The Money Jar Trap - Why Many Lose Money With A Coin Jar

[Ima saver]

I count my coins and add them up. Both times I have used the bank's coin counters and they never agree with my totals. Strangely, I find my total is higher than the bank's total, so they are making money.

[Hedy]

Interesting. I'll have to start asking around for places in my area that have free coin counters.

[morningstar]

Just getting around to reading everything on the site. This is a good lesson. Besides that, depending on the size of your container, there could be a lot of money not earning interest in a bank account. That said, I'll start turning in my coins a lot sooner instead of waiting until the jar is full.

[sparkysgirl]

I just dropped our money from the jar off today as a matter of fact!! 40 bucks more in our money market!

[Ima saver]

I use to wait until the jar was full. Now I turn in the coins in the $20-30 range. Since I have been doing smaller amounts, the counter at the bank agrees with me each time.

[nanamom]

i rolled my coins about 6 months ago and proudly took them to the bank. I had address labels on them and everything. It took a couple hours since I had a tiny helper. i watched amazed as she opened everyone and dumped it in the coin counter. I will never roll coins again!! Nor will I go to a machine when my bank does it for free.

[MairGrif]

Most banks no longer roll their coins. They are sorted and counted by weight - I have seen some places do that when people bring in rolls of coins. I know they certainly do that with the coin counter machine at my bank.

[myself]

We just use the one at our bank.
That, plus we minimize the amount of coins we get by charging everything we can (within our budget of course).
In addition, the CC company is happy to pay us between 1% - 3% on everything we buy.
We just got a check for $125 from them yesterday for last month (yes, we did charge slighly over $10,000 last month, but that's because we could charge $5,000 for the car we bought, and our insurance policies were due last month, in addition to our utilities, groceries, gas, etc.).

[jIM_Ohio]

Couple of points on this...

even toll collectors complain when you pay a $1.80 toll in quarters.

I make it a point to pay for slow drive thru service with as many pennies as possible. My wife won't let me (she gets embarrassed much easier than me). My goal is no pennies- pay 4 pennies when it's $X.y4 or $X.y9... and more when service suggests otherwise. I have been called an SOB more than once, but pennies are legal tender...

When I remove the pennies from my truck, my milage probably improves by about a .25 mile per gallon. Change is expensive (LOL).

I have a jar full of pennies at my office from change in the lunchroom and never counted it... we try to use our quarters and silver change at our vending machines (I like mountain dew)... and my wife likes her dr pepper.

If anyone wants my pennies, you can have them, just pay for delivery and counting.

[rob62521]

I guess it's kind of end of an era when we don't pay exact change for things. My husband still tries to and people always comment on it because it's so rare. I think I read somewhere that people could always tell if someone grew up poor during the depression because they count out exact change and if they don't have it, count the change carefully if they receive it.

[cantretire]

Hi! I'm new and recently frugal. I started a coin jar last year. I pop all my change, $ saved grocery shopping with coupons, any money I saved getting something on sale, and the last 2 months have been throwing in singles and fives. I never missed any of it! It goes to the bank at least once, preferably twice, a month, so it doesn't just site around. I saved about $1,000 in 2006. I expect to do at least twice that this year.

I go to the bank with the coin machine, so there's no cost for redeeming them. When I get close to $1,000, I open a $500 CD. This way I'm not tempted to spend it, but I can close the CD in an emergency. It's a nice little way to save a few extra bucks in addition to 401K and auto savings.

[rob62521]

Sounds like you are doing a swell job on saving money and banking it! Bravo, Cantretire!

Originally Posted by rob62521

I guess it's kind of end of an era when we don't pay exact change for things. My husband still tries to and people always comment on it because it's so rare. I think I read somewhere that people could always tell if someone grew up poor during the depression because they count out exact change and if they don't have it, count the change carefully if they receive it.

I didn't grow up during the depression,(tho we were lower income) but I do the same as your husband. If I have the exact change, that's what the clerks get. I also count out the change from clerks since clerks now a days rarely count it out or DON'T KNOW HOW to count out change.

[rob62521]

Originally Posted by Nic

I didn't grow up during the depression,(tho we were lower income) but I do the same as your husband. If I have the exact change, that's what the clerks get. I also count out the change from clerks since clerks now a days rarely count it out or DON'T KNOW HOW to count out change.

You've got that right...they don't know how to count it out because they rely on the cash register to tell them what's what!

[cantretire]

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http://www.zooatlanta.org/animals_panda_cam.php4

[rob62521]

Originally Posted by cantretire

Hi Rob. I noticed your Panda gif. Check out this site 10 - 5 EST. Double click on the film for full screen.

Animals - panda cam

Thanks! That's cool! Pandas are our mascot for the elementary school where I work. I appreciate your sharing. I will have to share this at school.

[creditcardfree]

Coins are my new problem. We have moved with the military and have closed our old local bank accounts to go with usaa online banking. I used to take our coins in to the bank for free for deposit. I will now have to make more of an effort to spend the change in order to avoid a coinstar machine. We seem to accumulate more change now that we are in a state that charges a deposit on cans and bottles. So when we turn them in we end up with some change. Just an adjustment.

[Sindel]

interesting article.

maybe its because i've stopped carrying a wallet for a long time now, but I'm constantly using the coins i have. i carry a coin purse instead of a wallet (cards in a namecard holder - go figure...) so im well aware of their value.

whereas i notice that some people who carry wallets with no coin compartments (especially guys) are constantly complaining when they have change. one guy i know treats them almost like garbage!

[Hedy]

Originally Posted by jIM_Ohio

Couple of points on this...

even toll collectors complain when you pay a $1.80 toll in quarters.

I make it a point to pay for slow drive thru service with as many pennies as possible. My wife won't let me (she gets embarrassed much easier than me). My goal is no pennies- pay 4 pennies when it's $X.y4 or $X.y9... and more when service suggests otherwise. I have been called an SOB more than once, but pennies are legal tender...

When I remove the pennies from my truck, my milage probably improves by about a .25 mile per gallon. Change is expensive (LOL).

I have a jar full of pennies at my office from change in the lunchroom and never counted it... we try to use our quarters and silver change at our vending machines (I like mountain dew)... and my wife likes her dr pepper.

If anyone wants my pennies, you can have them, just pay for delivery and counting.

If I have a large amount of coins building up in my purse, I use them to pay at the self-checkout at the grocery store.

[rob62521]

I bought a couple of things yesterday and paid with exact change. Both cashiers were impatient. I think they all think we should be like that VISA commercial where someone who uses cash slows things down. That's a pity -- many financial advisors recommend using cash so you really keep tabs on what you spend.

One little mom and pop store I was in yesterday buying some homemade noodles didn't turn up their noses at my exact change.