Let’s say you earn $1,000 per paycheck – you want to have all $1,000 of that, don’t you? But unless you use a debit or credit card to make your purchases, cash payments mean you’re going to be left over with a bunch of coins. Many of these will be pennies, and who pays attention to those anymore? I know that whenever I see them sitting in the bottom of my bag or in my wallet I think something like “ugh-no money there.”
But while I was cleaning up my apartment the other day it struck me that (yes, this is an obvious point!) these pennies all came from somewhere. They came from someone’s paycheck – probably mine. If I don’t pick them up, they’re all these little leaks in my money bucket.
We might tend to think of picking up pennies alongside “penny-pinching” and “penny-pinchers” as not-so-sexy ways to stay afloat financially. But the truth is, these are YOUR pennies. It’s silly not to take as good care of them as with your dollar bills and the things you purchase with them.
Is your life worth every penny in hard work you traded it for? I hope so! This is something I want to learn better for myself. Every moment counts; and every penny counts. Our lives are made up of these incremental pieces.
So I’m going to keep better track of these pennies and other coins and keep them all in a coin cup. When I’m low on bills or just need the money for bus fare or a coffee, I’ll make sure to take it out of the cup – and I’ll remind myself that it’s money I’ve earned. Another great idea – although it’s not for everyone – is that, if you like to be able to help out the homeless or those asking for money – you can use the change for this too. Face it, if it’s only going to sit around your house unnoticed – it could be helping someone who needs it. Just earlier today I turned down a request for financial help from a woman asking for extra change to get on the bus. I was just tired of so many people asking for my change in the course of the evening. But if I’d had some coins handy, maybe I would’ve done this.
What are some ways you take care of your “spare” change? Do you have tips for rolling it and depositing it back into the bank?
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I put my spare change in a mason jar that is on my bookshelf. Once every couple months, I take it to the credit union where they put tally it up via their own coinstar machine and I drop it into my savings account. I do pick up pennies on a regular basis and once a week, I dump out the accumulated change from my wallet, leaving only about a dollar in assorted coins.
That’s great that your credit union has a coin-counting machine and will do that for you. I’ve also thought of keeping separate track of the coins I pick up and then counting it all up at the end of the month to see just how much can be found on the street, or wherever.
In order to save money I put all my silver change into a 5 gallon water jug and when I got paid I put 100 dollars in quarters into it. When I went off to college I spent 35 hours rolling it all up while watching a back log downloaded shows. It was pretty fun. In the end I had a 145 pound jug that was full of 3450 dollars of nickels, dimes, quarters, and some dollar coins.
I put all my change in a huge mug, then when it is full I take it to the bank where they have one of those auto counters. It really adds up! This mug has about $130 bucks in in every time I cash it in!
@MC: Wow, that’s a huge jug! I can’t imagine how long it would take to amass that many coins.
@Brandon: I think I need to find a bank that does that, it sounds really handy. I used to roll my own until I found that not all banks accepted what I rolled them in.
Just few days ago I change my coins for notes in a bank (using auto counter). I recieved over 320 Euro. I keeped them in a 5L smirnoff bottle until it get full :)
I’ve been collecting my spare change for probably 8-10 years now; still no idea what to do with it though. Haven’t counted it, but it’s about 40 pounds worth (can’t imagine 145 though!).
I did go through and look for pre-1964 dimes and quarters, since they are 90% silver and worth well more than face value. I sorted through a lot of coins, and ended up finding 1 silver dime. Better than none I guess! Definitely keep an eye out for those in your spare change.