I know everyone is aware of the Coinstar machines in nearly every grocery store, and everyone is aware that saving coins can add up, but are you aware that you can painlessly have enough money to pay your rent after a mere two years or more?
We recently did this. We had a huge, heavy jar of coins that we had been collecting since 2013. When we recently moved last November, the money available was enough to cover the first month's rent, and moving costs.
You save even more money if you roll your own coins and take them to the bank teller, but we have found that the opportunity cost of roll-your-own is not worth the 8% surcharge that the Coinstar machine takes.
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My husband who recently passed away use to save all of his change when he came home from work in jars, cans...whatever was available. Last year was our first year without him for Thanksgiving and just couldn't do the traditional dinner so my daughter and her family went to the ocean for the weekend.
that's a wonderful story, and I am deeply sorry for your loss.
I have never heard of Coinstar machines. Can you please explain them to me? Thank you.
They are a machine inside a store, usually a grocery store, you dump in your change, it counts it and I think spits out a voucher for the amount minus the fee it charges and I think you cash it in the store.....I have one in the grocery store I work at but have never paid much attention to it, but I think that is how it works.
Some banks will run your jar of change thru their change counter for free, beats the coinstar fee.
I had no idea!!!!! every bank i knew required I have them rolled up. What bank was it, wells fargo type one or more like a local credit union? WIll totally do that next time
My credit union used to have a coin machine in their lobby. I think it is has been moved to a different branch. I have also heard that you can get Amazon or other gift cards from the Coinstar machine and they will give you the full amount of your change if you do this instead of asking for cash.
i tried that once and would you believe the gift card was defective? I was able to get my $ back after some wrangling but now am gunshy about it
I always get the Amazon e-card now, since we order from Amazon almost weekly. Coinstar gives you a print-out with a #, which I then enter into Amazon. With Covid and sheltering in place, my husband isn't out spending cash or getting change, so our coins aren't piling up as fast.
I save my change until the weekend of Thanksgiving. Then I get the Amazon Ecard through Coinstar. I manage to get a lot of my Christmas shopping done on Cyber Monday through Amazon. It's an easy way to shop for gifts, and I always get a kick out of seeing the total!
This sounds like a fun way to save for a child's birthday - just let them see the jar getting "fuller" on each visit until their birthday and then take them to the bank to count their cash.
One bank I use is TD Bank and they have a free coin counting machine in their lobby.
Now - I just have to find a good size bottle to get started...
Thanks for the idea.
My bank, Wesbanco, has a coin machine in the lobby. If you take the receipt to the teller, and have an account there, there is no charge at all.
I roll my own in case I spot a rare old coin.
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