(no subject)

[which_chick]

I also counted out my change jar (actually a large ceramic flower pot) this evening. I do round dollar amounts for each coin set (the odd bits get thrown back in the jar to breed more money) and I came up with $81.00 in the change jar -- it had been high-graded for quarters a number of times because I don't carry much cash, don't have an ATM card, and frequently root through the change jar for walking-around money. Of that, seven dollars was in pennies. Tomorrow, I'll take it in to the bank where they will run it through their machine and count it for me. As far as I know, this is a free service of my bank -- they didn't charge me the last time I took change in to be counted. The reason I count it first is so that I will know if I'm being cheated. :)

What happens to pocket change at your house? Do you have a change jar? Do you carefully organize your life so that there is no NEED for a change jar? Do you fish the change out of the washer and immediately run off to spend it? What's the deal? Tell me!

Comments

[cassandramorgan.livejournal.com]

Most of the time, the pocket change goes into the vending machine at work so I can feed the Chocolate Monster that attacks me. However, the kid enjoys putting change into her "piggy bank," which is actually a ceramic bear bank, so some change gets saved to go into that. Pennies normally go into fountains or charity collecting 'game' thingys at the grocery store because the kid likes those too.

Change

[ardvaark99999.livejournal.com]

My change goes into a jar at home. When the jar gets full, it goes into a tupperware tub with a hole cut in the top that the elder child made as a project at school. I have a change tub downstairs, where it usually goes. I also have a candy dish upstairs for the same purpose. The change rarely gets cherry-picked. I probably have about fifteen pounds of change right now.

I'm sort of curious about what an average pound of change (not cherry-picked) would be worth. I might experiment. I could weigh the three tubs, count it and report back.

If I have a normal pocket's worth of change at the end of each day, you think that it would average out over time that I have a normal distribution of change dumped into the three tubs, or at least a normal distribution based on my usage history.

If the distributions are normal enough, I bet that there would be some fairly consistent, typical value per pound, so long as the coins are not cherry-picked. Then I could estimate when I have enough change to make it worthwhile to count it. In addition, if it deviates from the expected value, I could holler at someone for cherry-picking it.

BTW, the cash goes into a college fund for the kid with the lower college fund balance when it gets counted out.

[sara-merry99.livejournal.com]

I used to keep change in the ashtray in my car--but Calvin spent the money on things like phasers, photon torpedoes and cloaking devices so I had to cut him off.

I don't use cash very often at all, and usually either use up my change or throw odd bits of it into the tip jar at the Starbucks (where they are *very* nice to me and I almost never tip them because I'm usually paying with my Starbucks card).

When I do have change at home that I want to off-load, I throw it into one of Abner's change cups, which get routinely cherry picked for money for tolls on the way up to Philly.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

One of the things that She Who Must Not Be Named kept was a giant plastic pretzel jar with somewhere around 60 pounds of change. About 5 years worth, that is. I have no idea how much was there, but it was certainly a sizable amount.

While I was working at Target, I'd spend the same amount on lunch every day ($3.27, which is an item off the employee menu and a large pop), and the change from that went into a dish. In a year, I collected nearly $200, which mostly went into my gas tank for the move out to Minnesota. So I guess you can classify me as a hoarder, except when I actually need the money.

[electroweak.livejournal.com]

We keep a large glass goblet (approximately the size of a 20 ounce tumbler) for change. I fish in it for soda-machine cash. We used to keep change in a round tin which hadn't been counted in over a decade; it contained change from my college days. It produced something like three hundred dollars when we emptied it.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

Quarters go in the Laundry & Meters fund. I know that if I spend a little more attention on each transaction and a little in the morning, I can balance my in- and outflows of nuisance coins (http://www.brunching.com/priceofmoney.html) in such a way that I get rid of them all at quite a reasonable clip (especially since outflow reduces inflow), but I haven't actually been doing that lately.

[fooliv.livejournal.com]

Quarters get saved and kept in-pocket for doing the wash. Small change gets used for tips and meters and the like.

Pennies go into charity boxes whenever I notice they're building up in my pockets. Occasionally they escape free onto my bedroom floor. In general, I consider pennies to be functionally worthless. I used to occasionally dump twenty or twenty-five of them into the honor bar as part of a payment for chips or candy at work, but since I've given up snacking, I don't have that sort of petty harassment to indulge in.

I probably shouldn't inflict pennies on the charities, it's not very charitable of me to force them to count the worthless things along with their real money. Damned things aren't even copper anymore... At least there's still take-a-penny dishes.

I've found that trying to unload pennies as fast as they come in tends to confuse the less-bright counter-people. Apparently they don't teach basic decimal arithmetic any more in the schools.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

You quit snacking? Any particular reason -- it's not Lent or anything, is it?

[fooliv.livejournal.com]

I got tired of being so damned fat, and having my feet hurt if I stood for too long. I'm trying to lose a little weight, which is a bit of a pain seeing as I'm so naturally sedentary. We'll see by the holidays if it comes to anything.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

I've found that being over thirty does not help with weight loss in the slightest. Good luck with that.

[not-your-real.livejournal.com]

Allegedly, my accumulated pennies from years in which I used cash (I really don't use cash to speak of anymore) are slowly being spent by the husband. It didn't really look to me like the levels were going down, plus other coins started appearing in there from his pocket, but he says it's working.

When I do use cash I pay coins out about as fast as I get them back. If I have the change to give them exact amounts I do.

[brni.livejournal.com]

we have a large bronze pitcher which got filled with change, and then was dumped into a large tupperware-type containment unit. wash, rinse, and repeat until there were 3 such tupperware-type containment units and the pitcher was full again.

then apply 9 months of unemployment, whereupon the change became my walkin' around money. fortunately, i found new employment just as my resources became depleted.

few years later, that same pitcher became a source for the kid's walkin' around money when HE was unemployed.

[ornery-chick.livejournal.com]

I have a coffee-can half full of pennies on my computer desk. Pennies don't amuse me especially, so they all get dumped in the can. Anything from a nickel on up gets put into my pocket and used when/if needed (or whenever I feel the burning desire for a packet of Cheez-Its from the work snack machine)

My bank has the change-counting machine, too, and they don't charge you if you have an account there. The last time I took a can of pennies in, it came out to something on the order of $62, if I recall correctly.