5gallon Water Bottle Filled With Change

[momof2mouses]

DDs AND I ARE COLLECTING CHANGE IN A 5 GALLON WATER BOTTLE FOR OUR WDW TRIP IN DEC. ANY OF YOU EVER DONE THIS? IF SO, HOW MUCH $ DID YOU HAVE? I KNOW IT DEPENDS ON HOW MANY OF CERTAIN COINS ARE IN THERE, JUST CURIOUS IF ANYONE HAS DONE IT.

 

[Seahunt]

Coinstar (the coin counting machines in certain groceries,etc.) says the average 1 gallon container = $228.34, so 5 gallons x $228.34 - you might have $1141.70! WooHoo! Hope you do!

http://www.coinstar.com/us/html/a-home

 

[Cheshire Figment]

If you do this I would suggest having a talk with your bank branch manager. Many banks have bulk counters in the back, especially in larger offices. If you ask nicely they may do the counting for you and credit it directly to your account. The CoinStar machines take about an 8% commission, which would be about a $91 fee.

 

[dixipixi]

We save our change every year for vacation. We have had as much as $2,600!!! We also save as many $1 and $5 bills as we can. We actually financed our first family trip to Orlando completely with the spare change we collected ($3,200...we saved for 2 years).

My FIL is the only person I've ever known to completely fill a 5 gallon bottle. I counted and wrapped it and he had over $5,000!!!! But he had a lot of $20 bills and even a few $100's. His change was also mostly quarters and dimes.
It also took him a few years to fill the bottle up.

Good Luck to you!!! You'll be surprised how quickly that spare change adds up!!!

 

[PaulaSue]

Do you have a Commerence Bank locally? They count for free. No rolling or anything just dump it in the counter and walk out with your cash.

 

[Kimmumum]

Good luck If you bank at Harris Bank they will count it for free. They do not want you to bring in the 5 gallon jug all at one time. Last year we made a few trips with a couple of gallon size ziplock bags per trip. They really don't want you to roll it either because they just unroll it to count it anyway. We saved about $700 in one year just from spare change.

 

[BlakeNJ]

Valley National Bank has a counting machine that will not charge you. You do not have to have an account with them. I did this for out trip in Nov. I also read a post where the family never paid with change -- only used bills so when they got change from a purchase, it went staight into their change bucket. I have started the same thing and you save so much faster! Also, Bank of America has a new program--"Keep the Change". Same idea as above but they will match the change for the first 3 months.

 

[mantaz]

The dogs' water bowl came with one of those jugs. They wouldn't drink out of because it made the gulp noise as they tried to drink. So I took it upstairs and put quarters in it. It's almost half full now. I can't wait to see how much it holds. I separate all the change before it goes into a bank. The pennies have their own bank and the nickles and dimes share. It makes it a little easier to count when the time comes.

Good Luck to everyone saving for disney!!

Angela

 

[WaltD4Me]

Funny you should ask...I was just looking at my 5 gallon jug trying to estimate what's in there!

I started my jug in October....it has a LONG way to go before it's full, but my trip's in May, I'm thinking about $400 to $500 will come out of the jug.

First, it is just me saving...no DH's with $100 bills!

I only put in silver change. Quarters, nickels, dimes. No pennies. -- I'm saving those for the penny presses!

Whenever I go to a store and pay cash anywhere, I never pay with any change, only bills. So if my total is $4.22, I pay with a $5 and keep the change for the jar. (Actually I pay with $5.02 so I get 80 cents back for the jar) Doesn't matter if the total is $9.02, I pay with bills and the 90 cents goes in the jar.

I wasn't putting any bills in the jar in the beginning, but now when I get home if I have a couple singles in my wallet I throw them in and an occasional $5.
I don't put anything bigger than a $5 in, if I have more than that "extra" I buy Disney dollars at the DS and throw those in.

Believe me it adds up quick! I just throw the change in the bottom of my purse and one day I cleaned it out and there was $23 in there!

