Loose Change

[angelat]

I just wanted to share my awesome news...

We began saving loose change in our Disney popcorn bucket in February for our trip in August. Because we were originally going to visit family and only planned on one day in the parks, we figured this was some good play money for the kids.

Now our plans have changed and we are visiting the parks for 4 days (yay! ) With that said, my son and I were counting out and rolling some of our change this weekend. We got about half way done and we already have almost $50. The rest is mostly pennies, so we'll probably only have between $5-10 there, but we still have another month and a half to add to that.

Anyway....we're going to use that money towards pre-ordering the photopass CD! We didn't know about this when we went for our first trip in 2008. Now, we know about it and I just showed DH and DS some Magic Shots online and they both thought it was a great idea! We think it's the best way to spend our saved change.

So, this is what our loose change is getting us...I can't say "Thank you" enough to everyone on these boards for bringing so many great things to my attention. This is going to be such a great trip!!!

 

[taymaesmom]

I am always amazed at how much change can add up. I save mine for Disney too and usually have about $100-150 each time. I use it to buy our refillable mugs and then the rest is just spending money.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Great job saving! I just rolled my loose change over the weekend and came up with $86.50! I'm going to take it to the bank this week and add it to our spending money for next month's Disneyland trip.

Any extra coins that didn't make a full roll went back into the jar for next time. If you don't have an electronic coin counting jar, I would recommend getting one. It keeps track of your total everytime you add a coin. I try to toss my extra change in every few days and it's fun to watch the total rise!

 

[angelat]

Great job saving! I just rolled my loose change over the weekend and came up with $86.50! I'm going to take it to the bank this week and add it to our spending money for next month's Disneyland trip.

Any extra coins that didn't make a full roll went back into the jar for next time. If you don't have an electronic coin counting jar, I would recommend getting one. It keeps track of your total everytime you add a coin. I try to toss my extra change in every few days and it's fun to watch the total rise!

It's funny because some of my friends are like, "why do YOU roll it? Just take it to the bank." My bank charges 3% at their machine. I don't want to pay that.
My mother used to have one of those electronic counters, but I actually find counting them out fun! I know, I'm strange. My son and I spent some mother and son time rolling them. We're going to try to roll the rest of the pennies tonight.
$86.50 is a nice little chunk of change too. It's almost like found money since you dumped it in the coin counter and never thought twice about using it. I really do love the idea and will keep doing it!.

 

[phred52]

 

[Karenj2]

I actually just had a friend that recently visited WDW get me a Disney bank, and I figure that we'll start putting our loose change in it when we have a trip planned. (I meant to get it when we were last there, but got distracted with my baby)

Here's what I got:

In general, we put our change in a bank jar that has an auto counter - I think it's got about $80 in it. I'll still have to roll it, but at least I'll know how much I should have.

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

Awesome!

We have a large jar and I know just in quarters we have over $100 so far. Our bank does not charge for counting and has a big machine it all goes in to. By the time we head out in November I am hoping to have about $200 ready for us (we have been using it since the New Year-and so far I have counted only the quarters so with everything else we should hit our goal).

Right now my kids earn marbles for good behavior and helpfulness and they trade tgem for money. 20% of their earnings go back in the jar so it is a family effort.

Good luck to everyone saving their change!

 

[Gillennj]

I really miss watching my spare change add up. Since I started using a debit card, I hardly EVER use cash. Since I really don't like "charging" small amounts, I really do notice I spend less, since I usually don't even carry cash anymore .

 

[momofrrr]

We save our change in an old dog treat jar. We only visit WDW every other year so we save for almost 2 years. We use the money for whatever the kids choose as our "extra". We have had a limo pick us up at the airport twice. We have gone to Cirque and bought Disney Quest tickets extra. Last visit in 2009 we had almost $600.00. I always get a little anxious about this time of year to count out our money but I make myself wait until October or November.

 

[chris31997]

 

[Piglet4Ever]

Dh and I save our loose change in a disney popcorn bucket too! Love it, we usually take it to our local bank every couple months and change it in. They have a change machine that automatically puts the money in your account with no fees so that is really cool. Last time we took it in we had $120 so we were really happy with that. The change adds up fast

 

[Celidh]

I sort of try to do this. The only problem is, I keep having to take change out when I don't have enough on me to give my kids their lunch money. They only get to buy lunch once a week but if I have forgotten to get change, well, you tell a 7 year old she doesn't get to buy lunch!

I try though. We currently have about $80 in the Mickey can. I have also replaced some of the change I took out with bills on payday to make up for it. It is really easy for change to add up for us since we are in Canada and have $1 and $2 coins. Change adds up much faster this way. It will be easier in a few weeks when the kids are out of school. I will then have 2 more months to save change before we go.

 

[tink15823]

I just wanted to share my awesome news...

We began saving loose change in our Disney popcorn bucket in February for our trip in August. Because we were originally going to visit family and only planned on one day in the parks, we figured this was some good play money for the kids.

