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Change Jar
By Daphne | October 3, 2007
A change jar:Â I have a couple and other people have them. That may be the only savings some people have.
The bank shown in the photo to the left is what I have found over the past eight years. When I moved into my condo I decided that I was going to save all of the money that I found in one place just to see how much I found. This isn’t really just a change jar. It is a found money jar. I find money even when I go on vacation I find foreign currency. In those cases I just add the foreign currency to the collection of coins that I bring home.
I have decided that I want to do something with this money. The problem is I don’t know what. I could use it for something fun - a nice dinner somewhere. There are quite a few pennies there but there is at least one five-dollar bill and some singles too. I received a promotional email from Coinstar advertising its services. The email stated that If I cash in at least $30 for an Amazon gift card at one of their machines, I would also receive a $10 Amazon coupon and a fee free gift card. The deal sounds pretty good. Though, I am not so sure I want to even take the money out of the bank at all. Throwing change into a jar and getting gift cards could help around Christmas time.
The money isn’t doing anything and it’s not earning interest. Will I have $30 in coins in the bank? TCF Bank has a machine at a nearby grocery store which allows me to count my own change and then I could put it in my account and transfer it to an interest bearing account or add to my investment account.
That all sounds so clinical and impersonal since the money was “found” in the first place.
Another change jar that I have is the one I use for exercising. Exercise is good for you but I’m not that fond of it. So, I pay myself to exercise: for every minute that I exercise I pay myself a penny per minute. Then when I get about $50 I take it to the bank and fill out a form for an I series savings bond. This is a way of diversifying my portfolio. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but in a year I can get about $100 in bonds that way. [I series bonds are sold at face value and have different restrictions than EE bonds. The current rate until October 31 is 3.74%.]
The rate of return is low, but when I first started buying I-bonds the rate was much better than I was receiving from a savings account in a bank. Plus, I don’t have to have $1000 or more to get a better rate with a certificate of deposit. Also, I can cash in small amount without losing the interest on other bonds. So there are benefits to having bonds.
Hmmm… I’m open to suggestions. Let me know what I should do with my change jar and what you use your change jar for.
Now… what shall I do with my container of pennies?
Topics: October 2007 |