Saving coins and/or dollars?

[krayziebone33]

Here is a question to all you savers out there: What do you all save when you get change from cash purchases? Do you save the coins, $1 bills, $5 bills, etc.? I know some people who save every $1 bill they get. I know others who save just the coins. Still, I know others who save every $20 bill they come across, although you would have to be using some big bills to get a $20 bill back. I was wondering what some of you all save.

I used to save just coins, until I realized how much more I could save if I refused to use any $1 bill I get. In the first two weeks since I started that practice, I had saved $9 in paper dollars; this sum was in addition to the 3 bucks worth of coins I saved. All of that money went straight into my EF. Do any of you have similar stories or practices?

[Ima saver]

Well, I do save all the change I get everyday. I would like to save $1 also, but I keep using them to put into my $20 challenge.

[crabbypatty]

We only save coins.

[disneysteve]

I don't spend much cash, but when I do, I save the coins. Quarters go in one bank and we use them when we go down to Seaside Heights, a local shore resort. Everything else goes in a different bank and I periodically take it over to Commerce Bank to cash in for paper money.

[catlinye_maker]

We've always saved our change. Years ago when we started the habit it was to help pay for a trip to England, and in one year we saved enough to pay for the food budget for a 10 day trip. We kept it up after the trip and after a few years (and two containers) we had enough to buy a new flat-cooktop stove when our old one died.

Recently I was kvetching to my husband about how it was really too bad that the dollar coins don't catch on so I could toss them in the coin jar too, when it suddenly occurred to me (doh!) that there wasn't any reason not to throw the bills in. So I've started doing that. My husband won't though, only change in the change jar for him. Last week I picked up a couple of dollars he'd dropped and asked if I could have them if he didn't need them. He said sure! So I turned around and tossed them in the change jar and he went: "Eep! I didn't know you were going to do THAT with them!" I said, "but that's what I've been doing with all my dollar bills! You should have known!" and laughed my head off.

The thing that gets me is the coin counting machines that charge a fee; every time I see someone using one of those I have to restrain myself from rushing over and saying, "STOP! Take those to Commerce where it's free!!"

[kv968]

The thing that gets me is the coin counting machines that charge a fee; every time I see someone using one of those I have to restrain myself from rushing over and saying, "STOP! Take those to Commerce where it's free!!"

Glad you brought this up. Do you have to have an account at Commerce to use their coin counting machine? I've got a lot of change sitting around and I don't want to use Coinstar or anything and get charged a fee.

[bjl584]

I save all of the coins that I get.

[tinapbeana]

i save coins and $1 bills from my allowance. i get $400/month personal allowance (gas, lunches, entertainment, etc), and by saving bills and coins an average of 25% per month goes into my 'challenge'. also, any allowance left over at the end of the fiscal month goes in there as well, which can be 5-30 dollars a month.

[catlinye_maker]

Glad you brought this up. Do you have to have an account at Commerce to use their coin counting machine? I've got a lot of change sitting around and I don't want to use Coinstar or anything and get charged a fee.

Nope, I don't have an account with them and have used their coin counter several times. Just warn them if you have a lot of coins; they'll probably have to unjam the machine a time or two and maybe change the coin bags.

[aurielle]

I tried saving coins/dollars before, I just ended up spending it sooner or later. I do much better by budgeting my cash on hand carefully, having a modest monthly personal allowance and socking the rest away in my savings account where its earning interest.

[krayziebone33]

Glad you brought this up. Do you have to have an account at Commerce to use their coin counting machine? I've got a lot of change sitting around and I don't want to use Coinstar or anything and get charged a fee.

Just take ten minutes or so out of a lazy day (we all have an occasional lazy day) and wrap those coins up in some coin wrappers. Take them to your bank and deposit them like I did. My bank (Suntrust) charges to use their coin machine so I had to do it the way I did it.

any allowance left over at the end of the fiscal month goes in there as well, which can be 5-30 dollars a month.

I do the same with anything that is left over at the end of the pay period once all of my obligations are taken care of. I usually have anywhere between $10 and $45 leftover after all the bills and grocery expenses are tended to.

[disneysteve]

Do you have to have an account at Commerce to use their coin counting machine?

Nope. I don't have an account there either. I only go there to count my coins. For kids, they let them guess the amount of coins you have and if you are within a dollar, I think, they give you a prize, like a Commerce bank or change purse or something like that.

[pearlieq]

We save all of our coins in a big glass jar and cash them in before a vacation.

The jar holds about $300 when full and makes nice spending money. We just drag the whole jar to our bank (Chase) and they count it for free.

[LuckyRobin]

I've saved coins for years, but only recently started saving one dollar bills. I don't do it all the time, but almost all the time, as much as I can. I find I'm better at it the first 3 weeks of the pay cycle than I am the last 1 where we skip a paycheck. Then I tend to hold on to the ones just in case I need them before the next check, but they are the last thing spent and often I still have them and they end up going in anyhow. I usually will deposit bills twice a month and coins whenever I get a roll other than pennies done. I don't make an extra trip to town to deposit though, just do it if I'm going to be in town when the bank is open. I've done fairly well with this. I saved enough money to buy a freezer that way.

[krayziebone33]

I have not really kept track of how much paper dollars I've saved since the first two weeks of doing it, but I think I will just to see how fast it adds up. I started saving coins last April and had about $158 saved by January of this year. I was going to put that toward an XBOX 360, but like I posted in another thread, I am really trying to fight the temptation to buy that at this moment.