Time for Change

Everyone is familiar with the idea of keeping some sort of money jar to deposit all of your coins in at the end of the day. It's been a long-standing way to save-a-little. But is it really that little?

Many folks view loose change as merely a tool to help them keep from breaking the more valuable bills in their wallets. If this is the case with you, it may surprise you to know how much change you've handled. Statistically the average person has acquired $800 in spare change over the course of a year!

We experienced our first money jar windfall "by accident." Our children had received a Christmas goody package inside what turned out to be a very large football bank. Immediately, they became enamored with filling it up. Every night, they would ask us for our loose change. And every night, we gave it to them. After all, it was just change. About 5 months into their coin savings, they couldn't wait to count it. Imagine everyone's surprise when it turned out to be just over $400!

A small inconvenience of the coin jar, is what to do with the saved coins. Banks and other enterprises have figured out that they can charge you for taking your change. My bank charges a fee for counting loose coins, but there is no charge if I roll the coins myself. My local grocery store has a coin-counting machine that charges a whopping 10% of your total!

Because of this very thing, I've recently seen several articles suggesting a change from the coin jar to the dollar jar. In this scenario, you wouldn't spend any $1 bills you receive, but save them in the jar instead. That means all purchases would have to be made with coins or large bills ($5, $10, or $20 dollar bills). While the idea is to bypass the hassle and potential expense of "cashing in" your coin jar, I personally think I would be more tempted to dip into the jar when I needed a few dollars on my way out the door. While the coins are certainly legal tender, I'd be less likely to count out a quick $5.00 for gas in pennies, nickels, and dimes.

Regardless of the jar savings method you choose, it will still be worth it in the long run.A mere $2.00 a day in change, and you will have saved $730.00 in the first year. At an average of $3.00 a day, you'll have over $1000.00 at the end of the year. It's do-able for all of us.