what are you doing with your coins (change)?

[JOHNNIE36]

I have a small cup that just fits in the trim panel of the door in our car. Change goes in and out of that cup at fast food places. Now and then I take out the quarters, dimes and nickels and transfer them to my poker pot. This is a handy tin in which I keep my change for our Monday night "nickel-dime" poker games. Periodically I will remove the quarters to an old bank I keep in my closet. When the bank is full of quarters I wrap them and generally end up with about $100. Never carry change in my pants pocket.

 

[Music Lover]

I put all my pennies in containers for 30 years. When I finally put them through the machine at my local bank, it added up to $164!! This was at TD bank which used to have Coinstar machines, so based on the accuracy comments, it may have been more.

I keep loonies and twonies ($1 and $2 coins in Canada) in the coin tray in my car...they come in handy for car washes and drive-thru, and the small tray can hold $50+, which makes a handy emergency fund. I once left my money and credit cards at home and paid for a round of golf with $30 in coins...

 

[Mulligan]

I see quite often some of the Canadian coins circulating down here with no problem. But when we recently took that bucket of change to the coin machine, the circulation ended there... We had to take a handful back with us. Reminded be of back in the high school days when we found out the soda machine was cool with taking metal slugs instead of quarters.


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[gauss]

I use the self-serve coin counters at local branches of TCF Bank around here. There is no surcharge for certain account holders. The same account allows me to get surcharge free Official Checks (ie cashier checks).

I have used various Credit Unions in the past who have provided free change counting services - some self-serve -- some teller provided.

-gauss

 

[CountryGal]

Time to close my TD account.

 

[Badger]

I saw a guy with one of those big 5 gallon water bottles full of coins wheeling it into a bank on a hand truck. It had to be heavy.

I filled a 5 gallon water bottle with coins once. It took a few years. I almost couldn't tip it over to empty it. No way could I pick it up and I was not that little at 6'1" and 220# of badger fighting fitness.

Cheers!

 

[mh]

I use my credit card for everything these days - even $1.50 type purchases it takes me years to get enough change to take to the grocery store change machine


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[KmmFIdreamer]

We have gotten so good playing the credit card points game that we rarely have any coins. What we do have goes in a jar and then to the bank which still offers counting for free.

+1

I just use my credit cards for pretty much everything I buy. When I do collect a few coins I put them in a little pouch in my travel bag to use for vending machines, toll roads, coin laundry, etc. If the pouch gets too full then I use the self checkout at the grocery for a small item or two and just feed them into that.

 

[JustCurious]

I keep change in the armrest of my car. Use it for the car wash, or give exact change when we go fast fooding.

This is what I do as well. Most of my transactions are done with a credit card, but I do like to use cash ocassionally, especially for smaller purchases below $10...I really do not like to use a credit card to buy something that is $3.79...I don't want too many transactions to track on my statement at the end of the month.

Another thing I do is selectively use cash depending on how much coins I will get as change...for example, if the total purchase is $10.13, I will not use cash because I do not want to get .87 cents change...but if it is $10.92, then I will use cash because I don't mind getting .8 cents change, I just throw it into the cupholder in the center of my car console...by following this practice it takes a lot longer for the change to build up. I also spend it down by using exact change at drive throughs...or I sometimes put some change in my pocket when I go inside a store or a fast food or fast casual restaurant and pay with exact change. By doing these things I generally keep the amount of loose change at a minimum.

 

[scrabbler1]

This is what I do as well. Most of my transactions are done with a credit card, but I do like to use cash ocassionally, especially for smaller purchases below $10...I really do not like to use a credit card to buy something that is $3.79...I don't want too many transactions to track on my statement at the end of the month.

Another thing I do is selectively use cash depending on how much coins I will get as change...for example, if the total purchase is $10.13, I will not use cash because I do not want to get .87 cents change...but if it is $10.92, then I will use cash because I don't mind getting .8 cents change, I just throw it into the cupholder in the center of my car console...by following this practice it takes a lot longer for the change to build up. I also spend it down by using exact change at drive throughs...or I sometimes put some change in my pocket when I go inside a store or a fast food or fast casual restaurant and pay with exact change. By doing these things I generally keep the amount of loose change at a minimum.

I like it when the amount due in a small cash transaction is a small amount over a whole dollar amount. If it is $10.13, for example, I can quickly and easily get rid of 13 cents in small coins, usually pennies and nickels. This means I can get rid of 2 nickels and 3 pennies, making a dent in my small coin holdings. Anything under 30 cents I can count out quickly while being able to get rid of lots of pennies, nickels, and dimes.

 

[sengsational]

+1 Amazon credit with Coinstar.

I've noticed that not all Coinstar machines give Amazon credits, though their web site has an easy search to find which machines give which credits. There is also apparently a minimum, as I took in a handful of change and got no Amazon credit and was clipped a percentage on what I got from the cashier when I redeemed the slip.

My local wally world issues no fees store credit.

