Saving Money
By carpenter5
@carpenter5 (6782)
United States
June 10, 2011 11:34am CST
We are saving money to get baby furniture for our daughter and son in law. Especially now that there is a possibility that it may be twins. While we are putting some aside each paycheck, we are also doing something a little different this time.
Each time we make a purchase with cash, we only use paper bills. Then the coins that we recieve in change goes into a coffee cup on the counter at home. Yesterday, my son took a check to the bank to deposit for me. I asked him to take the change cup since it was almost full and put it into the savings account. When he came home with the receipt for the deposit, I was pleasantly surprised.
After only two weeks of putting change/coins into the cup we had deposited $17.45! I couldn't believe it!
Have you ever used this method of saving money? How much were you able to save?
2 people like this
14 responses
@leigabs (40)
• Philippines
11 Jun 11
I did! A friend of mine gave me a coin bank she got from the mall as a gift. Those made of bamboo that's around a foot tall, it comes cheap too, $2 maybe. Like you, I only used paper bills and every night before I go to sleep, I put all the change I have on my purse to the coin bank. Days passed, it became a routine for me. Paper bills throughout the day, change directly to the coin back at night. December comes, the holidays, of course, and it's a tradition to give gifts right. That's the only time that I opened my bamboo coin bank. I was excited as I almost filled up the whole thing. Surprise of all surprises, I was able to save a lot! That I was able to buy gifts for my parents and siblings!
3 people like this
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
24 Aug 11
How awesome. I mentioned to another friend that we were doing this and she was telling me that they'd been doing it for years and putting the change into their daughter's savings account at the end of each month. They did it from the time she was a baby and by the time the little girl turned 16, they had saved enough to buy her a brand new car...with cash. That really excited me.
@shivam_ss8 (1)
• India
10 Jun 11
its really a great idea to do..........we should save money in order to buy thnings that are necessary and we should save atleast 100 buks from our pocket money every month
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
11 Jun 11
Hubby gets paid twice a month, I get paid once a month for my disability for my back. that check goes into savings for emergencies and things that come up during the month that we might not have in the budget but are still something we really want or need.
2 people like this
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
20 Aug 11
Yes, it certainly does. Now, since we found out that we're expecting a new grandbaby, we have put off the cruise until march. But we are still going to go. It seems that the trips are cheaper then anyway. So I'm hoping we can do 8 nights instead of 3
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
10 Jun 11
it is a good way thats lots of people dont think about. ive been doing it for yrs. ever since i havent had to scrape up every little penny for 2 bucks of gas or a pack of smokes. good thing to because 2 bucks of gas wouldnt start the car these days. 
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
24 Aug 11
It's true...sad...but so true! Gas here is DOWN to $3.25 a gallon. That is just horrible. But until we start really standing up to the big oil companies, and the government, they're probably going to stay at that price. Because most of us aren't willing to quit driving enough to make a difference in their wallets.
@maezee (41988)
• United States
10 Jun 11
Heck yes!! I have done this. It's nice. I saved mine up in a jar in my room for about 3 weeks, and being the crazy spender that I am, I wound up with $30 going to my "Las Vegas" fund - essentially my spending money in Las Vegas, when I go on our trip later in July. So...That's pretty nice. However I still like to use my debit card more, I can't say why!
2 people like this
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
24 Aug 11
that's awesome! We've pulled money out several times since we started this, and cashed them in. Kristen and I love to go to yard sales. You might be surprised at some of the cool things we've found for the baby for almost nothing! We certainly were. Like the laundry basket full of clothes that the woman who was ready to close up her sale gave us for $3! There were 25 outfits in the basket and 3 pairs of tiny shoes in the very bottom.
@asyria51 (2861)
• United States
10 Jun 11
My husband and I over the course of a year saved close to 500.00 dollars using this. This was also during a time where we had more flexibility with our spending. We threw the quarters into a mason jar, and the smaller coins into a 2 foot tall piggy bank shaped like a coke bottle. We use credit cards more frequently, always paying them off and take the points and convert them to cash a few times a year. I currently have close to $150 in credit card points, and my husband has more than that. We are going to use the points to pay for the gas for us driving out to maine to see his family. any extra points we are going to use to buy a swing set for out daughter who is 2 and a half.
2 people like this
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
22 Jul 11
That's awesome! That's the one thing I don't like about living in these apartments is that the playground doesn't have swings! But, there is a park not far from here that we have access to. We can get the new grandbaby a stroller and walk over in less than 10 minutes. Once he/she is old enough to really get around on her own, she will love the playground here. There are 3 different slides, and a monkey bar, climbing wall and all kinds of tubes to climb through!
@peavey (16936)
• United States
10 Jun 11
No, I do the opposite. I spend my coins and try to keep from breaking a bill. It helps keep more money in my pocket. If I were saving for something specific, I'd do that and increase the amount going to the bank. In your case, you could save $10 a week and not miss it.
2 people like this
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
24 Aug 11
That's the thing. I have found that I don't miss it if I just throw it in at the end of the day. I remember once when my kids were really little, we were saving change to go on vacation. Then one afternoon, Mike was at work and the man came to the door because I had missed a bill. I wrote a check and then had to run to the bank to put enough money in to cover it. I had to raid the change jar to have enough. I certainly was thankful for that change then!
