Happy Friday: The “Found Change” Jar
Sent from reader, Stacey:
We started a tradition last New Years to put all of our “found” money in a jar! It seemed like we would always find a penny or nickel here and there, but I never really knew if it amounted to anything. We decided to put all of our findings in our “found change ” jar. The kids did a really great job of putting it all in there, and now it’s a tradition every year!
The kids so far (as of this post) had $8.16! This is a great HIP idea to do with every family and very fun!
HAPPY FRIDAY!
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Me and my brother do this too. My brother gifted me with one of his coin jars (barilla pasta sauce jar) and it had almost $50 inside.
We do this and every time we go to coinstar to use the collected change we get surprised.. I recall last time we did this we got a little over $100.
I have a jar by the washer, any money i find goes it
Seriously…if you don’t do this….start. We do this…cashed in last time from about 18 months of saving and cashed in around $280. And we are debit card people! Lol!!
Great idea for kids. I drop all change lying around the house into a jar and coin-star it into an Amazon gift card for a stocking stuffer for my husband. Averages $65 a year.
I clean my purse once a week any coins go in a jar !! That’s my treat $$$ wheh it’s full !! My girls, I get them gift cards Starbucks , mcdonalds , Visa cards , they have one of each in their wallet for emergency ‘s. My husband has one by his bed full with only dimes ! I wonder how much he has ?? My friend has pickle jars full of quarters he said that it holds 800 dlrs ! Great idea to
Start today and put a one dollar in it today .2 dlrs tomorrow, and 3 Sunday and that will be Christmas $$$ thanks for the idea love it
I meant that my husband has a can full of dimes !!! I wonder how much is in it very heavy !! But he won’t let me cash it ! I will ask tomorrow and see if he lets me since I’m at work
I take my jar to the Coinstar inside of my Winn Dixie. If you choose the e-gift option, there is no fee when cashing in! I typically choose Amazon or Sephora and then allow myself a treat. 🙂
We had a water jug we filled with any loose change between myself, husband and our 3 kiddos for 2 years. Cashed it in last summer (2015) and had almost $500. It was our spending money for our vacation beach week. We have now started a smaller one & will deposit loose change into a money market each time it’s full so we can earn a little interest on it as well. love this idea!
Husband has been doing this for years. We have several jars tucked away in a cabinet. All he coins he finds go into it. We guesstimate it’s around $1,000 right now. All the change from my purse and car go into our little one’s piggy bank. Plus any money from grandparents. When it gets full we cash it in and add to the college fund.
We’ve been doing this for years. Hubby and I empty our pockets and my purse of coins daily and they all go in the jar. We take it to coinstar twice a year; for Christmas and then again in June. We use them to get Starbucks giftcards for our kids’ teachers. We’re able to give at least $20 per teacher! 🙂
We are planning a trip to Disney in 2018 and we just started a two liter for “dimes for Disney”. The kids get so excited when we find loose change to save up for our trip. It is a way to get them excited and involved even though it is still a couple years away!
I did something similar when my kids were little, using a large coffee can, with a black construction paper band and ears. I put it in the kitchen & the kids would excitedly add “found change” and watch it get full a little at a time. The purpose was to “pay” for a trip to Disney World. It was a great anticipation builder. Have Fun!
We are doing the penny challenge! Day 1: .01. Day 2: .02, and so on. You end up with over $650 at the end of the year on just pennies a day!
just made our families jars for this tonight – now I just have to remember to put the $ in each day
*family’s
We do this too. All summer with out our found $ in a jar so we have spending $$ for vacation 🙂 we score a lot since we goto cedar point daily
Btw we have filled 1 popcorn tin, 1 gallon jar and working on another. Can’t wait to count it:) $$$$ for vacation
I do this and also put any random change I find in it. I also have a plastic bin where I put aluminum cans and when that’s full I take them to one of those self-recycle machines. Any change I get from that also goes into the change jar! It definitely adds up–I always pick up those pennies everyone else passes by!
It’s hard to find a bank that will deal with coins these days. Last time I tried to deposit neatly rolled coins they wanted them loose in a bag and they sent them to another location for counting. I need to check into Coinstar.
My credit union has a coin machine that charges no fee for members. When my boys were little they made a wooden coin box for their Dad so he can empty his pockets each night into it. Every few months we take coins to credit union and turn it into fun money for the movies.
We have a local bank and they gladly take the coins…been doing that for a decade now and I wasn’t even a member until recently.
That’s exactly why I don’t bother with a bank when it comes to coins. I’m posting a link that shows all of the e-gift card options with Coinstar. It’s so nice to not pay fees! (If you want cash, there is a fee.) There is also a “Find a Kiosk” option at the top.
https://www.coinstar.com/giftcards
Great idea! Cute kids. Happy new year!
