Do you keep a change jar?

[greenmom4]

We have a bucket we've been throwing change and the odd dollar bill in for awhile now. It's not really meant for anything in particular, and I'm not really sure what to do with it.

What do you do with your change jars? Do you empty them at certain intervals? What do you use that money for? Are we stupid to be keeping one at all?

[HappilyEvrAfter]

Originally Posted by greenmom4

Are we stupid to be keeping one at all?

Not at all!!!

We have one for quarters and one for the rest of the change.

We haul it down to the coin machine when it gets full. It gets used for different things at different times.

The quarters are separated because DS wants to go to Chuck E. Cheese so I made him a deal: We save our quarters and when it's full then we'll go.
It keeps me from being begged for quarters for those little trinket machines, prolongs the time until the trip and makes sure we don't overspend once there.

Anyway...that's probably more than you wanted to know.

[Tilia]

Yep, I keep one on my dresser. I just cashed it in a month ago and it was $64! I think I spent it on new gloves and other stuff to get ready for winter.

[Denvergirlie]

We rarely use cash, so our change jar grows slowly, but we certainly have one.

We roll our change, it's something fun to do and cash it in every few years for a larger purchase. Right now I think we have close to $200, and it was last cashed in August 2008.

We've used our money for different things... bought snowshoes for me once, so now we both have a pair. Joined the rec center and paid for a years worth of dues for a year for the both of us. I think we also cashed it in once to help pay for some flight tickets to go "home" for the holidays.

Since ours grows so slowly, we have lots of time to discuss what to use it on. Not certain what we will use it for this time, but it will be a team decision when we do cash it in.

[JamieCatheryn]

We put whatever change we have in a smallish jar. But we pull out all the quarters sometimes for parking, vending machines, or cheap babysitting.

[seraf]

We keep a change jar. It started as the kids (4 and 6) saving pennies and nickles they got for doning chores and change they find around the house. That money was originally for movie nights. When they got enough, we took a trip to the move theater (tickets are $4 here). They decided they'd rather save for a trip to Hawaii, so we have a gallon size apple juice jar that gets spare change. It's about an inch deep and has more than $20 in it. They've been collecting for a couple of months now and I add my spare change at the end of the day (I rarely use cash).

[sunanthem]

OH yes, we do. We only use cash, so we always have change. It seems to wind up all over the house, so when the kids find a coin, they love to pick it up and add it to our jar. We use it when we need something and are out of $, or for bus tickets or something.

[seashells]

Whenever we have about 20 bucks (this isn't scientific, just seems to be around $17 actually when it seems impressive enough) we roll it up and deposit it and send it to our car payment. It's not much but it helps. (We generally throw extra money to that payment anyway, and usually it's more than the change, but the change is just part of the extra we can throw at it). I think it usually takes a few months to get that much for us, and it includes dollar bills too.

[kdmama33]

Yep, sure do. Change doesn't accumulate quickly in it, as I empty it pretty regularly, but I have one. Last time I emptied it there was $30 in there, which bought us some groceries when we were completely broke.

[Lynn08]

We have one for silver change and one for pennies. Tho I have no idea why we keep them in the bedroom since the only thing we do in there is sleep. There are piles of coins all over the house - pretty much wherever dh decides to empty his pockets.

We never empty the jars - we'll count out a set amount for a specific purchase/bill/etc. But for the most part we don't even think about them.

[Carson]

No - while we use cash for some things, we don't accumulate a lot of change. My 'change jar' is my grocery bag and I try to use the coins when possible.

We used to save quarters for parking meters, but now the meters are so high they accept credit cards so we don't need them.

[lucyem]

We have a change bucket and periodically bring it to the change machine at the food store. I normally use it to get a gift certificate for use somewhere.

[Tammy in Germany]

We have a pig that were filling with change and euro to cash in before Dad comes home on R&R in January.

[HappilyEvrAfter]

Originally Posted by Tammy in Germany

We have a pig that were filling with change and euro to cash in before Dad comes home on R&R in January.

I bet you can't wait till January!!

When we left Germany we had over $700 in our change jar because of those 1 euro coins...those went in too!! Lol.

[loitering]

I have a small jar, and use the money when it fills, but I don't dedicate a purpose for it. I don't use cash often, but ocassionally I'll have my wallet nearby and empty all but a few coins into it.

[Hedgehog Mtn]

Yup. At DHs work they closed the cafeteria due to funding so all he has all night besides what I send with him is the vending machines. They give $1 coins for change and often he uses a 20 from the ATM so the change jars build up fast around here.

We make a point to empty car ashtrays, pockets, purses etc into the jar and try hard not to rob it LOL.

We take them in once every year - 2 years....for the "omg we have NO money for the mortgage this month LOL" when DH took leave for the birth of baby #4. In past years we've funded family road trips from them.

My hope is that someday we get to the point where we can cash it in and put it directly into a CD or something.

[nd_deadhead]

We definitely use a change jar (ice cream pail, actually, because it's easy to dump out), though we dont' use cash often so it tends to fill slowly.

Years ago, our kids' elementary school had a "nickels for New York" campaign after 9/11, and we dumped the contents of our change bucket (even though it wasn't just nickels). Since then we have used the contents of the change jar for charitable giving, when a meaningful event comes up. I think the next one after Nickels was a fundraiser at church for a family with a sick child - and we had over $200 to donate (which was matched by a local business - bonus!). We might accumulate for a couple of years before the right fundraiser comes along.

[frugalmama]

we keep one, but it normally gets emptied at the end of each month when we're tight on funds. I use it for bus fare too.

[Ianthe]

Yup! We use it in case of emergency- like no money left at all. That hasn't happened in a little while, luckily. I've known people to save their change for their kids' college fund.. about $1000 a year for them. We don't use cash enough to save that much.. We probably have $20 in change. I keep a small jar next to the washing machine for all the change that ends up in the laundry.

[enkmom]

I have a pretty bank that sits on my kitchen windowsill and my husband and I put ALL our change in it. We raid it for the car wash and when our comforter needs to go to the laundromat, but otherwise no touching! We empty it in early December. We used to use it for our Christmas tree, cards & stamps, etc. but now we cash it in at a coinstar machine and get the Amazon gift card. We use it to buy Christmas gifts we can't buy locally.