Who needs to count coins?

[tollbaby]

I'd gladly pay the counting fee just to get rid of a huge-ass jar. Who else will do it? Not the banks.

That's exactly why I use coinstar machines I just can't be arsed to count out a huge jar of change, roll it, etc. when I can just toss the lot into a coinstar and have cash within five minutes (I see it as a convenience fee).

[Cazzi]

I managed to save up £23 worth of coppers when I last emptied my copper jar (British 1 penny and 2 penny pieces are copper coloured)

You're lucky! The bank I use has a £3 per day limit on paying in copper coins
I've got boxes of the things lying about.

[ExRetailDrone]

I wish I understood how some people function without knowing basic knowledge like counting change. Hell, about a decade ago, I applied for a minimum-wage-type job and on the application there was a section on how you would count back change to a customer given various circumstances and amounts that would be handed to you. I doubt you'd find anything like that on any applications now, because no one would get them right!

[Andara Bledin]

I don't really get why people save up large jars of change, other than for the fact that they're unable to not spend money if they don't know how much it is.

I, personally, use my change as feasible, so it never builds up to any sort of level where sorting it would even be an option. Then again, I also hardly ever get change since I do most transactions on my card.

^-.-^

[mikoyan29]

I don't really get why people save up large jars of change, other than for the fact that they're unable to not spend money if they don't know how much it is.

I, personally, use my change as feasible, so it never builds up to any sort of level where sorting it would even be an option. Then again, I also hardly ever get change since I do most transactions on my card.

^-.-^

I have two cups....One for misc change and one for quarters. The quarters get used for the wash and the other jar is about 20 bucks after a few months. It's more or less found money at that point.

[McGoddess09]

I don't really get why people save up large jars of change, other than for the fact that they're unable to not spend money if they don't know how much it is.

I do it to save up coins for laundry at school. When my coffee can gets full, I take it to the bank, where I can get them converted to quarters. I do the same thing with my single dollar bills. It's pretty nifty. So when I go to school, I don't have to do a quarter exchange at the front desk.

Before going away for school, I put coins away to be converted to cash. It was always nifty for those times I was low on cash.

The only reason I even have a checking account is so I can pay my tuition bill.

[morgana]

My bank counts coins. Just take the bag in, they put it through their machine, presto! Found money.

[persephone]

I don't really get why people save up large jars of change, other than for the fact that they're unable to not spend money if they don't know how much it is.

Because if you treat it as if it doesn't exist, it's found money.

We don't spend change or singles. At the end of the day, all the singles go in a box in the closet and the change in one of those large water jugs. Even when doing debit we don't spend change -- I round up to the nearest $5 in the register. At the end of the month, when I balance the account, everything over because of this (not because something hasn't cleared) go into the "rainy day" savings account. The singles and the change go into the same savings account once a month.

We easily deposit over $300 in the savings account this way each month. No everyone can do this, but we've found it's a very easy way to save a little extra money to be used for Christmas or birthdays or a rainy day.

[Mr.Customer]

I feel sorry for her, but the simple thing is, especially among girls, is that they are often raised with the idea that they "can't" do many things, such as math, cars etc. After having such a notion engrained into their very souls throughout life that they are lousy at math, they have simply accepted that notion and cannot think for themselves.

I see this alot in youth, but more particularly in girls. And it is sad really because they can be every bit as capable as anyone else if they would only shed this notion.

[Gidgetdigit]

That is really sad. All of my children learned to count change by the end of kindergarten at the latest. It's definitely part of the 1st grade math curriculum here, so the children here learn it by age seven.

Now if she were not from this country, then I would be more sympathetic. The one thing I don't like about our coinage is that we don't have numbers on them, just words such as "one dime". That could be confusing, especially if your first language were not English.

[Magpie]

Question for people who do the jars of change: how do you recommend budgeting it? Do I just bleed from every category into savings? (which I assume means I can skip the savings column in the spreadsheet?) Or do you just not do the budget until the end of the week/month, and just have a variable amount in the savings category? What do you do if you exceed the allowance for that?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I kind of visualize a sort of pie chart thing in my head...or a clock face thing. And then count in increments adding up to twenty five, which I know is a fourth of the clock face. I do tend to hand it to the cashier in increments if it's a lot, but for the most part, I try to avoid using large amounts of change.

I can do it fairly fast, but I doubt I do it as fast or as effortlessly as some of the rest of you. I doubt anyone watching me do it thinks anything beyond the idea that maybe I am just a very careful counter.

[Chromatix]

If you're budgeting: simply round up the prices of everything to a round number (eg. $3 instead of $2.95), and budget according to that. The change you put in the jar is simply the difference between the budgeted price and the actual price.

[Racket_Man]

I don't really get why people save up large jars of change, other than for the fact that they're unable to not spend money if they don't know how much it is.

I, personally, use my change as feasible, so it never builds up to any sort of level where sorting it would even be an option. Then again, I also hardly ever get change since I do most transactions on my card.

^-.-^

in my line of work I get a LOT of coin change. at the end of the night I will dump my pocket full of change into a 2 quart ice cream bucket. first year I did that I put a lid on the bucket (about $400 in change) and stuck it in the back of my closet (super rainy day emergency fund).

after that first year I've filled the bucket or Zip-Loc bags up so I can pay for my gas and various other expences for my once a year vacation (I drive 650 miles one way to see my Mom). I take my bags/bucket to my bank and they run it through their coin counting machine and I get paper money. POOF my vacation expences are paid for little by little with no pain involved.

[Andara Bledin]

After having such a notion engrained into their very souls throughout life that they are lousy at math, they have simply accepted that notion and cannot think for themselves.

I used to have a friend whose father had told her throughout her childhood that she was stupid. And while she very much wasn't stupid at all, she believed she was. Very sad, and it made me want to find and beat the shit out of her dad.

If you're budgeting: simply round up the prices of everything to a round number (eg. $3 instead of $2.95), and budget according to that. The change you put in the jar is simply the difference between the budgeted price and the actual price.

I let BofA do that for me. You don't have to have a minimum in your savings account if you do their Keep the Change thing and I don't have to carry anything but my emergency cash.

^-.-^