Since changing the name of this blog, a number of people have stumbled across the site by searching for things such as “what to do with pennies” and “where can I deposit pennies?” (There are also some other… more interesting searches. People. Pennies belong in banks, in pockets, in drawers, in jars, in purses. Not in… other places.)
This got me to thinking. What do you do with your spare change? Much like my father has for years, and his father before him, I empty my change into a jar that sits on my dresser. I usually have about a dollar in quarters in my wallet, and I raid the change jar for quarters to keep in my car for tolls and parking meters. Every so often, I’ll go through the change jar and pull out the quarters and sometimes the dimes and use those at the Farmer’s Market. I figure they can always use some change to give back to customers who aren’t carrying anything smaller than a dollar.
(Not surprisingly, I have yet to come across a dollar coin when receiving change.)
This leaves me with a jar of pennies, nickels, and dimes. At last count, it was nearing $7. Not a huge amount of money, but it’s something. I have a few options of what to do with this money.
I can roll it myself and take it to the bank. That won’t get me far, as I probably only have enough pennies to put in rolls – the other coins would have to wait.
I can take it to my bank without rolling it first. I have no idea if my bank has a change counting machine. I have a feeling that they don’t. Plus I’m really an online and ATM banker.
I can spend it. Everyone loves standing behind a person in a checkout line when they’re counting out pennies, right? Oh wait, no.
I can take it to the Coinstar machine at the grocery store I frequent. Coinstar takes a percentage of the money if you get cash back (and by cash back, they mean a receipt that you then take to customer service). However, if you donate the money to charity or request a gift certificate (which appears in the form of a gift code printed on the receipt), the coin counting is free. Not a bad option, except that it negates the idea of saving the money.
Still, I think the Coinstar option is the one I’m going to go with. However, I’m going to wait until I’m planning a purchase. I know that my local Coinstar has Amazon.com gift codes as one of the options. I’m on a buying freeze right now, but I frequently buy gifts for family and friends through Amazon.com, so when the time comes (Christmas, perhaps?), I’ll lug my jar of coins over to the grocery store and trade them in for a gift code.
(And if you’re wondering how I budget this change, the answer is that I don’t! I spend very little cash, because it is so hard to track, so every month, my budget has $X in cash, and that money goes wherever it goes. It’s usually only around $40 for the month, so I don’t worry too much – and most of it goes to the Farmer’s Market anyway!)
What do you do with your change? Save it? Spend it? Use it to build sculptures? Fill up drawers in your house? Hold onto it because the metal may be worth more than the coin?
Take it to the grocery store and use it at the self-checkout lane. They usually have a slot for coins and one for bills. That way, you don’t have to pay a fee.
Do you live near a Commerce Bank? You can put your coins in a counting machine and cash it out for FREE! They also let you guess how much you have, and if you’re within $1 or something, or you get a prize
I had a nice experience recently with cashing in a load of small coins. I had just been putting them in an old plastic tub for literally a year or two. The tub had started to weigh a ton so I decided it was time to go and cash it all in. I too have one of those machines at my supermarket and I was stunned to get $20 out of all that small change! I bought some groceries and still had a bit left over! Nice!
I’ve been using Coinstar for a while now, love the
option of getting the gift certificate to wave the fees. It sure beats fiddling with the change.
This year I started a new saving technique for dollars. I call it coffee dollars. I was spending about $2 a day on coffee. I started saving that money, and found myself $60 richer at the end of every month since January!
Put it in the coin jar, when it’s full… take it to a Coinstar machine. You get the fee waived if you get a gift card to certain retailers, including grocery stores.
If you bank at a credit union, see if they have fees for coin deposits. Mine doesn’t – but you have to take it inside.
I use the ‘cash envelope’ system for food (both groceries and eating out, so I have a fair amount of change – about $20-25 every couple of months. It goes into my vacation savings account. Hey, an extra $150 on vacation isn’t a bad thing.
I’m with you on Coinstar being the best for spare change!
I have a couple of containers waiting to get filled: a vase and a coffee can. I’m starting with the vase and once that gets filled, I’ll either deposit the money in my ING account for my wedding fund or use the money to knock off some of the balance on one of my loan payments.