@GardenGerty (160721)
• United States
20 Aug 11
I have not done this consistently but we do save our change. We have used it for trips or special purposes, we have also used it when we were really strapped. At one time we had a USA Today route, and the money from the machines was always coins, so we had a lot to put in every week when we cleaned them out. It adds up.
1 person likes this
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
20 Aug 11
Yes it does. We've already saved enough that I was able to buy a used changing table from Craig's list. We're kind of holding off to see what my parents, mike's parents and Zack's family is going to get. I don't want to be accused of buying everythng and trying to push everyone else out.
I did buy a bunch of really cute outfits in bigger sizes from the same lady I got the changing table from. Many of them had never been worn.
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
24 Aug 11
that's an awesome goal too. There are days when I worry about our retirement. We lost a lot of our retirement fund when the stock market nosedived a couple of years ago. I haven't even asked my husband what we lost last week when those two or three days were so bad with the credit news.
@dodo19 (47326)
• Beaconsfield, Quebec
21 Aug 11
It's something that my husband and I will do, unless we are short for money and may need it for something else. But we still try to put our change aside, let it pile up a bit, and then put into our joint savings account. It does take time, but eventually it does slowly adds up. It's nice to see the amount go up.
1 person likes this
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
24 Aug 11
A few years ago, I tried to do this, and it seemed to take forever to add up. But my husband wasn't doing it with me. This time, with both of us putting our change in, the jar seems to be filling up a lot faster. I've also seen my son in law and daughters go by the jar and throw their change in as well.
@trishasantos (1297)
• Philippines
11 Jun 11
I always do. I think since I am 10 years old. I am now 24. But instead of depositing it to a bank, I spend it on things that I need, sometimes what I wanted. Now, I have a piggy bank that has a counter. I could see it grow everytime I put coins in it. But I don't open it even if I needed the money badly. I want to see how far it will go. It is almost half full, I want to see it full. That is why I keep on saving on it. When the day comes that it is full, I'll save it on a bank. I am planning to study again, and I believe that money could be a big help to the fulfilment of my dream to study again.
1 person likes this
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
15 Jul 11
Going back to school/university is awesome! I'm so proud of you for saving to do this. I went back several years ago and got my associates 2 year degree. I want to go on and finish a Bachelor's but if I don't, it's ok because I accomplished my goal before!
@trishasantos (1297)
• Philippines
11 Jun 11
Oh I forgot to tell. I have two piggy banks, one with a counter and the other without - simple piggy bank. The one with a counter, I save up like about $69 (I converted it), on the other - I am really not sure. I never counted it, but I bet I am almost half way to having it full. Whenever I lift it, it is too heavy. When I finally have both full, I think I am almost half way to being able to pay for my studies.
1 person likes this
@Shellyann36 (11384)
• United States
20 Jun 11
We often put our change in a jar to save up. We have yet to turn it in. Don't know quite how much is in there. We are expecting twins in November and every little red cent counts! Congrats to your daughter!
1 person likes this
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
20 Jun 11
oh how neat! Do you know if it's boys/girls or one of each? We are kind of hoping for a boy and a girl, but to be honest, I think it would be alot of fun to have little girls that I could buy matching dresses for!
Kristen and Zack's bank just put in a machine that they can throw all their change into it and it counts it for them. Kind of like what they have at the grocery stores, but this one doesn't take out a percentage like those do.
@zazen6 (169)
• Philippines
11 Jun 11
I have similar method of saving money. Two years ago, my husband and I put in a "piggy bank" all the 5.00 and 10.00 coins that we have in our pocket/wallet every time we got home. After a year, we were able to buy a Sony Playstation Portable out of the said savings.
I also save by having an automatic save up account wherein a separate account was set up by my bank where every month, or as often as I want, a certain amount will be transferred from my savings account directly to the save-up account. The bank does not allow that I withdraw some amount from the save-up account because when I do, they will automatically close the save-up account, and transfer the whole amount that was saved-up back to the source savings account.
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
14 Jun 11
When I worked full time, our credit unit did a "Christmas Club" that worked very similiar to your save up account. I had a certain amount taken out of my check each week and put into that account. We could not touch that money until two weeks before Christmas. It was great because it gave me a load of cash for either presents or for gas to travel for the holiday.
@LillianPearl (101)
• United States
5 Sep 11
Freecycle.org is a great place to get used, but clean items. Also a good way to keep things out of the landfill. I've cleaned out my attic and hardly anything went to the landfill because of freecycle, including two bedrooms worth of baby items.
As far as the change goes, we have a commemorative train bank that my husband has had for years. The year before we got married, unbeknownst, to me, he put all of his change in it every evening. Then the week before our wedding he and my step son rolled all of the change and cashed it in at the back. $125 for our honeymoon. We had a very nice dinner thanks to his thoughtfulness!
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
31 Oct 11
Oh how cool was that surprise? I love it when hubby does small things like that for me. To think that he loves you enough to think ahead and plan something like that makes me want to stand and salute and give him an ovation. how sweet and loving.
