The 5 gallon Vacation

Five gallons sounds like an awful lot of change. With a few bills thrown in, you should have enough to take a great vacation when it's filled up. How long do you think it will take to fill it? If you do rewards programs or something like that, it might help to designate the income or gift certificates to the vacation fund. Paid recycling (as in aluminum cans, etc.) could go there, too.

My brother used to do that all the time for a vacation fund. All his pocket change went in. One year he had almost a thousand dollars. I know because guess who got to sit and help him sort it and roll it.

We save all of our change too. we cash ours in though every time we have 50.00. Then we go to our Giant Eagle grocery store and buy a gift card. We put them away for birthday and Christmas gifts. We also earn fuel perks for buying the gift cards so it's like double dipping to me. Painting your jar black was a great idea. I hope you guys get a great vacation.

My husband bought me a digital coin counter last year for Christmas. We started using it after Christmas with all our loose change. After about 6 months, we had over $100. I'm not sure of the exact amount. Of course, we had to cash it in. My husband lost his job, and we needed the money. Maybe we'll start that again next year. Who knows. Maybe we use the money to help out with Christmas gifts for next year.

This is a really good idea. I especially like your idea of painting it black so you aren't tempted. That was smart. I have saved change before and once I saw it getting full went in cashed it in. I hope you guys save enough for an amazing vacation!

This is a great idea and I know someone who did something similar but for a different reason. He got an opening cut into an empty gas container - I think that it was a 100lb container. He and his wife put every cent in that container tthat they could save and all his tips as a waiter. It took seven years to filll and when the money was changed out, they had enough money to purchase a piece of land to build a house. They also had enough money to dig the foundations of the house before they borrowed froma government scheme to finish the building. I am late this year but I have saved my change from May and I have enough to buy a 14 lb turkey and a 12lb ham and a roasting chicken - about 8 lbs for Christmas. It os relatively painless to do it this way and it just becomes a habit - a good habit. Blessings

I have an old glass milk jar that i put my change into. I wait til its filled, sort the pennies out into a second one and keep filling it. I change my pennies into larger change or bills and add them to that jar later on. Once i get enough i tend to use the change to buy a "big ticket" item such as my tv, my mattress and box spring, my laptop, on occasion tickets to see my boyfriend. It works really well.