guest post by Judi @ Momma Muse
Oh how cliché, I know.. but really, there is so much truth in this simple statement.We have always kept jars around the house to toss change into. I’ve not got one of those really neat old glass water bottles, the 5 gallon kind – a flea market find, of course. Bob and I, and the boys always put our loose change in this. I even put in bills periodically – but usually it’s only when I have a lot of them at one time.
We use to keep our change in smaller jars or containers – the most common around our house were empty Pringles cans (the tall ones). I like these because you can leave the lid on, but cut a nice slot for change (and bills) to drop in easily. In my car, I keep an old Wet Ones container. I had to cut the slit in the top a little bit so quarters would fit through it more easily. I like that big old glass jar… but it will never get filled up in our house, we “break” into it too often, ha!
After a while, all that loose change starts adding up.
This spring, we decided to buy family passes to the local amusement park. We were realistic and knew we’d only go a few times in the spring and a few times in the fall, but overall, buying the passes would save us money. Plus, we never feel like we have to go the whole day. We can make short trips, more often.
Seasons passes for a family of 5 (we didn’t get a membership for our oldest daughter) are pricey.. so we emptied out our change jar (which we’d started the fall before) and started separating all the coins. The bank teller gave me a bag of coin wrappers… and we went to work. About 2.5-3 inches of change and bills in the bottom of that jar and we added up to somewhere around $375… I was exciteed – it almost paid for our tickets. Much more than what I thought, and much less than what I expected to come out of pockets!
We have always tried to use our change collection for something fun – movie rentals and a fun eat-in fest, movies out (though we usually prefer in), a trip to the local aquarium or zoo.. museum memberships.
I met a couple who said they’d started saving in two large 5-gallon jugs when they first got married. They promised themselves a trip to Hawaii when both jusgs were full. She said they had about 1/4 of one left to go… I don’t think it would take me long to finish that much off!
Do you save your change? What do you save it in and what do you plan to do with it?
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Mikki on 
genevieve le bel on 
Judi, you and I think alike. LOL I’ve saved my change in a 13 oz coffee can for years. It comes in handy when we run out of grocery money. That’s all I ever use it for. I think the highest total was $109. I was smiling that day!
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We WERE keeping our change in one of those 5g water jugs. But, I have a bad habit of using it before it gets filled! So, I decided to go smaller with a mason jar and there was probably $50-60 in it once filled. Not much but a start. Now I keep it in 1 of those plastic pretzel containers. It’s a medium sized container my grandma gave me to use for my change! We’re still working on it though, not sure what we want to use the money for though! OO and just a heads up, if anyone uses the glass jugs as you had mentioned, I remember my pop pop having one of these full of pennies, I do mean FULL! It ended up being so heavy that the glass broke! Change is quite heavy!
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my husband started saving his change when he was 17 years old….and paid half the total amount for my wedding ring with it – and it’s a VERY nice ring!!!!
we’ve been on dates (dinner AND a movie) bought gifts, paid for groceries…it’s amazing how much money you have just hanging around the house!
needless to say, we’re pretty faithful to collect our change to this day.
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We save our change as well. It used to be a old water jug but when we moved it was changed to a few piggy banks. The only problem we have now is that our Canadian coins were moved with us and now we cannot cash it in here in the USA! My Dad also saves his change for our son so he has quite the cache for a one year old!
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I tend to have change scattered all over the house. I really need to do the coffee can/water jug idea. Great tips, thank you!!
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Having a couple change jars throughout the house makes “getting in the habit” of saving the change easier too. You know, like 1 in the bedroom, where you might typically change clothes and empty out your pockets of change. I use to keep one in the kitchen, but really the living room works better in my house – more flat surfaces where I find change here and there. Even a small jar in the bathroom.. then periodically combine the jars to one larger one.
Hey.. I’m happy if the accumulated change buys us a dinner out one night. Or a day at the movies.
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We have a change jar in my office (this small jam jar gets raided by my 11 year old a LOT!) one in the laundry room and one in our bedroom. My boyfriend is quite the change saver. The last two times we collected it all up for gas money to drive to Albuquerque for the Balloon fiesta it was over $200! The first time it was almost $400.
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We save our change in a huge “rainy day” jar. Every once in a while we take it to one of those coin machines at the grocery store and get our groceries “free” that week.
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