Once you get into the swing of it, it's fun and becomes a habit. -- I was at Arby's the other day and
the total was $4.31. I only had $4 in bills and even though I knew I had the 31 cents in my purse, I told the cashier to take off my curly fries and just got
the sandwhich so I wouldn't have to use any of my change! So I saved money and calories!

 

[momof2mouses]

Wow!!! Never expected so many people do this.

So glad to see so many responses. Thanks!!!!

 

[mum of two pirates]

I am one of those people who pay only with bills. I have a Jack Dan. square bottle (not sure what size you call it becouse I don't drink) I have filled it up with only quarters already and when I counted them, there was over $300. Dh got tired of counting his gallon paint can, when he got to $200. plus I have a huge I mean the big jug of tide bottle about an inch from the top with pennies plus my bottle of dimes, and nickles. We should have a bunch of money when we go. We are lucky we have a casino about 20 min from here and I am going to take it there and turn it in at no cost to me, without DH or he would come out with nothing.

 

[Sandcass]

Ya'll got me excited! I just started doing this after our trip in October. In about 4 months I have about 1/2 a gallon full of change and bills. I would LOVE to surprise DH with enough for airfare to Orlando. We have days left on our hoppers, and own a timeshare we can trade for lodging. Sooooo....my spare change just might get us there!

DH never puts anything in the jar. I think DS & DD do tho. And I sneak a $20 every once in while.

Ok, Mickey! We're on our way!

 

[Nolcrest]

Just last week I took a container of "change" to a coinstar machine. This was purely coin I either found in my dryer or when my wallet got too heavy w/coin. I was shocked that I ended up with 91.00. I placed that money right into my ING account.

 

[msdznyduck]

I had been saving pennies in a large square can (4 bottles of Bolla wine came in it years ago) and had it about 3/4 full when we went to Disney in 2002 (last visit ). DD and I took most of it to Commerce Bank and dumped it in their "Penny Arcade" and came out with about $380. Nice bonus for Disney. After we got back, I started again, only this time with ALL my change. I have a small container on my dresser, and when that gets full, it gets dumped in. Occasionally I will throw in $1 bills if I get too many in my change purse, but they usually end up as lunch money. But not the change.

Mantaz....good idea about separating them. Someday when I have nothing to do I'll do just that. Makes it easier to see how much you have accumulating. Maybe I'll give that job to DD. She can't wait to go back to Disney, (me too, of course)

 

[just.me]

we have one over 3/4 full NOW and mostly quarters since we have tenants who use coin op laundry in one of our apartment buildings! DH just started dumping the quarters in there! lol

I have NO IDEA the $ amount -

but we were suppose to use the coins when it was half full for last Arpils trip and I started rolling some because I think it is fun - and I took out $400 without a dent in the jar! DH made me stop - he would rather pay and see it get filled -

we can't even MOVE the jar!

 

[my3kids]

I have never had a bank not count the money for free. I've used several different ones here and they were always more than happy to count it and never charged a penny. For that much change don't pay a Coinstar machine that much of a commission. I don't know how much is in there, but I bet a lot!

 

[TomD]

We bought one of those real big Crayloa Crayons for the kids. We put all of our spare change in it.

We have filled it once with all coins and when cashed in had just about $700. It is 3/4ths filled right now and the kids want to cash it in for their May trip.

 

[Helene]

We just emptied ours this past week. It was @ 1/4 full with some bills. Total=$761

We began addding to it again after we came back from our Disney Cruise in October so it was @ 3 months worth of saving. Our average is $2500/yr saving this way. It's the way we finance our vacations.

Helene

 

[RweTHEREyet]

I agree about not using Coinstar. I do not understand why anyone would let the machine keep 8% of what they have worked so hard to save. I wouldn't even want to give them enough that would keep me from getting a Mickey bar.


My credit union has a machine in their lobby and I can walk in and just dump the coins in and it counts it for me. I haven't been a member there long though, and before that I counted and rolled it myself.

 

[stahshee]

I have a piggy bank half way filled with change( no pennys ) and I had 25 dollars in a month!