Comments on: The Power of the Pocket Change Jar

By: Gail

Gail — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:43:15 +0000

When we first learned that we were to become grandparents for the first time, all of our change along with our $1 went into a large coffee can. When our grandaughter was born we had over $500 that we gave to our daughter to start a 529 plan. For every Birthday and Christmas we add another $100 into the plan for them. We have also done this for the 2 additional grandchildren that we now have.

By: Ashton

Ashton — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 01:42:14 +0000

Too bad there aren’t anymore pay phones… When I use to clean different buildings I would find so much change lying around.

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:30:59 +0000

I like those Coinstar machines. They have one at the local grocery store and we use our leftover change towards groceries. I don’t dump much into the coin jar because I primarily use debit, but my boyfriend does a bit.

By: Patt

Patt — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:32:46 +0000

Toonie Jar! I work at a bar, and i’ve filled a 8 L vegi oil drum twice in the past 4 years yielding around $10,000 !!!
Its a part time job for extra coin, and i thought i’d throw all my tips into the drum.
Who says coin jars are juvenile?
Laugh all you want, i’m now cruising on my new CBR :)

By: J.

J. — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:03:38 +0000

In the last few years, in November/December, Coinstar has offered a free $10 gift certificate if you redeem at least $40 worth of coins for the same gift certificate, and you pay no processing fees. What we’ve done for the last few years is save all of our pocket change in a jar and then when this offer appears, we take it to the Coinstar machine during grocery shopping. We get a $40 Amazon.com gift card, send in the form, use the first gift card for Christmas shopping and/or spring semester textbooks and then when the free $10 card arrives in the mail about 2 months later, we use it towards birthday gift shopping (we have 5 birthday gifts to buy in the spring). It’s a fast and easy way to earn $10 minus the cost of the stamp from your pocket change.

By: Kim

Kim — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:41:08 +0000

Ahhh. The change jar. Mine is saving for a really good DSLR camera. It seems a long way off, especially with one family member occasionally dipping into it for parking money (boo! hiss!) but it is adding up in a relatively painless way. My bank doesn’t have a coin counter and I refuse to pay 7% to the ole Coinstar machine, so I am rolling my own. My bank gives me the wrappers for free. In fact, now that I think about it, I need to head out to go get some right now.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:50:30 +0000

Well I keep two separate jars, one for silver change & one for pennies. I found an old glass water jug @ a thrift store and it’s pretty cool to watch my silver build up. I am not going to touch it until it’s full to the top. If I get into a financial fix, I will cash in the pennies :o)

To boost my jar I get a roll of quarters from the bank every once in a while & dump them in there.

By: Sue

Sue — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:02:40 +0000

@#1: I always bring back the soda cans (which has despoits)to rake in coins for my coin jars.

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 06:24:03 +0000

I am a young man still renting apartments. So far I haven’t found one or haven’t found roommates I would care to stay with over a year. So what I did is I started a change jar the first apartment I got and put all my change from my pocket into it. I never use change from broken bills to pay for something so I can get more change. I save all year and by the time I move into a new place the change jar is usually enough to pay for first month’s rent and the security deposit. Moving now never is a dreaded expense. Just a new jar to start filling.

By: Rory

Rory — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:23:54 +0000

Great ideals. I just made a blog about pocket change. How to make pocket change with your blog. I make about $1.00 a day. Great Pocket Change.

By: Bill J from Austin

Bill J from Austin — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 22:53:05 +0000

I’ve been stashing change for years. My old credit union (I’m still a member, but live over an hour away) would accept my sack o’ change, count and deposit it for me free of charge. Haven’t tried the new CU yet, but I have two coffee-cans filled with coins and ready to go.

My experience is that one coffee-can will yield between $65 and $100 dollars. Maybe that will be the start of our next vacation fund!

By: Bridgette

Bridgette — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:02:27 +0000

I remember helping my dad pick up trash at our old school and I found $10.

By: Caitlan

Caitlan — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:53:25 +0000

You know, change is money already-you can carry it around with you and use it to get less change in your next transaction. That way more stays in your account. I think I am missing something here.

By: katy

katy — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:30:03 +0000

Yes, this is a good post!

I deposited last months change yesterday in my IRA section of my ING account. It all adds up.

By: Jihan

Jihan — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:09:58 +0000

I do not have a credit card, so everything I use is with cash and I get change very often. Within a few days, I was able to get back almost $6 in change and I was like “WOW HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?”

My mom also goes and spends on necessities, bringing home lots of change and we put it in a box. At the end of the month or as little, she brought back almost $90 from her change.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:21:37 +0000

I save my change everyday and put it into an empty 5 gallon water jug at the end of the week. It’s been almost six months and I now have enough money to go on a vacation. I always say when I have change or see loose change sitting around, “It’ll go in my vacation fund!”

By: Brent

Brent — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:15:02 +0000

It was a first for me, but at the local Wells Fargo branch they have a “no-fee if you have an account” change machine like the coinstar. Pretty nice.

By: Antonio

Antonio — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 04:57:25 +0000

First of all I would like to say that,its refreshing to see other people doing the same thing I do(getting change from the ground,or simply from their own pockets).I too keep a small jar by my laptop,and the change adds up real quick! It’s unfortunate for other people to just toss pennies and even quarters on the floor.Well,its quite a benefit for me really because whenever I hear the sound(the way a coin drops,kinda noise)I immediatly get it(in a casual way of course).I find about maybe 40 to 70 cents on the floor and very rarly have I found actual paper money($1,$5,$10).I usually find alot of change in a local bars,most typically in stores(walmart,shoprite,etc…)and where ever people use change.

By: Speed Up Computer

Speed Up Computer — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:55:10 +0000

Reminds me of a time when I was 12 years old. I made a goal of saving all the loose change I could for a whole year, then using that money to invest into my first CD. Well, I made it through that year and ended up saving over $700 in change to invest into that CD. That money over the years, invested into other things has got me over $26k. A wise investment?! :)

By: Wamu

Wamu — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:10:35 +0000

If you are the person who is in such financial shape that requires you person to look at “coin return slots in vending machines and pay phones” to see if someone has left them change, you have my sympathies

For most of us, looking for change left by strangers or bringing in change to deposit once a month to a bank isnt a good use of our time.

I do employ a jar to save change, but only to keep the clutter to a minimum. when the jar is full, which takes about a year, I give it to a kid, a niece/nephew, and the smile you get is worth every penny.