Change can be more than you think
Don’t confuse “change” with the “act of changing”… I am talking about those coins you get whenever you pay cash for something that then end up in your change drawer, never to be seen again. Change can pretty influential, especially in crunch time or when you looking for that extra dollar to throw at a credit card payment.
Recently, my little change drawer on my desk has been beginning to overflow, so over the weekend, my wife and I decided to gather up all of our change and go to one of the Coinstar machines in the local grocery store. Few minutes later, we walked out with $57 in hand that had previously been sitting around un noticed.
I hate change because it always gathers in my pockets, clanking around and making my pockets bulkier. Right when I get home, I always empty it onto my change drawer or throw it in the ash tray in my car, not to think about it again. I like paying with debit/credit because then I don’t have to deal with any change. I just take the receipt and throw it into my wallet until I get home and enter it in on the computer. Nice, easy, and light weight.
But the reality is change accumulates, and after a while, it can be a pretty decent amount. There have been times when I’d have $100+ sitting there, passing it every day, not even knowing it.
If you come upon a tight month and need to squeeze out a couple more dollars to help you through it, cash in your change! If it has been awhile, it could easily be enough to help you through the pinch. Or if you are trying to pay some debts of fast, cash it in and add the money in with your payment!
For us, it was mainly so I could clean up my home office some (clutter free office = happier me) and the money we got out of it will be tacked on with our next payment on my Dell Financial Services account (decided to knock off that sucker early).
Coinstar does charge a fairly hefty 8.9% fee, which for us came to about 5%. For some, the convenience of the automatic counting/instant payment could be worth it. If you want as much as you can, then just go get some coin rolls and take them to your local bank branch! I know some banks have a limit on how much you can bring in at a time, so you might want to check in advance. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind $50 in quarters, but $20 in pennies might not be to their liking. Sometimes, shipping the smaller coins (that collectively weigh more) can be more costly.
