loose change

[peter_jensen]

I have some loose change... maybe a few years of it. The bag I'm using is a leftover Tyvek USPS mailer, and while the strength of the envelope is a tribute to the material, I think it's getting a bit unmanagable at almost 25 lbs. Thus, I have decided to trade this loose change in for some real money before I hurt my back or the bag bursts

Comments

[sally_unraveled]

Two things to consider:

-Your bank may count and deposit the money for you free of charge (Depends on the bank.)

-According to coinstar.com:
"Coin counting is free in select regions of the U.S. if you convert your change to a nationally-branded gift card or eCertificate such as Starbucks®, Borders®, iTunes, Pier1 Imports® or Amazon.com®."
(If you are feeling generous, I think you can also donate your change to charity.)

I tend to use my change as I go along. I probably would have more in savings if I didn't.

Of course, my family is obsessed with change, especially finding it on the street. When I was little, I remember emptying Poncho Pig, counting the money, and depositing it into my college fund. Of course, we took it to the bank in bucket, where it was counted by their machine. I don't know why we counted it. I think it was some kind of math lesson for me.

[peter_jensen]

My bank almost certainly wouldn't do that for me, but it might be worth asking. It's worth some amount of effort to not spend some time there, though.

The free gift certificates are actually a good idea -- at least you buy just about anything on Amazon.com. It does appear that there are several coinstar machines near me which support that feature. I need to read the agreement to see whether it's really no strings attached, though.

The one reason I might not use a Coinstar machine is that I have a lot of foreign change interspersed with my normal money, and I'd like to keep that or exchange it for future trips.

I still pick up change off the street. Unless it's a social situation where it would be out of place (or a single penny), it's better than I'm doing at work.

-Peter

[sally_unraveled]

I think coinstar spits out coins that don't "fit" although I know canadian pennies are the same size as American.

Oh come on, those single pennies ad up!

I also don't believe in take a penny, leave a penny. I'll leave a tip or help out a cause, but I won't leave a penny just because I'm too lazy to take it with me.