What's in your change jar?

[MitchCraft]

Poking around the house today, cleaning up, reading, etc, and stumbled upon my mason jar full of loose change.  I don't use cash much anymore, so this jar has been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years.  I found it pretty relaxing to dump it all out and count it up, and just the quarters and dimes totaled up to $49.25, with probably another $5 or so in nickels that I didn't feel like counting. 

This is surprising to me because I used to cash in all of my loose change on a regular basis, so this amount isn't necessarily an accumulation for a long time period.  So, I found it pretty cool and interesting, and figured I would ask others:  How much change do you have lying around?

[Frankies Girl]

We do still use cash for small purchases so accumulate change, but it's slowed down significantly since both the husband and I are no longer working.

We have an ornate oversized glass whiskey bottle (it lives near our fireplace as a decorative object) that we use exclusively for pennies. Last time we filled it (it takes years), it was around $50 - again, just pennies!

We have a piggy bank (actual pig) for the silver change. I can't even remember the last time we filled and then counted it out... but the amount was well over $100.


I also have a coin collection, so there is significant change lying around, just not "spending money" type. Although I do plan on selling it off when I get around to it so I guess it will eventually become spending money...

[DragonSlayer]

I just wrapped $47.50 yesterday, and there's still another $10 or so in there which I didn't have enough to fill up wrappers with. (And, no, my bank does not have a coin sorter and they require you to wrap it.)

[MitchCraft]

Yeah, now that I am thinking about it, I believe the reason I stopped cashing in my change (other than switching to cards only) was because my bank stopped accepting change, unless it was rolled, and coinstar was just out of the question.

[jim555]

$0.85.  Got rid of the change.

[soccerluvof4]

Not much but we have a mason jar on our dresser. I did however for years save change in a 5 gallon water jug bottle and a big plastic coca cola bottle. Between the two I had over 3k in them and when I went to take to the bank the coca bottle was so heavy it broke and went all over the place. So i dont do that anymore. Keep some in my car and mason in jar to empty pockets

[MitchCraft]

Between the two I had over 3k in them...

Holy moly!

[ixtap]

Quarters are for laundry and the rest is for Mah Johng.

My mother funded her first cruise with dimes that sh accumulated in a jug that barely let them out. That way, she wasn't tempted to count them until the jug was full.

[ghsebldr]

Have a cash business so I see a quite a bit of change.
 Several years ago I offered to split the change between myself and the two grandsons. All they needed was an account in their names (silly me I thought the step and her husband might continue to add to it for school) I asked every week or two if they had the accounts yet but they were always busy.
 Finally I took it to my credit union that had a counter and dropped it off. There ended up being just over $900 so $300 per kid and the same for me. I asked occasionally and showed the dad the cash in my office desk drawer and told him all he needed was an account for the boys. Still busy.

 Eventually I used it for a RV trip with the boys. 5 years later the stepson and his wife are over and I make the same offer for my newly accumulated change. She's Dutch which I guess is a thing when it comes to accepting free cash, within two days she had opened a separate account for the granddaughter  came over picked up the change and took it right to her credit union and had it counted. $600 apiece for the granddaughter and I but now it has to remain a family secret so as to not upset the lazy parents.
 No good deed.

[Free Spirit]

So, our change jar is actually a part of a yearly tradition. My husband and I both work side gigs that sometimes deal in cash so we both tend to come home with at least a little bit of change. All through the year the change is added to the jar, we never take from it. The money is only counted the last week in December so it's a surprise. We then cash it in and use it for our annual Homebody New Year's Eve pajama party. Every NYE we have a private party where we lounge around in our most comfy pjs, watch LOTR, and eat the most decadent food we can think of that we normally wouldn't splurge on with no regrets. We have fun planning the evening all year long and guessing how much we'll end up with. It's a lot of fun for us after dealing with the hectic holidays.

[Retire-Canada]

How much change do you have lying around?

$2 in quarters in the house and about the same in the truck.

[toodleoo]

Mine is for change I find on the ground. I probably find around $1 per month in loose change.

[SC93]

Have a cash business so I see a quite a bit of change.
 Several years ago I offered to split the change between myself and the two grandsons. All they needed was an account in their names (silly me I thought the step and her husband might continue to add to it for school) I asked every week or two if they had the accounts yet but they were always busy.
 Finally I took it to my credit union that had a counter and dropped it off. There ended up being just over $900 so $300 per kid and the same for me. I asked occasionally and showed the dad the cash in my office desk drawer and told him all he needed was an account for the boys. Still busy. Eventually I used it for a RV trip with the boys. 5 years later the stepson and his wife are over and I make the same offer for my newly accumulated change. She's Dutch which I guess is a thing when it comes to accepting free cash, within two days she had opened a separate account for the granddaughter  came over picked up the change and took it right to her credit union and had it counted. $600 apiece for the granddaughter and I but now it has to remain a family secret so as to not upset the lazy parents.
 No good deed.

