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Post by bobbysgirl on Jan 7, 2011 20:35:06 GMT -5
I definitely pick up pennies, and I have a large plastic coke bottle bank that I keep my spare change in (bills also). I take it to the CU to cash in since it's free. I don't really have it earmarked per se, but I did decide about a year ago that I was saving it towards new appliances. I wasn't expecting to buy them this last year at Thanksgiving, but by doing so I save about $1200 dollars over what I had loosely budgeted for. I had a couple of hundred dollars in it when I cashed it in. One rule of the house, Mom gets any money that is left in pockets at laundry time. I'll usually get a few coins, but have garnered some bills from time to time. I did give back the $20 bill one time, but only once ;D I consider the change mine and give back the dollars. I like your way better. Is there any guilt associated with doing this? Talk me into it please.
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Agatha
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Post by Agatha on Jan 7, 2011 20:58:05 GMT -5
I used to pour all my spare change into a glass goldfish bowl. Then last Christmas I gave one of my nephews a counting change bank. Goldfish bowl into counting bank. Almost sixty dollars! We dubbed it the entertainment fund. We probably would have had more but I raided it from time to time for the quarters. Pick up change? Absolutely! I've found dollar bills which vexed my mother. "I should have seen that first!" I know where I got that gene from.
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rubyslippers
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Post by rubyslippers on Jan 7, 2011 21:56:57 GMT -5
I save all my change and deposit it in the bank once a month and yes, I pick up change too. Last year I managed to pick up $1.95. I put that with the $220.00 in coins I saved and $12.00 in pennies, so it was a pretty good year. My DS gave me one of those banks that count the change and that lets me know how much I have each month. I also estimate up in my checkbook and that gave me an extra $208.00 for the year.
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Sharon
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Post by Sharon on Jan 7, 2011 22:09:09 GMT -5
I pick up change. My bank will count loose change for free if you have an account. They do not want it rolled. If you roll it they will make you unroll it and then they will count it.
DD who is in high school scores big time picking up change around the school. Every day she is adding to her fund.
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happyscooter
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Post by happyscooter on Jan 8, 2011 9:03:05 GMT -5
I pick up any and all money I see. We have a bank for Christmas savings. We tried last year to put in $2.00 a week. The bank is in my closet on a shelf, so I forgot about it alot of time. We only made it to $53.00. But that paid for Christmas dinner. This year I will do better.
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Post by toservewithlove on Jan 8, 2011 11:13:20 GMT -5
If the change stays in my wallet, it generally gets spent whether it be for a purchase or placed in a collection can from time to time. If the change makes it's way to my jeans pocket it goes into my change jar. When I was in school I saved $75 doing this, but with my current ways, I don't carry cash in my pocket as often. I consider my change jar to be my true emergency savings. When I need to do laundry and don't want to go to the bank or car wash, I raid the jar for quarters.
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NastyWoman
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Post by NastyWoman on Jan 8, 2011 17:40:31 GMT -5
I used to save all coins I had left at the end of the week (different country with large denomination coins) when I used cash exclusively. It added up very fast. However, XH always forgot to get cash and then had no money for gas so I hid my jar. He always found it though and it became a kind of a joke between us. He may be my XH now, but money never really was a point of contention between us.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jan 8, 2011 17:49:19 GMT -5
My change goes into a jug which when it gets full, I load into a spaghetti sauce jar and each jar holds anywhere from $80-100. I had about 8 jars until right before Christmas.
I took 3 of the jars and put them through the Coinstar machine at the Kroger's across the street. While I was not willing to lose 10% for cash, they weren't charging the surcharge if you got a giftcard, so I wound up with a $250 g/c to Amazon.
Normally, I'd just deposit the money in my bank. USAA counts for free, but since I moved away from San Antonio, I've lost that option.
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Plain Old Petunia
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Post by Plain Old Petunia on Jan 8, 2011 20:40:19 GMT -5
I do pick up change I find.
I do not spend my change but every two weeks or so, I deposit it into a savings account which I call my piddly account. Currently, I have $339 in it. I usually do something fun with it. At the moment, I intend to use it as spending money when we got to Egypt next year.
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greenstone
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Post by greenstone on Jan 8, 2011 21:20:12 GMT -5
I pick up change and save all my change. I rarely get change as I pay for almost everything on CCs for the reward points. What I do receive, I save and cash in at Coinstar. Every December they run a promotion that if you cash in $40 for a giftcard, you can send for an additional $10 giftcard to the same store. There is no fee if you get a giftcard so that is a 25% rate of return, not too shabby. I always choose Lowes because as a homeowner I always have a list of needs/wants from there. This last year I had accumulated just over $43 so it worked out perfectly.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2011 9:01:08 GMT -5
I have one of those refillable water bottles that went on some time of machine . . . like they have in offices . . . that I bought at a garage sale for $1. It's huge. I drop my change in there. I finally have my new DH doing it. He would basically throw pennies away because he didn't like them in his pocket.