My mother in law walks 3-5 miles every day around our neighborhood. He is always finding coins laying on the ground and picks them up. This year she put them all in a jar and let my kids have the money to buy us Christmas presents. She had almost $100! Just in found money. Crazy!! She gets paid to exercise, how awesome is that?
I seriously need to start walking…lol
My mother in law has taught my kids to be “money finders”…whenever we go out with her, she always finds change on the ground. Now my kids are always on the “hunt” & find change at least 3 out of every 4 outings. This year we will start jar to keep track of our “findings”!
Great post! Going to start this with my boys. Thanks for sharing! Beautiful children!
Around the house is one thing but out in public, no thanks. My step sons would do this and try to climb under soda machines and fast food tables for a few dirty pennies. Yuck!
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When I first met my husband (then boyfriend) we collected all the change laying around his apartment. Carried it to coinstar & it was just over $135. Wow! Turned it into a Jewel Osco gift card & we got groceries with it.
My boyfriend and I started doing this about five years ago with any coins we get (found or change back from somewhere) and we spend it on our anniversary dinner or trip. It works out well!
My husband & I put all our change in our coin bank , even my kids give their change as well to put in the coin bank that has a counter on the top . No change is safe lol . We now have well over $500.00 in less than 7 months & that’s just the silver coins pennies we have well over a $100.00 dollars . We have 2 different jars one for silver & one for pennies . It adds up so fast & we don’t touch it till its close to Vacation . Past years we’ve paid for our rental car & other times we use it for a few expensive dinners while on vacation . If you do it everyday it adds up so fast . This time around I’m using it for our mother & daughter trip to Italy in March . Going to purchase a nice expensive bottle of wine while we are there & the rest will be mad money for some of our excursions .
I see alot of people saying they go to coin star. If you go to your own bank they will usually do for free.
Mine charges .08 cents per dollar. 😕
My husband and I started a “wedding dress fund” when our first daughter was born almost 4 years ago. We put all our loose change in there in hopes that it will pay for at least half of her wedding dress someday! (Then we had another baby girl so now we will split the change between them!)
I just got engaged and think this is a super sweet (and smart!) idea. Your girls will definitely appreciate it and kudos to you for getting a head start. 🙂
Since coin-star charges a fee, consider taking it to your bank instead. Most banks have a coin counting machine and will deposit/convert your change at no extra charge (assuming you already have an account with them). I take my change jar to Chase bank all the time.
When I was young, I was told a story that goes – when you find money in your path or laying around for you to find that it was put there by a loved one that has passed on for you to find. It’s good luck, and that is where the term “pennies from heaven” comes from. Now I’m over 40, and it still makes me happy to think it might be true when I find change laying around.
We started saving coins while pregnant with our first in 2011, it was enough to buy everything leftover on our baby registry (about $400) after our shower. We’ve kept it going and now turn it in 3 times a year, both boys birthdays and Christmas. It’s so nice to be able to spoil them a little extra without it being a large chunk out of our pockets. We average $250-$300 every 4 months. I’ve been working on a quarter jar for about 10 months now in hopes that when it’s full it’s at least half of a King mattress set. I’d guess we’ve done about $500 so far and it’s 2/3’s full. We also do $1, $5 or $10 jars when having for something larger and when it’s full we turn. These coin amounts are large so i’ll just point out that we both work in restaurants so we bring change home every night.
The rule in our house is: the money that we find goes to someone else, so put that in donation.
Our family has been doing this for years but, instead of treating ourselves, we donate the collection to Heifer International and treat needy children and families.
My husband and I keep 2 of the big water cooler jugs, pennies in one ‘silver’ change in the other. Last time we filled them took about 6 years and we had $5k. In change!! Change back from purchases, found change, change in the laundry, money is money and it adds up!
We use the big water cooler jugs too. My husband does not like carrying lots of change in his wallet so in the jug it goes. And money the kids find around the house, car etc goes in the jug. Our credit union has a free money machine. We use the cash for spending money on our vacations.
When we find coins we collect them for our son’s college account jar. He’s 5 now, & knows pennies in the parking lot are for college! Our credit union has a free coin machine we take our jar to, then put into his acct.
My Dad has has done this forever. We have several water cooler jugs filled with pennies at any point. As a kid, we were bored and he bought us wrappers and told us we could keep anything we wrapped. We had to do it by hand so it took awhile and kept us busy. We worked on this for several days until we were bored of it and made a few dollars and got really tired of counting out pennies.
Now, he also has a jar with silver change and he would give me baggies full of quarters to do laundry at the laundromat when I got an apartment without laundry. That money really helped me out because the laundromat was costing us almost $10 a week for 3 loads of laundry. When we bought a house, our first purchase was a washer and dryer! It has already paid for itself.
Read the book The Christmas Jar…..great story about saving the change all year than finding someone in need to give it to at Christmas……heartwarming story and great idea!
I have been doing this for years & donate all the money at Christmas time to the Salvation Army red kettle.