I have a problem with my 5 gallon penny only jug...I've been using it since the early 80s and I know there are collectable pennies that are twice face value

 

[JustCurious]

I like it when the amount due in a small cash transaction is a small amount over a whole dollar amount. If it is $10.13, for example, I can quickly and easily get rid of 13 cents in small coins, usually pennies and nickels. This means I can get rid of 2 nickels and 3 pennies, making a dent in my small coin holdings. Anything under 30 cents I can count out quickly while being able to get rid of lots of pennies, nickels, and dimes.

That's true except that I do not usually carry coins on my person..it bothers me to have coins rattling around in my pockets...I keep them in the cupholder in my car, so typically I do not have coins to give to the cashier. Sometimes I do, like going through a drive through, or ocassionally when I bring extra change from the car inside of a store or restaurant for the purpose of getting rid of them, so I guess I should have been more precise in saying that I selectively use cash in those cases when I do not have change on me...if I do have change, then of course I will use it.

 

[JustCurious]

My local wally world issues no fees store credit.

Thank you for this tip, I was not aware of that. Can you tell me how it works? Do you get a receipt and then you present the receipt to the cashier at checkout?

 

[Walt34]

I have a problem with my 5 gallon penny only jug...I've been using it since the early 80s and I know there are collectable pennies that are twice face value

I have sort of the same issue, I have a glass piggy bank with "People's Drug Store" (east coast folks will remember the chain) molded into it that has pennies from the 1960's and early '70's in it. On anther thread someone suggested putting it up for action on Ebay. Shipping would be high as I think it weighs ten pounds.

If not full I could shake the bank and get coins to come out but now it is stuffed full and there is no wiggle room left for the coins to move so the only way to get to them is break the bank.

 

[Dog]

Audrey, unfortunately the Coinstar machine I used didn't offer any option other then cash after they took their cut :-/


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[audreyh1]

Audrey, unfortunately the Coinstar machine I used didn't offer any option other then cash after they took their cut :-/


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Dang - too bad!

 

[braumeister]

Quarters are the only useful coin so they go into the car for parking meters.

Many parking meters also like dollar coins. I keep a handful in the car for that purpose.


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[Taxman59]

I collected the coins and when my sons were born I rolled them and took them to the bank to open an account for them. It was about $200 each. Now, I just keep the $$ for DW and me!!

DW had an uncle who died about 4 years ago. He had upwards of 50 jars of coins (mostly pennies) in size, ranging from mayo jars to 5 gallon jugs. I went through them expecting them to be from the 40's to present, meaning there would be some valuable coins. I got 72 wheat pennies and 3 silver coins after 4 hours of looking at coins . I took the coins to the coinstar machine and got about $100 of "silver" coins, and the final total on the pennies was 38500 coins!! The total take after the machine took its cut was about $445.

 

[bclover]

Coinstar if available. Not all of the grocery stores in my neighborhood have them. If not I just roll while I watch Frankie and Grace.

 

[Sue J]

I have sort of the same issue, I have a glass piggy bank with "People's Drug Store" (east coast folks will remember the chain) molded into it that has pennies from the 1960's and early '70's in it. On anther thread someone suggested putting it up for action on Ebay. Shipping would be high as I think it weighs ten pounds.

If not full I could shake the bank and get coins to come out but now it is stuffed full and there is no wiggle room left for the coins to move so the only way to get to them is break the bank.

Put a thin knife blade into the slot and invert the bank and shake a little. The knife blade will allow the coins to align vertically and you should be able to get a few to slide out. Once it's not so packed full this technique works even better. Just be careful not to chip the lip of the slot.

Don't ask me where I learned this!

 

[Lakedog]

Rarely have any coins to deal with since I use credit cards for most everything. The few coins I do collect end up in the coin tray in my vehicle to be used for tolls, parking, vending, etc.

 

[SJ1_]

Ugh since TD took the penny arcades away, what are you doing with your change? I have no patience to roll!!

for yrs. I put the change in a jar then another jar etc.

we moved last April and the coins were real heavy.

Now I roll them up every so often and bring to the bank

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

Coins go into a jar.
The missus rolls them if it starts to overflow.
I might grab and leave a handful in the missus' car for parking.
I rarely shop at Safeway but occasionally make a specific visit for some of their unique items I like. At their self serve check out, the machine takes coins and I'll dump bunch in it.
In the past, I used to bring the jar over to my sisters' homes and hand it over to my nieces and nephews. They're more into the bills now.

 

[calmloki]

Just took a close to full bank bag to the local bank - $277, mostly in change from our apartment laundry machines. Think I've managed $300 in all quarters in a stuffed bank bag. Happily, they stick the coins in their counter for us..

Down south we save quarters and dimes/nickles for drinking water machines and yard sales, but count me among the hates to carry change crowd.

 

[ABQ2015]

Unfortunately, I'm fond of the office vending machine and will buy chips a few times a week. At businesses where they have the bowl with the pennies on the counter, I get rid of my extras. Other businesses have jars for charitable donations. I seem to accumulate the most change when I'm on travel as I usually use a credit card when shopping in town. If it's a long trip, I may have to do laundry at the hotel and use coins for the machines.