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snapdragon
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Post by snapdragon on Jan 11, 2011 12:53:58 GMT -5
I do -
I have no idea how much I have saved up - but I need to start keeping track so I can add it to savings for a trip to Scotland a few years from now.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Jan 11, 2011 13:29:12 GMT -5
I keep a coin purse in my purse and try to pay with exact change when I pay cash for something (not often). We do have a "change jar" that we periodically throw coins into. When it gets full, I roll them and take them to the bank and deposit into an account for my granddaughter.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jan 11, 2011 13:38:18 GMT -5
I do, both at work and at home.
at work - I have a styrofoam coffee cup where I toss my coins. when it's full, I put a lid on it and bring it home to add to the home collection
at home - I keep a supersized empty/rinsed Scope bottle where I toss my coins. I actually don't mind rolling coins myself, all those years working in retail/money offices, but I do mind the stink and what it does to my hands. believe it or not, keeping them in the Scope bottle helps a lot while counting it all out.
I haven't turned in the change in awhile, it's only about half-full now. I think I had about $150 the last time I did, and it was used for spending money on a vacation.
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nalto
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Post by nalto on Jan 11, 2011 13:42:37 GMT -5
Oh, I do. Family and friends laughed until I counted just a portion of my 5 gal water bottle and I was at $400. This "too small to make a difference" change really adds up.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2011 13:58:28 GMT -5
DH and I save change. We have a piggy bank on our dresser for ourselves (quarters and dimes) and a piggy bank for our soon to be born daughter (nickels and pennies). Our first cash out of change after we married paid for a $$ 1st anniversary dinner at Walt Disney World. The next summer it paid for our gas from FL to OH. Just this past fall it paid for gas again for a weekend get away (4 hours away from home). I have put some change and singles back now for DH's use at the hospital in a few weeks. Other than that we save change. When we travel I take a coin purse with us so that any change we get goes directly into it and doesn't burden our pockets or wallets. Having heavy change in our pockets/wallets always makes it tempting to spend it to take the weight off.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2011 17:31:44 GMT -5
Do you save spare change? Do you pick up pennies? Do you have a piggy bank? How often do you cash it in? Is it saved for something specific? WHERE do you cash it in? GOT SPARE CHANGE? I pick up and save any denomination of foreign or domestic monies. I like to travel and I never know when I might visit a country. My best friend laughs at me when we walk because I'm always picking out change; howeve, she's gotten into the spirit with me learning how to tell coins from other pieces of metal at a distance of 5 ft or more. I keep the mony in containers until I need it or until I get tired of counting pennies. ;D I like counting change, so I roll it myself. However, my credit union weighs any rolls we bring to them. If you turn your money in for someone/thing else to count, might I suggest looking at the coins first. You never know when you might have old or silver-minted coins.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Jan 11, 2011 18:12:07 GMT -5
I do pick up coins I see. I spend my change instead of saving it in containers.
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sccdf
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Post by sccdf on Jan 11, 2011 21:38:30 GMT -5
I've got about a gallon of change. When we prepare to go on vacation I get the kids to roll it. They get to keep the proceeds as their fun money.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Jan 11, 2011 22:21:36 GMT -5
I the change out of my pockets and wallet into a jar at home. I collect change at work too in my desk drawer - I don't know exactly where this change comes from. We have a Cafe where I can use my "Card Key/ID" as a kind of debit card so I don't use much cash at work. But no matter how often I remove all the change, it just re-accumulates... it's weird. Every now and then I take the change (from home and work) to the bank where it's counted for free. I usually have between $40 and $50 in change. ;D
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kimber45
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Post by kimber45 on Jan 12, 2011 11:28:10 GMT -5
We have a ton of spare change that we have been collecting for quite some time, just never got around to taking it to the bank. Before I do, however, I plan on going through it and keeping any pre 65's etc.
I have them stored in coffee cans, a diaper wipe container (baby is 23yo) etc.
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coffeegrl
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Post by coffeegrl on Jan 12, 2011 19:18:45 GMT -5
I always pick up and use spare change. Sometimes I'll use it if I'm just counting out a small amount of change, say .07. If the change is something big, like .97, I'll give another dollar and get 3 pennies back. Mainly just depends on the mood I'm in as to whether or not I'll count out change.
One time, a woman spilled her purse on the sidewalk in front of my apartment. She grabbed all her big things and I said, "Here let me help you pick up your change." She said, "Oh, it's not worth it," and just walked off. I picked it up and it came to about $8. When she returned from wherever she went, I tried to give it back to her. She said since I picked it up, I could keep it. She didn't like coins anyway.
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Waffle
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Post by Waffle on Jan 14, 2011 11:34:06 GMT -5
I put my spare change in a tin. I take it to a coinstar machine for cash when it's full. Usually somewhere around $60.00 each time. I think in the future, I'll get Amazon gift cards instead. There are some dvds I've been wanting to buy - but kept putting off. If I just use my change to buy them it will be guilt free buying.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2011 15:07:02 GMT -5
We have collected spare change for years. Silver goes into one large glass container and pennies in another. We take it once a year to the bank and deposit it into our sons college account. We have close to two hundred dollars in the silver container . What a painless way to save.
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