Secret??? You can bet the 1st thing I would have done is called up the lazy parents and told them what they could have had! I might have even live streamed it to them!

We usually have $500-$800 per year. I never spend change and I only use cash. Our credit union has a free change counter in the lobby. Our plan is to go cash it in next week. I'll update when I find out how much is there.

You only find $1 per year on the ground? You better start looking better. lol About 3 years ago I found 5 $100 bills on our sidewalk.... finders keepers. The other night I found $20 in the WalMart parking lot. My buddy Ronnie finds money all the time. $1-$5-$20. I've been with him several times when he finds money on the ground. As for me... Most of the time I forget to look, but when I do remember, I sometimes find some :(

 

[Cranky]

Mine is also mostly change I pick up when I’m walking, but loose laundry change is also fair game.

I’ve got two quart jars full; well dump them into the counting machine in the new year, I think.

[Debonair]

I was lazy and have not had my change counted for about two years now. I only dump the 1 and 5 NT coins(the two smallest in Taiwan) in my piggy banks. I probably have about 1000 NT (30 USD)

[LaineyAZ]

Probably $40 to $60.  We keep the pre-1983 pennies, but roll everything else. 

I make up donation bags for homeless which includes crackers, a small fruit drink, and other misc. items that could include a bandanna, an individual aspirin packet, a chapstick, etc.  And then each bag has some of the rolled change, usually $2 in pennies or nickels, and very occasionally someone gets $5 in rolled dimes.

[Money Badger]

To my name, $38.23.    As a way to keep on good behavior with casual spending, I went back to cash budgeted withdrawn once a week for all meals out and incidental stuff.   Part of this was a cheap change sorter I have on my dresser where the daily loot in my pocket goes.   It's just a simple set of tubes for each coin type and some sleeves for the rolls of loot that result.    Then quarters and dimes get rolled with 100% of the proceeds to become payments for groceries usually at Walmart (where they actually welcome change usually).   It's strangely therapeutic to go to a store with a roll or 2 of quarters and dimes in your pocket.    True your pants jingle a bit sometimes (which may or may not be exciting! ;)   But you make more frugal choices on spending, and at least feel like you get a bonus by paying with the "free money" found in the change at the end.   

[coargonaut]

In October, I took the change jar to the bank. Got $217.43.
Went home and bought some silver coins.

Ed

[Goldielocks]

So, our change jar is actually a part of a yearly tradition. My husband and I both work side gigs that sometimes deal in cash so we both tend to come home with at least a little bit of change. All through the year the change is added to the jar, we never take from it. The money is only counted the last week in December so it's a surprise. We then cash it in and use it for our annual Homebody New Year's Eve pajama party. Every NYE we have a private party where we lounge around in our most comfy pjs, watch LOTR, and eat the most decadent food we can think of that we normally wouldn't splurge on with no regrets. We have fun planning the evening all year long and guessing how much we'll end up with. It's a lot of fun for us after dealing with the hectic holidays.

DH accumulates change, (because he buys lunches sometimes).   I rarely have more than $5 at ta time, and I guess I don't mind counting out dimes to pay exact change at the grocery store.

Anyway, I found out that he collects it all year, like you, and at Christmas, usually has at least $80 to add to his christmas stocking gift fund for the kids.

[I'm a red panda]

Yeah, now that I am thinking about it, I believe the reason I stopped cashing in my change (other than switching to cards only) was because my bank stopped accepting change, unless it was rolled, and coinstar was just out of the question.

The coinstar near me does gift cards for no-fee.  So before our bank started taking unrolled change we would just get amazon cards.

My change jar only has about $10 in it. 

My Dad has HUGE change jars; he separates out pennies, so it is mostly quarters with dimes and nickels thrown in.  He now lets the grandkids take 2 handfuls every visit.  My older nephew got my daughter's handfuls (since she is only 8 months)- she got $26. All 4 kids doing that, every visit, and it barely makes a dent. Too bad we don't visit very often, we could fund college this way

[ZiziPB]

I don't have a change jar, never had one.  I make it a point to spend my change.  But last year I convinced my friend to cash in her change jars (I actually brought them to the bank for her) and she had over $900 in them!!!

[Monocle Money Mouth]

I filled up a Sunny Delight jug with change once and it took like 14 years to do that. I think it had $300 by the time I took it to a coin star machine.

I try not to accumulate change at all now. If you leave change in a jar for years, it’s still losing value to inflation.

I rarely use cash and when I do, I try to get rid of loose change as quickly as possible. Most stores will let you pay with cash and credit. I just give them the change first and pay the remainder with my credit card.

