One of my favorite ways of saving involves nothing more than spare change. Does that sound crazy? If it does, you haven’t been introduced to the “bucket savings plan” yet. Let me explain how we turned our spare change into big purchases like a family vacation or living room furniture.
Have you ever been in line at Wal-Mart or a convenience store as someone insists to the cashier that he “has the penny?” Even if their actions hold up the checkout line for several minutes, many customers will go to the trouble to fish change out of their pockets or purses to pay the change portion of their bill. My savings plan was born out of sympathy for those cashiers.
After watching those cashiers squirm as other customers become impatient, I vowed that I would never be “that” person. Each time I paid my bill at McDonald’s or Walgreen’s, I would drop all of the coinage I received into the bottom of my purse. Change in any amount from one cent to ninety-nine cents was all saved. Over time, my purse got pretty heavy.
So, I dumped my change into a jar. I went through this process again and again. My husband joined in and started making contributions to our change jar, too. In a couple of years, the jar was almost too heavy for me to lift.
Then, out of curiosity, we decided to count the money in the jar. Imagine our surprise when we realized that our jar held over $800! I had been itching for a new sofa for our living room for some time, so I lobbied to use our found money for that purchase. My husband agreed and today we still enjoy that sofa.
You may think that the idea of saving change is silly, but I have to tell you that it really works. Since the only cost of this savings plan is your spare change, you don’t feel like you’re sacrificing to save money. In addition, we feel like this is the perfect way to save for those frivolous items that we want, but don’t necessarily need.
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8 responses so far ↓
1 Melissa // May 26, 2009 at 5:55 am
Hi, I have been reading your blog for a while, but this is the first time to comment.
I have to admit, I am that person in the checkout. But my husband collects his spare change and it’s amazing how much it adds up. Like you, I decided to count it one day and it was a couple of hundred dollars. Since then, collecting the spare change around the house fed us for a whole week when we were both unemployed.
2 Annie Jones // May 26, 2009 at 7:48 am
We do save our spare change when we get it, but I find that I don’t get much of it as I use debit for almost all of my transactions, even the small ones.
3 lulu // May 26, 2009 at 10:02 am
I have been doing this for years. My friends laugh at me, but it’s me who gets the last laugh when I go on a nice vacation every year. My husband and I pay with all cash and the change adds up to one nice vacation.
4 Diann // May 26, 2009 at 10:28 am
I am a big believer of saving change too! One time, years ago, hubby and I ended up paying the rent from our change jars! That’s when we realized how vital it was to save change!
5 Mike Leone // May 26, 2009 at 10:30 am
In 2007, I paid for airfare to Scotland, using loose change I had been accumulating for something like 2-3 years. I had $775, if I recall correctly. Earlier this year, I counted again (so close to 1.5 years of saving change, since the vacation). This time I got $470.
So I am a BIG believer in saving spare change.
6 Anna // May 26, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Well, don’t use the coin counting machine at the grocery store. They keep a percentage! My bank has a free coin counting machine.
7 fairydust // May 28, 2009 at 10:47 am
Last time I took a look at the coin machine in our local grocery store, the machine did take a percentage if you were trading in coinage for a straight money credit. However, if you were willing to take a Starbucks or Amazon gift certificate, there was no percentage taken out – all coinage counted went straight into the gc. So I picked an amazon gc since I buy stuff there all the time.
My point is that I wouldn’t necessarily rule out the store coin machines until checking the details on them first – sometimes it works out really well.
8 Ron // Jun 4, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Like Lulu,I have also been doing this for years.
I quit smoking years ago and decided to save the amount I was spending daily on cigarettes in a big 5 gallon piggy bank I found on Ebay. Every time the price of cigarettes goes up, I increase my savings accordingly.
I focus on saving quarters and any dollar coins I get, along with my pocket change at the end of the day. The clerks at the convenience store where I buy my gas knows I save dollar coins and will save any they get until I come in.
I usually end up with about $2000 + every year, for emergency cash in case we get a hurricane, if not, Christmas gifts for the family. My friends laugh at me too, but it’s me who got the last laugh when I bought myself a brand new Nikon digital camera last year.
And, yes, I pick up any coins I find on the ground and put in there too.
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