My DD4 and her coin collection!

[CrazyDuck]

6 months ago when we decided to go to Disneyland I told my 4 year old DD that whenever she sees change lying around the house that she could collect it in a piggy bank and that just before our trip we would count it and whatever she collects she could use to buy whatever she wants when we are at Disneyland. We counted up all her coins (except the pennies) this past weekend and she was able to collect almost $500 in six months! $484 to be exact! I told her I'd round it up to $500 since we didn't count the pennies.

Should I be worried about letting a 4 year old loose in the World of Disney or Emporium with a pocket full of Disney Dollars? Also, anyone know what to do with a big bag of pennies?

 

[keegro94]

All i can say is wow thats a lot of money...

 

[CrazyDuck]

And unfortunately there is no banks in Hawaii that will count the coins for you. You have to roll your own coins!!!

 

[JadeDarkstar]

wow nice going.

 

[Capt.Bane]

Sy, do they have like an albertsons or store that has a coinstar machine. You just walk up hit the buttons pour the coins in....it counts for you and you take the receipt to the cashier and they give you cash.

And thats a very observent four year old...lol

 

[avalon451]

Hang on, let me get this straight.

In the last 6 months, your 4-year old picked up nearly $500 in coins, just around your house?

Do you work at a U.S. Mint? Do you regularly leave those $1. coins lying around?

How the heck did she pick up 500 in loose change!? I used to be a waitress in college and I kept a mason jar full of quarters from tips around, but I guarantee you in 3 1/2 years of working at Red Robin, I never accumulated that much money in change, even though I gave my little brother free access to it for his daily popsicle fix from the popsicle truck!

Way to go, little CrazyDuckarita! I think you've got Daddy bamboozled already!

 

[Mom of three]

Hang on, let me get this straight.

In the last 6 months, your 4-year old picked up nearly $500 in coins, just around your house?

Do you work at a U.S. Mint? Do you regularly leave those $1. coins lying around?

How the heck did she pick up 500 in loose change!? I used to be a waitress in college and I kept a mason jar full of quarters from tips around, but I guarantee you in 3 1/2 years of working at Red Robin, I never accumulated that much money in change, even though I gave my little brother free access to it for his daily popsicle fix from the popsicle truck!

Way to go, little CrazyDuckarita! I think you've got Daddy bamboozled already!

Okay...so its not just me that was wondering about that?

We had one of those huge glass water dispenser refill bottles and got it filled it about 1/3 full over the course of 5 years, with DH emptying his pockets EVERY night into the thing. We only tallied up about $120 after all the loonies and lint.

Im not calling your bluff by any means...but either your 4 year old daughter is also part metal detector or you have clumsy people in your home who lose alot of change!!

In any case...can your daughter come over to my house and look for coins...maybe she will find something im missing.

I for one would not let my 4 year old run around with $500 Disney dollars. I hope you werent implying you were just going to physically give it to her as opposed to disbursing it to whatever treasures she finds.

Kudos to the little one for doing a great job.

 

[CrazyDuck]

Sy, do they have like an albertsons or store that has a coinstar machine. You just walk up hit the buttons pour the coins in....it counts for you and you take the receipt to the cashier and they give you cash.

Yea but the coinstar machines charge 9% if you want to get cash for the coins. So the $500 would only net $455 after the coinstar fee. For $45 and 3 hours of time I'd gladly roll the coins myself!

Yea everyday she would raid my pants and grab all my loose change, atleast at least a dollars worth of coins everyday.... She would put the coins in one of those large piggy banks that was shaped like a coke bottle! She was only able to fill it half way before running out of time though. She was not happy about that!

 

[ORMom2Four]

Wow, that is a LOT of change. I have saved all of my change since March and only have $80!

I take my loose coins to the bank that I have my checking account with (Wells Fargo) and give it to the teller. They have a change counting machine and they just dump the change in there for me. They do not charge a fee like the CoinStar machines do.

 

[Mom of three]

Wow, that is a LOT of change. I have saved all of my change since March and only have $80!

I take my loose coins to the bank that I have my checking account with (Wells Fargo) and give it to the teller. They have a change counting machine and they just dump the change in there for me. They do not charge a fee like the CoinStar machines do.