Now our plans have changed and we are visiting the parks for 4 days (yay! ) With that said, my son and I were counting out and rolling some of our change this weekend. We got about half way done and we already have almost $50. The rest is mostly pennies, so we'll probably only have between $5-10 there, but we still have another month and a half to add to that.

Anyway....we're going to use that money towards pre-ordering the photopass CD! We didn't know about this when we went for our first trip in 2008. Now, we know about it and I just showed DH and DS some Magic Shots online and they both thought it was a great idea! We think it's the best way to spend our saved change.

So, this is what our loose change is getting us...I can't say "Thank you" enough to everyone on these boards for bringing so many great things to my attention. This is going to be such a great trip!!! :thumbs up 2

I am glad we are not the only ones that save our change for Disney. My kids called them Disney wishes when they were little. They would talk there Grandparents into giving them there pennies to put in their Disney Wish bucket.

 

[tink15823]

I sort of try to do this. The only problem is, I keep having to take change out when I don't have enough on me to give my kids their lunch money. They only get to buy lunch once a week but if I have forgotten to get change, well, you tell a 7 year old she doesn't get to buy lunch!

I try though. We currently have about $80 in the Mickey can. I have also replaced some of the change I took out with bills on payday to make up for it. It is really easy for change to add up for us since we are in Canada and have $1 and $2 coins. Change adds up much faster this way. It will be easier in a few weeks when the kids are out of school. I will then have 2 more months to save change before we go.

When ours get over $100 I by Disney Gift cards at our Giant Eagle Store and get gas rewards and then I cant spend the money.

 

[momof1princess]

DH has an antique, glass, 5 gallon pickle jar that he saves his change in. i think it's about half full. i wouldn't even venture a guess as to how much money is in it-it's so heavy, i can't pick it up. he wants to cash it in before our next trip to disney and use the money to pay for our accomodations or dining.

 

[NYCDiane]

I have one of those "milk bottle" banks ---- it's really cute. It's blue with 2 cats sitting on a fence looking at the stars and it says "Hopes and Dreams" on it.

Anyway, I've been tossing change in there for about 3 years (only silver; I have a separate bottle for pennies). When it's full, there's usually about $200-$250 in there. In the past, I've used it to fund outlet shopping for my daughter and I or a Broadway show.

Well, recently, I've noticed the jar is getting full again and I don't want to "waste" the money on shopping or a show. I was thinking and thinking of what to do and it finally came to me: I'm going to transfer that money into a larger (3 litre) Poland Spring plastic bottle and keep doing that every time the 'milk bottle' is full. Once the 3 litre bottle is full, I'll transfer that into a larger container. My ultimate goal? To go to Egypt for my 50th birthday next year!

My change lately has consisted of the change from everyday purchases and the money from redeeming bottles/cans, I ask the cashier to give it to me in quarters. I'm also thinking that every time I fill the milk bottle, to throw in a $50 bill along with the change.

I have 13 months to do this..... Wish me luck!!!!!

 

[Samandmom]

We are going to Universal next month. So we started saving our change again. We have one those that count the money for you. We were up to about $75.00 dollars.
My kids have really been into saving change so they have been looking anywhere for change. They went into the office (being used for storage at the moment so we don't go in their often. So anyways they found a huge jar that we started a long time ago that we forgot about. There was $400 dollars in it!!!

 

[Squidgyness]

This thread has inspired me. Counted the change in the Jar in the kitchen - £8.00, so about $14. That is with only one person occasionally dropping a penny or 2 in. Lets see what we can do with 4 dropping silver in instead!

2 years to go till we (provissionally) get back to WDW, hopefully we may even have saved a £100 by then!

Another brainwave - my grandmother occasionally gives me pocket money (Im 19, but still in education, so I guess she feels the need lol) of £10 a week, sometimes in change, so straight in the pot for that I think! Around £20 a month for 24 months = yowza!

Change jars are a miracle.

 

[cricketgirl]

I have an antique bottle that I have been saving change in for over a year now. It is half full. We use to save it and use it when we went Gambling. But we decided we'd let it ride and see what we could save to spend on something frivolous at Disney. I'm thinking a Thomas Kinkade picture or something. Hubby and I are huge art lovers and we passed on it the last time. Plus our Bank card gives us rewards for using as a Credit card. I have almost $350 in rewards there so I'm pretty excited about the extra spending money this time. We go for my Birthday and our Anniversary (Same day, silly me) anyway, I always get money from my MIL so Disney Trip of a lifetime is going to be fabulous this year. I'm blowing the budget, just this once.
Plus everytime Hubby makes me go to the mall. (I hate shopping) we buy a $25.00 Disney Gift card. Boy my Hubby likes to go to the mall. I have $275 already and have 97 days till Disney.
Wish I could find some deals on Gift card though.

 

[angelat]

I actually just had a friend that recently visited WDW get me a Disney bank, and I figure that we'll start putting our loose change in it when we have a trip planned. (I meant to get it when we were last there, but got distracted with my baby)

Here's what I got:

In general, we put our change in a bank jar that has an auto counter - I think it's got about $80 in it. I'll still have to roll it, but at least I'll know how much I should have.

That is such a cute bank! I may have to look for that while we're down there.