Save your pennies! (and nickels...and dimes..)

[fendere]

Coin jar with the digital display counter on top is on the kitchen counter right now and is almost at $60. For some reason it doesn't register dimes, so we've got a "dime" cup HAHA. It will be spending money for our next cruise.

[atreehuggingirl]

I always save my change, and occasionaly stick a bill or two in. My son cut a hole in the top of a large plastic container that came with pretzels in it, duck taped the lid shut and put cruise $ on the front! We saved for the whole year(knowing it was for our 1st cruise) and this year we cashed in and have $467.00! That is going to pay for all of our shore fun!:D

[NewCruiser11]

I do the change jar for our cruises too. I also started putting aside the odd amounts on paychecks and just depositing even $100.00's. It is amazing hour you don't miss amounts like $33.33 or $52.19 from a check and how fast that can add up!

 

 

I hadn't thought of doing that, but it would add up quickly! Thanks for the tip.

[NewCruiser11]

We have a coin jar we use also. Its a great way to save money that you don't even miss. I also will use the larger bills in my wallet and when I collect 10 $1.00 bills, I put them in an envelope in a drawer. I haven't been doing this long and I think I only have about $30.00 at this point, but we don't leave unti May for our cruise so I am going to keep it up! We use our debit cards alot, but I have been trying to be better about carrying cash on me so I can utilize my new savings method better.

[LaWeezy]

What I do is when I get the urge to buy a scratch ticket, I put that $3 or $5 into my unopenable piggy bank. It sure works. The most I ever won on a scratch ticket is $10 and I saved enough to enjoy all the little extras on my last cruise and will enjoy on this cruise. :p

[bluzchick]

We have been doing the same thing but didn't start last year like we should have. Whatever change we cash in (Free at our bank) we will either use in casino, in port or shopping...no matter where we spend it's "bonus" money we didn't budget for :D

[Anjanu]

Because of this thread, I started saving all of my change in a large Hawaiian Punch bottle. It's now half full with lots of change, a roll of quarters, one dollar bills and even a few five dollar bills. At this point, I can't even guesstimate how much I've saved so far in the bottle. However, I cruise in a little over 2 weeks and I can't wait to find out how much is in the bottle!

Thank you all for your awesome ideas!

[Haoie]

Probably just me, but I prefer to give exact change whenever possible.

 

Thank god we don't have pennies here in NZ [smallest denomination is 10c]. Pennies have got to be the most irritating coin known to man.

[tinkerbell_82]

Just an FYI- right now (through 12/31/10) if you cash in $40 worth of change at coinstar you get a code redeemable online for a $10 gift certificate to a number of stores (Amazon, Itunes, Lowes to name a few). I plan on throwing in handfuls of change to get my total up to $40 and then getting a few of these- the Amazon ones will come in handy for pre-cruise shopping! :)

 

Here's the link for more info: http://www.coinstar.com/us/html/A1-3

[MrsPete]

I thought I would pass this along. My husband and I always save our change. I throw it all in a little glass jar and when it gets full, I dump it into a ziploc. I learned long ago from Suze Orman to actually break a dollar bill and get the change, and then save it, and you actually save more money.

Actually, this is only half the story: If you JUST do this, you won't save a dime -- you'll just have your money in a different location so it'll feel like "found money". If you want to actually save with this method, you must ALSO AVOID going to the ATM to get more money when you're out of bills.

 

If you just put your change into a jar and keep spending as you usually do, you're just playing a game by keeping your money in a different location.

The only automatic coin counter machines around here are in grocery stores - I think they're called CoinStar? There's a "service fee" assessed when you use one but I don't know what % is withheld - might be about 8%. So that eats into the savings aspect...

This is true most of the time, but OCCASIONALLY Coinstar has a special: You put in $40 of change and get that out (fee-free) PLUS you get an extra $10. If memory serves, you can't get it in cash -- it must be gift cards to places like Starbucks, iTunes, and Amazon.

