know what the current stash is for. But that $206 has been painless, and at some point it will pay for something nice.
Posted by: Petunia | June 08, 2009 at 07:58 PM
We don't roll up the coins anymore because the last time I took the coins to the bank they gave me a plastic bag and said that we could put up to 50lbs of coins in there and let the bank count it when we deposit it. So now we're trying to fill up that bag to 50 lbs.
Posted by: thebaglady | June 08, 2009 at 09:19 PM
We have a coin jar and our DD has a coin box and a special piggy bank.
We empty our loose change in every so often and the coin jar gets emptied once a year (just before Christmas) and there is normally around £40 which we then use to buy a treat or four!
If we find change on the floor whilst we are out and about DD picks it up and puts it in her box. She then uses this at Christmas to buy gifts. At last count she had £18.
She puts her change from her pocket money into her piggy bank (eg she buys a magazine at £1.75 and puts the 25p change in her pot) and has about £5 in there, which she is saving to go to the Teddy bear shop!
Posted by: PippaD | June 09, 2009 at 04:22 AM
TD bank has a free coin counter that is geared towards kids:
http://bank.tdbank.com/electronic_services/index.cfm
My 6 year old is now on the hunt for piles of coins around the house and our cars. On her first trip to the bank, she "earned" $60 and got a free toy
Posted by: amb | June 09, 2009 at 07:45 AM
I just cashed in the change cup in my room yesterday at a service-charge-free coin machine at a local bank - $45. My next is to clean out my car which I bet has another $30.
Posted by: Casey Boyd | June 09, 2009 at 02:06 PM
We have an old Grolsch bottle that holds about $200. The bottle (filled with beer at the time) was a birthday gift from a friend. It's oversized, about the size of one of those small Heineken kegs. I call it cashing in our "beer money". My car has those little slots for coins, so there's only a few dollars in there.
Posted by: Corporate Barbarian | June 09, 2009 at 02:25 PM
I don't use cash very much any more, but each month when I write out the checks for monthly bills I will round down my checking account balance to the nearest dollar (basically saving the change).
I have been doing this for a few months and I have no idea how much is in there, but it does make paying bills a little more enjoyable :)
Posted by: U.S.citizen | June 09, 2009 at 03:08 PM
At the end of every day I usually dump all my change into a jar and roll it up when it gets full. At the moment I have about $160 sitting there (I usually hit about $200 a year in change) and will eventually deposit it. I consider it -- with apologies to David Ramsey -- snowball savings.
Posted by: El Cid | June 11, 2009 at 09:27 PM