Change Jar!!!

[maggiew]

I was just looking at ours and wondering how much was in there.. hmmm.

My jar was a quart size mason (canning) jar. It had $86.32. It was filled near the top by not exploding out. That should give you some estimate.

Maggie

 

[marius97]

I am so going to hate rolling the change though as my bank contracts the coin machine with coin star and charges 4.5% ti use it. No way are we paying to change our coins in.

You're lucky...coin star is at our grocery store, but they charge like 8%. Luckily, our bank doesn't charge for the service...don't even have to roll them.

 

[mzlee]

My DH and DS call me the change bandit because everytime they leave change laying around I scoop it up and throw it in the jug. I actually have two one gallon jugs and one is full and the other is over half full. I cleaned out my purse the other day and had over $8 in change at the bottom. We still have three weeks to go before we leave and my husband thinks I only have around $250-$300 but I'm quite sure it will be double that when I cash it in.

 

[Leajess99]

You're lucky...coin star is at our grocery store, but they charge like 8%. Luckily, our bank doesn't charge for the service...don't even have to roll them.

Oh we have them at the grocery stores as well that charge the 8% but the bank just went to the coinstar machine for some reason. They used to have a coin machine but got rid of it and chose to go with coinstar. I hate the rolling of the change but so not giving anyone money to turn in the change.

 

[Dismom55]

We have one of the 5 gal water cooler bottles that we put a stopper in the top and then I decorated it with Disney stickers. We also put in $1 bills. After awhile it gets so heavy a tornado would not budge it. I recently emptied it and just in coin had over $100. I went ahead and rolled the coin and will take that to the bank to get folding cash before we leave in September. This was a short save, I imagine I could really have a lot had we started using the bottle again sooner. We had enough in $1 to do all our tips for Mousekeeping and our ADR's

Basically anything that gets put in now will be for the next Disney trip, lots of saving time for that one.

 

[MonkersMama]

We have the same as Dismom above us. 5 gal water jug covered in Disney stickers. I love that it's so difficult to take money out of it! We started saving our change immediately after our last trip (Nov 07) so I'm interested to see what we have in there for next month!

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

That is great OP. We are filling our popcorn buckets from the last trip. I did a rough estimate on the popcorn buckets. They each hold, roughly, $300.00 in change.

 

[kat_balou]

Way to go!! Have fun on your trip!!!

 

[SandrA9810]

My first savings account as a kid was opened with 50$ in change... mostly pennies. All hand rolled. The lady at the bank looked a little scared when I came walking in with a tin container that I could barely lift. I always asked my g'parents for thier pennies and I never leave a penny on the ground.
I now use a 5gal jug as well. And it's fairly heavy, probably about 35-40 lbs because it's about as heavy as my dog. It's not fun moving and lugging that thing around. I also toss in a lot of bills like Grumpy does. But I can't just take it to a change machine, nor would I spend the money on it, because I've dumped a lot of really old change like wheat pennies and drummer boy quarters. I never trade those in.

 

[Jakesmom1]

I too have a 5 gallon water bottle, every couple of months my DS and I empty it and count it, my DH just shakes his head.

Last count we had about $300, a couple of more weeks and we will be cashing it in for Disney also

Easiest way ever to save. But no ones change is safe, on laundry day, if its in your clothes it goes in the jug.

 

[mzlee]

We have one of the 5 gal water cooler bottles that we put a stopper in the top and then I decorated it with Disney stickers. We also put in $1 bills. After awhile it gets so heavy a tornado would not budge it. I recently emptied it and just in coin had over $100. I went ahead and rolled the coin and will take that to the bank to get folding cash before we leave in September. This was a short save, I imagine I could really have a lot had we started using the bottle again sooner. We had enough in $1 to do all our tips for Mousekeeping and our ADR's

Basically anything that gets put in now will be for the next Disney trip, lots of saving time for that one.

The 5 gallon bottle is a good idea for a long term save. I'll have to ask my dad if he has an old one he's not using. I've only been saving since February using the gallon containers. The one that's full weighs 31 lbs. and the other one weighs 16 lbs. I hope my bank doesn't give me any static about them being too heavy, I still have 3 weeks before departure.

