One of the things on my to-do list this weekend was empty out my jar of pennies and nickels (dimes and quarters and dollar coins get spent) and take them to the local Coinstar machine. I need to buy some filters for my humidifier in preparation for the winter, and I've discovered the best place to get them is on Amazon.com, and conveniently, Amazon gift certificates are one of the options on Coinstar machines where you don't get charged a counting fee.
Unfortunately, the Coinstar machine broke mid-count, so I couldn't get my gift certificate and had to cash out, with the 8.9% fee. I was a little frustrated, but I wasn't cashing in that much, so it wasn't a huge deal. As I was walking out of the store, I was putting the money in my wallet, when I passed one of our resident panhandlers asking for help getting something to eat.
I walked past, then turned around and handed him most of what I had gotten for cashing in my change. After all, it was just pennies to me, money that was just laying around, but for him, it was worth a lot more.