 

My husband actually went to the bank and got change to put into the machine for one of these promotions once, and he got iTunes cards for our kids' Christmas stockings. It was like getting $10 free.

 

IF you are inclined to do this during one of these promotions, you can definitely come out ahead. Sure, you can't use these gift cards for a cruise, but you can use them as birthday or Christmas gifts -- and then you can pocket the cash you would've used to buy those gifts. It's the bottom line that matters, not whether you took the money from your left or right pocket.

Our credit union has a counter right inside the bank and it's free.

My credit union has this too. I've seen it in the lobby, but I've never used it.

Seems a lot easier to just budget for your cruise and spending money. :)

Yeah, I think so too. I have a portion of each paycheck diverted to a short-term savings account in a bank that's not too convenient for me. We use that money for vacations and larger expenses that don't fit into the daily budget -- but our rule is that we must discuss it and agree before we withdraw anything.

 

A savings plan is really going to be much more effective than haphazzardly saving change. It won't have the "found money" feel, but your numbers'll be larger.

I save aluminum cans. Why give them away to your local recycling program? I got a cheap crusher and save them in trash bags. About every 6 months I bring them to my local recycler and get money for my trouble.

That genuinely IS "found money". A coin jar is just money that you already had, kept in a different place. You're talking about generating additional money. The cleaning lady at our school collects all the aluminum cans and recycles them, so I always bring mine from home and leave them in my classroom. She really needs that little bit of extra money, and it's a painless way to help her out.

Bank of America has a great program called 'Keep the Change'. It rounds up the amount of each purchase to the next dollar, and dumps the difference from your checking to savings account.

Yes, but that's still YOUR money put in a different place. It's not additional money.

Pam- I also recently quit smoking too (may 10th - mother's day 2009) and was able to pay for the whole cruise (2 adults and 2 kids) with the cigarette money.

Cutting out something and saving the money is additional revenue. Smoking, because it's so expensive, is probably the best example, but all of us could cut out something: Lunches out, sodas from the drive-through, yet another pair of black heels. Cutting back on things that we don't value is a great way to KEEP more of our hard earned money.

This would never work for me as I use debit card all the time. I get points everytime my debit card is used as a credit card. I usually never even have cash on me, which actually tends to be a problem.

Yeah, we do that too. Assuming you're not carrying a balance (and thus paying interest), it really is free money. On our last cruise, we had enough gift cards to pay for our to-and-from-Florida meals and one night of our hotel.

We had another larger coin jar that was almost full but when the DH was broken into someone stole it.:mad:

Something simliar happened to my father-in-law: He had saved up a bunch of "special quarters" -- you know, bicentennials and state quarters -- and someone stole the container. The people probably didn't even notice that they were all "special".

 

One more reason to deposit something from every paycheck into the bank. Security.

What I do is when I get the urge to buy a scratch ticket, I put that $3 or $5 into my unopenable piggy bank. It sure works. The most I ever won on a scratch ticket is $10 and I saved enough to enjoy all the little extras on my last cruise and will enjoy on this cruise. :p

That makes more sense. You're resisting the urge to spend on something that almost certainly would bring you no return. It's not actually generating more money, but if this tactic prevents you from giving it to the lottery, then you're kind of saving.

[Colorado Kat]

I've always tossed my loose change into a spot in my closet. More to not carry the weight around in pockets and purses. Cashing it in translates a nuisance to something valuable.

 

Except in December - all loose change goes into the salvation army red buckets. (and bigger bills at times too.) But if you're running a lot of errands on a weekend, you can go past the bell-ringers 5 or 6 times in a day. Those are the guys who get all the change.....

[RIRedhead64]

The DH and I save every bit of change we have...It adds up so fast.....we have als0 decided to step it up a notch by each of us putting a 5 dollar bill into out giant water jug bank every Friday when we each get paid...

 

I've given up my morning trip to Dunkin Donuts, in favor of saving that money for our cruising....We also are trying to cut out all the soda we drink--It's not good for you anyway, so hopefully we won't miss it too much.