I can just imagine the look on a tellers face when a 4 year old CrazyDucking walks up to the counter with $500 worth of change.


Too cute.

 

[davidsprincess]

$500 of fun money to spend in the park. Wow! I would love to have that much. she is one lucky girl. You do realize she will now expect that to be the minimum amount of spending money she gets whenever she goes again?

Have fun shopping You may have created a monster.

 

[avalon451]

Yea but the coinstar machines charge 9% if you want to get cash for the coins. So the $500 would only net $455 after the coinstar fee. For $45 and 3 hours of time I'd gladly roll the coins myself!

Hey, I haven't looked at this closely, but as I was staring at a Coinstar machine the other day (while I stood in line for my Starbucks fix inside an Albertsons) I saw that they now have an option to put it into a gift card, in which case there's no charge. And I thought I saw Disney gift cards. I could be wrong, and there might be hidden charges, but you might want to take a second look at those Coinstar machines.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

yes coinstar had disney gift cards. last eyar we used it and my son got 39 in 3 months. we got cash he spent it at lego place (he loves legos) but i did see the disney gift cards

 

[Disney Dreams]

That's amazing! Good work CrazyDuckling! I LOVE the "raid daddy's pockets" element. There is a fine line between collecting and lifting, isn't there? hehe

Still... $500 is amazing!

The Disney gift card mentioned above is for Disneyshopping.com, but.... maybe you would like a $500 gift card to one of the other locations (or Disneyshipping.com) that they offer free of charge and then just give CrazyDuckling $500 in Disney dollars. You could give her a little each day to spend.

Or.... you could give her some of it in Disney dollars and talk to her about maybe something extra special that she would like to buy with her found coins. $500 is a LOT of money to spend on Main Street.

Hey! Here's a thought! Is she really into any particular Disney film? Maybe you could help her select a piece of sericel artwork that she could have to enjoy her entire life (and it will appreciate in value).

$500 - GREAT WORK! Want to come to my house? Or maybe we should send her to Washington DC. She could solve our nation's economic issues in a few months of pocket checking. CrazyDuckling, Economic Assistant to the President.

- Dreams

 

[evilprncess96]

This reminds me of when my little sister started a "swear" jar when she was 6. Her Idea of what was swearing was quite funny. Even funnier was that people would actually give her money everytime they "swore". She kept that stupid thing going until she was 15 and then came out and told my Mom what type of car she wanted to buy with the money she collected - It was enough to buy a car!

 

[pixiewings71]

Wow!! That's one good duckling!! That is a lot of money to find. No way would I find that in my house! LOL Have fun spending that with her!

 

[CrazyDuck]

Yea, I though it would be a good way to get her involved in saving money for the trip. It seemed to work out pretty good! Just thought I'd let you guys know so that you may try the same thing when you start planning your next Disney vacation!

The last few months I would purposely try not to use exact change when I was buying say a soda for $1.27. Even if I had more than $.27 in my pocket I'd still use the paper money and end up with even more coins. At the end of the day I'd often wind up with over $2 in coins in my pocket. My wife would also let her keep any loose dollar bills she finds in my pockets or in the dryer. About $60 of the $500 was paper money which was a pain in the butt at the same time because it would clog the hole when I was trying to empty the piggy bank! We tried to convert the whole ammount into Disney Dollars but our Disney Store only had a few hundred in 1's and 5's so as not to completely wipe them out I only changed $200 into Disney Dollars and the rest will go on a Disney gift card.

 

[bonita_babe232]

My husband is the same way as your daughter any change he finds he puts away and gets 400-500 in a couple months.... alittle while ago he got over $700 closer to $800 in about 3 months, but then again we have loonies and toonies ($1 and $2) here.... but he does the same thing he wont use change he just brakes more bills.... but it does all add up!!! Way to go for ur daughter lucky her all things she can buy!!!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

Wow, my kids don't have much of an opportunity to collect change ~ I use my debit card for everything.

 

[pixiewings71]

Wow, my kids don't have much of an opportunity to collect change ~ I use my debit card for everything.

so do I.....and I can just imagine the arguments that would ensure since I've got 2 kids that would want all my spare change. But, I do like this idea.....maybe we should get a Disney Fund jar and keep our change in that....hmmmmmmm