Your coin jar - are you losing money?

[ajrsmom]

Hundreds of thousands of people place their extra change into a jar or bank every night when they return home thinking that they are saving money. In reality, the dynamics of saving coins has changed over the last 10 years so that by placing your extra coins in a jar, you may actually be losing money.

This is the new money jar trap.


Read "The Money Jar Trap" by Jeffrey Strain to see if it's worth saving your change; then take part in our poll to let us know what you think.

[BuddyBeanieBaby]

It was an eye-opener...But here the banks don't charge for taking our change...Hubby and I have been throwing change in a jar for years...paid for our new stove,new front door and new screen door...

I guess it depends on what bank you deal with and where you live...Where we live as long as the coins are rolled there is no problem,and if there are loose coins the bank takes them...even if they have to count them out...I guess we are lucky...

Still throwing change in jars...I even have a jar full of pennies...lol

Smiles & hugs...

[KSJEn6891]

We have a coin jar for something special (forgot the name on it), but it's not the only one... have several for those blasted state quarters hubby is collecting too. LOL

[Mish]

I do have a tootise roll that I keep loose money in there.Sometimes it is a big help for me too.
Mish

[bluebird]

We had those too Mish! Now we are using a bank from Avon that counts the money for us. The banks here do not charge you to count change even when they don't have a change counter. I will remember this article if the bank's policy ever changes.

Right now the money jar money is for ds' eye exam and new glasses.

[DeBora4BobbyL]

I did NOT know this information. But, we've been doing something different for several years. I bought my DH a battery-operated change sorter. It sorts the change into the tubes so you can take them to the bank or store for nothing more than the cost of the batteries. DH LOVES it as it is entertaining. lol Before that, I rolled the change myself.

[Bernice]

I was familar with most of the article, but I didn't know that some banks are charging to count my loose change. I did check with my bank and fortunately they don't.

We have an old 5 gallon water bottle and that filled most of the way up, gave me extra money to put towards my downpayment on my house 10 years ago.

Right now, our goal is to save and go on vacation, when it reaches the top. I think now it is filled more with pennies, instead of the quarters, but it will be extra money for a family trip.

[Pag36]

The article was an eye opener for me too. But am blessed that our banks don't charge either for taking loose change. And I have banks ( I collect them too) with change in for diff reasons. And sometimes use the coin counter my g-son has. Otherwise I roll them myself and take to Credit Union and put in my savings acct

[Minny]

We have a coin sorter too.. when the rolls are full, I put them in a plastic shoe box & put in a drawer. We use it for extra things we may need. Our bank don't charge us either. We have taken some of the rolls to the bank & cashed them in before. They just gave us the bills in place of the change.

[Bilby]

To me this was an eye opener as to my knowledge banks or my bank does not charge to take or give change. Supermarkets do not charge either that I know of but not quite sure how to take that as I'm not up on US way the article was worded and I don't use my supermarket as a bank.

I save my $1 and $2 coins not all but some per week and this is what we use for our holidays.
I can either take to bank to convert to notes or leave as change and just use them to pay as we go. We only have notes for $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100.