[Roadrunner53]

Had been saving coin and cash in a 5 gallon water jug for many years. We'd throw in cash and coins. Anytime I return soda/beer cans the can deposit money goes into the jug. We threw in a some $50 and $100 bills from time to time too. Plus, all the other denominations. The jug was finally just about full in 2014. During the Christmas week off we dragged this beast out of the bedroom and emptied it onto the living room floor. We sorted thru the bills and piled them up. Sorted the quarters, dimes and penny's. We counted and rolled coin for a week. When we counted it all up we had over $5,000! My Hub went back to work and the following week I started schlepping the rolled coin to the bank OMG, do you have any idea how heavy coin is? It took me about 4 trips to the bank. The tellers were so nice. I thought they would throw rotten tomatoes at me! It was kind of 'fun' for a while but the counting and wrapping got old. I was not about to use one of those machines and have to pay for my money! We decided NOT to use that giant jug anymore. It was way too much work. We now have a gallon jug and when it is full, it will be a lot easier! Oh, forgot to mention, Hub had to use a special tool thing with these finger grabber things on the end to pull out the bills! The neck of the jar was too skinny for the bills to drop out.

[lizzzi]

I have a pink plastic pig bank for pennies, and a red tin bank in the form of a London double-decker bus for everything else. When I fill a roll of quarters, I use it for parking or for my laundry. The pennies, nickels, and dimes go to the bank when I accumulate a few dollars worth. I don't use cash as much these days as I used to, so it takes a while to fill the rolls.

[Money Badger]

$5 grand?   Nice job of "passive savings" Roadrunner53!    Your story is one good illustration as to why bankers globally are trying to "kill cash" from the banking system.   You actually got to keep all your money while they had to actually work to collect it.   Bankers would rather just collect 25 cents or so for each time you used your money.   Say instead you'd spent 100 times of each $50 transaction and they collected ~25 cents in debit card fees each time (this considers also the cost per transaction to the merchant for the card readers, etc.).   Bankers keep $25 of your $5,000 and smile.   Pardon a small rant, but let's all beware of bankers who claim to make our lives "easier with convenient card products"... "My [MMM] house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."   ;-)

[ketchup]

A giant pile of pennies.  I barely use cash anymore for anything, so when I do have change, it'll eventually get used for bus fare, and they don't take pennies.  I probably have between $1 and $2 in pennies right now.  Maybe when I break $5 it'll be worth the trip to deposit at the bank.

[Roadrunner53]

I forgot to mention sometimes when we win some small amount of money on scratch off lottery tickets we'd throw that money back into the jug. Any odd ball amounts go into it. I wrote a letter to a company and complained about their product. They sent me a check for $17 to try another of their products. So I will cash the check and toss it into the jug. There are ways to find moola to fill your jug up. Pennies make dollars! If I had a job where I got tips, I would toss them into the jug too!

[tinylittlemonkey]

Mine is for change I find on the ground. I probably find around $1 per month in loose change.

Same. I like to find and pick up change. I always check the self-check register at the grocery store, too. lol

Right now I actually have $17 of paper cash in my jar with my coins. I found some books by the dumpster last week and took them to the store and sold them. :D

[lizzzi]

I could never understand people who laugh at coin jars, and leave their loose change anywhere--they think the amounts are too  small to bother with. In the days when I was a public employee, working for a county and driving county cars, one of the case managers always left her loose change in the car. She just didn't want it. (And was one of those always whining about not having enough money.) I used to scoop it right up, if I was the one driving that car next.  When I accumulated around $20 (from various sources)  in my coin banks, I would go to the big bank, get the folding money, and use it for milk and bread. Hey, $20 buys a lot of milk and bread. (When I found $4.00 in the county car, I turned it in. I figured that had to be somebody's lunch money, accidentally lost.)

Actually, I just now picked up 6 cents in the parking lot while walking my dog. Into the piggy bank! Yay!

[Cranky]

There used to be an Arby’s down the street, and I would see people pull up to the end of the drive through and throw their change out the window.  Needless to say, I picked it up!

I also walk to the drugstore on Sunday, and cross the parking lots of two local bars. I find a lot of change there, too.

[GuitarStv]

A caterpillar cocoon.

[Zikoris]

I keep change for laundry, and that's it. Physical money honestly grosses me out. It seems so filthy from so many people touching it. So I operate close to 100% with plastic. There's one grocery store where we pay cash due to getting skimmed in the past, and my boyfriend has to give me money or come with me when I go there.

[Bateaux]

I've got a coin purse.  I'm 6'4" and 270 pounds.  I've got a dang coin purse.   I make change from my coin purse.  My coin purse rides in my murse.  My Man-Purse is a 511 camo backpack.  Goes everywhere I go.

[the_fixer]

I have an old school 5 gallon glass water bottle it was full about 9 years ago and it totaled about $1500 after emptying my pockets each night for 3 years.

I use less cash now days but it still gets around 150 in it each year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fibydesign]

Just spent a whole year searching for coins on the street as an experiment. Found $235.43 ($203 in bills and $32.43 in change). Not too bad :)
FI by Design - 020 - A Year of Picking Up Pennies - https://fibydesign.com/020-experiment-year-picking-pennies/

[middo]

We have an old margarine tub we throw coins into. I use it to fill the motorbike for our commute.  Usually around $20 per week.  We pay for most things with cash.