The epitomy of frugality and saving loose change

[its_our_family]

Can you imagine??

FRANKFORT, Ind. — Paul Brant considers himself a penny pincher, but his savings in quarters and dollar coins really paid off.

Brant, 70, used more than $25,000 in change to help buy a new Dodge Ram half-ton pickup truck Friday — 13 years after buying another truck with spare change.

"(The old truck) didn't have four-wheel drive, and living in the country, I figured I better get a new one to help get me through the snow," he said.

Brant said he was raised to be thrifty. His father always paid in cash and saved up loose change to take vacations.

Brant has been storing his change for years, and estimated he had about $26,000 in coins for Friday's purchase. In 1994, he bought a Dodge pickup and a Dodge Neon using about $36,000 in quarters.

"As long as you don't put your hands back in the till, it really adds up," he said.

Brant stored his change in coffee cans, water jugs and piggy banks over the years, and was escorted by sheriff's deputies as he brought the rolled coins to the dealership.


A Mike Raisor Chrysler Dodge and Jeep employee who sold Brant the truck said the dealership called in an armored car to count and handle the coins.

"No bank wants to take them," Keith Gephart said.

[normajean]

Yikes! But how much sooner would he have been able to upgrade his truck if he'd been putting it in an account to earn interest on!

[koofie]

Originally Posted by normajean

Yikes! But how much sooner would he have been able to upgrade his truck if he'd been putting it in an account to earn interest on!

ROFLMAO

only in THIS forum...

[ReikiMommy07]

Oh! My! WORD! Wow! Nothing more to say...!!!

[flminivanmama]

i read that story to my kids this morning from the paper.

[ReikiMommy07]

Originally Posted by normajean

Yikes! But how much sooner would he have been able to upgrade his truck if he'd been putting it in an account to earn interest on!

:!

[bwylde]

Originally Posted by normajean

Yikes! But how much sooner would he have been able to upgrade his truck if he'd been putting it in an account to earn interest on!

lol, that was my first thought too!

[velochic]

We actually do this for dd. We have been doing it for about 5 years now and she has about $2000. She'd probably have more except that I used it to buy her her first mutal fund and the markets have been doing poorly. We plan to let her have it when she graduates from high school to do whatever she wants the summer before going off to college.

It's a great way to save money!

[Poddi]

It's a bit hard to do if you don't use cash, though. I only have cash in my wallet occasionally. The amount this guy saved means over $5 in loose change everyday. If he's in US and that's all quarters that's like 21 quarters a day. How much shopping does he need to do to get that much loose change? My dad never use coins so my mom "harvest" them when doing laundry. She only gets a couple dollars each week on average in loose change.

[treehuggermama]

I keep a change bank in our kitchen and we do the same thing and throw all loose change in it. Each time I have gone to the bank to empty it (they have one of those free machines that counts it all too!) there has been at least $30 there. It almost feels like we are getting free money!

[Amys1st]

Originally Posted by bwylde

lol, that was my first thought too!

Mine too!

26K over 10 years.....hmnnn

We also keep loose change but it usually dosent add up more than about $20.

[Ruthla]

I can't afford to store that much change!

I keep extra change in my wallet, and I pay for stuff with it. You know, the total comes to $XX.57 so I dig up the 57 cents instead of spending another dollar bill. Rarely I might use change to pay for up to $3 of things at a time- such as library fines, or to top off the cash at the grocery store if things are REALLY getting tight.

$35 worth of "spare" change each week? : That much money goes towards necessities in my house!

[Leilalu]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

I can't afford to store that much change!

I keep extra change in my wallet, and I pay for stuff with it. You know, the total comes to $XX.57 so I dig up the 57 cents instead of spending another dollar bill. Rarely I might use change to pay for up to $3 of things at a time- such as library fines, or to top off the cash at the grocery store if things are REALLY getting tight.

$35 worth of "spare" change each week? : That much money goes towards necessities in my house!

me too. I find the payoff of paying with debit , or my 5% back credit card to be very money saving at the moment. I had an incident last year where someone got my credit info and tried to buy $900 worth of stuff at a Walmart in Florida. I got it all back, I have a great bank. It is not the first credit fraud we have had to deal with. I am just scared that with cash, I would never get that money back if it was stolen or lost.

But I could def see the payoff in
pulling out around $20 a week for my kids and putting it in a savings account.

[Jadzia]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

I keep extra change in my wallet, and I pay for stuff with it. You know, the total comes to $XX.57 so I dig up the 57 cents instead of spending another dollar bill.

Me too! I always use my change, so I never have any "spare". I figure I save money that way by actually using it instead of bills.

[mamamilkers]

Originally Posted by Poddi

It's a bit hard to do if you don't use cash, though. I only have cash in my wallet occasionally. The amount this guy saved means over $5 in loose change everyday. If he's in US and that's all quarters that's like 21 quarters a day. How much shopping does he need to do to get that much loose change? My dad never use coins so my mom "harvest" them when doing laundry. She only gets a couple dollars each week on average in loose change.

Interesting point! That IS alot of change!

We collect change in a small piggy bank for our DDs, but when it gets full it gets cashed in and put in to savings. Pretty soon there will be enough in savings to put it in to a better fund.

[Purple*Lotus]

When I was working 3 jobs to put myself through college, one job was at a little convience store. One of my regulars used to let me keep the change and he would say "Add it to your college fund." It caught on with the other people in line when he would be there, and by the end of the month I had over $200 in change and small bills that my customers gave me. Which was almost to the penny what I needed to make up for next semester Of course almost all of my customers were regulars so they knew me well enough to want to help me, but I was very touched by it. So I totally heart loose change