 

[kckmom]

Way to go everyone! We started with a large plastic champagne bottle like you would see in a liquor store display! We haven't emptied it for a very long time, but plan on taking it to the bank in about a month.

My dds each have a 'spending' piggy bank and we are taking them to the bank as well, and each girl gets a portion of that to spend on our trip.

BTW, if anyone has a TD Bank near them, here is a link for a summer reading program they are doing. As far as I know, kids read 10 books and fill out a form, and they get $10 deposited into a child's savings account. While that might be a pain to open another account at a new bank, I know that almost all the TD banks have a coin counter, and it is FREE for bank customers.

http://www.tdbank.com/summerreading/

Happy saving!

 

[AngelBabyJana]

I too have a 5 gallon water bottle, every couple of months my DS and I empty it and count it, my DH just shakes his head.

Last count we had about $300, a couple of more weeks and we will be cashing it in for Disney also

Easiest way ever to save. But no ones change is safe, on laundry day, if its in your clothes it goes in the jug.

Same here, we use the 5 gallon water bottle as well, decorated with Disney stickers of course.

I had to laugh when you said nobody's change was safe. I am always confiscating everyone's loose change from their pockets. Every time my hubby empty's his pockets he says "I know, I know, it goes in the Disney jar" and then he rolls his eyes. Now he does it without even thinking. The kids love putting their change in there as well.

We plan to turn our change into Disney dollars, and give it to the kids as spending money.

Grumpy'sWife4Ever, I just have to say, I LOVE your change box!

 

[badblackpug]

Last year we had $387 (and a septa token) in ours! I love the change jar. The absolutely most painless way to save spending money!

 

[anewmac]

I was just thinking we need to do this soon for our upcoming trip. Our change has moved into 4 plastic shoe boxes that the boys deceided to seperate all the different coins into. I have been saving $20 a paycheck for a while along with some garage sale money and putting it into this

it says disney cruise, but well its going for the WDW this year LOL

 

[mom_2_K'Lynn]

We too have a coin counter, nothing too big. We have taught our 5 year old daughter that any money she finds is hers to put in there and keep!! Well, we never expected her to be so persistant as we already had to cash it in (there was $207) and it over half full again with 52 days to go!! She is so excited that she can pretty much buy whatever she wants!!!! Its amazing when you put strings attached to saving, how well and determined little kids can be!!! I am guessing that with her disney dollars and gift cards combined she will have $400 to $450. She really is excited to be able to buy her cousins some gifts right from her and only her!!!

 

[shortbun]

Boo Hoo, my change jar was a plastic penny candy barrel and it's got a big old hole in it. I'm throwing it away. Gotta find something to replace it. Where do I look?

 

[Grumpy'sWife4Ever]

That is a nice box Val!!!!!!!!

.

Grumpy'sWife4Ever, I just have to say, I LOVE your change box!

Thanks! Since I am using it to save again for our next trip in (sigh) 3 years I am finally getting around to decorating it....Mickey stickers!

For me, the key is that once I drop the money in it "disappears"...... I can't see it, can't get to it, so it doesn't exist. Although I think I will empty it once a year to put it in the bank to draw interest. Heck, even if we only get a couple of dollars, that is two more bucks for Disney! I get excited when I find a penny on the ground, so two free dollars would make me do the banana dance!

 

[bjgrazi]

We have 2 jars, 1 for pennies which when we cashed it in had $150 it's a super sized mayo jar. Our other jar is a 5 gallon water jug that everything else goes into. When we broke into it for our 2007 trip it was half full and we cashed in half of it. We had over $800. It was all our spending money. We're going in December and it's even fuller. I can't wait.

We also do keep the change for our debit cards which go into a savings account. We don't spend any change at all.

 

[pweyl36]

My DH and DS call me the change bandit because everytime they leave change laying around I scoop it up and throw it in the jug. I actually have two one gallon jugs and one is full and the other is over half full. I cleaned out my purse the other day and had over $8 in change at the bottom. We still have three weeks to go before we leave and my husband thinks I only have around $250-$300 but I'm quite sure it will be double that when I cash it in.

I do the same thing, every time he comes home from work I grab all the change he puts on the table and put it in my big jar. My kids each have a jar that counts change every time you put it in. They both have about $100 for the own spending money for our Dec trip.