 

I like being creative in trying to save....Each summer we have a huge yard sale to declutter the house and all the money we make goes into the cruise fund....

Great ideas from eveyone!! Thanks!!

[ksc1984]

We save all our change in a coffee can as well. I take it to the credit union machine every couple of months and put it in an old account that we never use. When rebates and other tiny windfalls come our way, they go in there. Selling old pieces of gold jewelry has been a source of coffee can money. And I work the polls every year and call that cruise money as well. Over time, it's usually a nice hefty chunk to cover all our cruise spending money or a nicer excursion.

[peppersprout]

we have been saving in a large plastic bottle since we booked our cruise back in April! Lots of change, and I occasionally put a few bills in from stray pockets when we are doing laundry. On last count we had $425 which will be paying for our shore excursions!

[GweninTX]

We too have been throwing our change into a 5 gallon pail for years and have 2 full. We are going to Alaska this year, but the bucket money is for our "Bucket list - vacation to Australia". Our bank is Bank of America and they will count it for us for free at any time as long as we deposit it in checking or savings - which is a no-brainer! Check with your bank - you may be surprised! We also recycle our aluminum cans and always get around $40 - $50 when we take ours in and that goes into the bucket also! Reading the other posts I am encouraged to take it in and see how close we are to Australia! This year is our 40th wedding anniversary - I am aiming for Australia for our 45th!

[youngestof9]

Well, since I'm the OP I wanted to come back and say that my cruise is over :( However I saved enough change and $5 bills that my grautities, our pre-cruise hotel AND my dog sitting costs were covered (over $900 total). Just from the little effort.

 

I saw the $5 bill trick somewhere in this thread (I think, or at least this forum) and have already started it again for my next cruise. We hope to cruise in 2012, but it will more likely be 2013 so those $5 will add up!

[sgttami]

Love the boat named Spare Change...

 

I always took my coins to TD bank, whenever the "bucket" was full. No charge to cash in which was anywhere from $200-$500 at a given time.

 

Went today with my bucket and was told that effective 11/1/2010, there's a 6 percent fee for cashing in (unless you are a TD customer) so when I went to the window to get my money I had to pay the fee..not a big deal but kinda pi$$es me off. I was the one that had to carry the heavy bucket and put the coins in, it's not like the bank did it for me!!

 

Might have to go back to "rolling' change and depositing it in my checking account!!

[youngestof9]

Love the boat named Spare Change...

 

I always took my coins to TD bank, whenever the "bucket" was full. No charge to cash in which was anywhere from $200-$500 at a given time.

 

Went today with my bucket and was told that effective 11/1/2010, there's a 6 percent fee for cashing in (unless you are a TD customer) so when I went to the window to get my money I had to pay the fee..not a big deal but kinda pi$$es me off. I was the one that had to carry the heavy bucket and put the coins in, it's not like the bank did it for me!!

 

Might have to go back to "rolling' change and depositing it in my checking account!!

 

you might consider just getting a passbook savings account with TD. I have them for my kids and it doesn't cost anything. It obviously doesn't earn anything, but every time you bring coins you won't have to pay the 6%. Plus you can then deposit it if you want into the passbook and then take it out when your vacation (or whatever) rolls around.

[jhteam78]

my wife and i do the same thing we never use change to pay for anything we always break paper money. We cashed in the silver yesterday and had 520$. this may sound crazy but we also save pennies A PENNY SAVE IS A PENNY EARNED i know that doesnt mean much now a days but i have enough pennies that i dont know how to get them to the change counter at bank. I cant even move them. We have five big water jugs full to the top

[Nebr.cruiser]

By saving change and sometimes bigger bills, doing garage sales and saving birthday money, refunds and reimbursements, etc. for about 3 years we recently took ourselves and 7 grandchildren on a 5 night cruise with 3 nights traveling/in Ft. Flauderdale. We had to kick in a little extra, but not much.

 

We're starting the savings jar/envelope all over again.