Found Money

Now that I am no longer bringing home a paycheck, I have been trying to find ways to save money. That included looking around for any previously forgotten funds sitting around the house.

Do you have one of these too?


Yup, that is a giant popcorn tin filled with change. It is where we dump change from coat pockets, wallets, cars, etc.

Our bucket o'change has been collecting funds for years now. About 9-ish years ago we went to a bank to count and cash our change in for "real" money. It was kinda a pain in the butt and so we have not done it since. So, there the bucket sat, collecting our daily crumbs of money.

Of course one of the first things I did when we decided I would stay home was look at that change tin. I really did not want to roll them all myself. Also, our local back did not appear to have a counting machine so I did not want to deal with the hassle of finding where I could take it and then spend the time there while it was counted.

Our local supermarket had a Coinstar machine but I had previously eliminated that option because I was not willing to part with a percentage of our money just for the machine to count it. But, I decided to go online and see exactly those machines did and how much they claimed as their own.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that you can choose to convert your change into credits for a number of stores. And, even better, there is NO COUNTING FEE if you chose that option. So you don't have to give up even a penny.

Now I understand that some people won't want this option but it really works for us. One of the choices for store credit was Amazon. I do loads of shopping there. Not only do a number of our family members keep wish lists there for birthday and Christmas gifts, but I also use their Subscribe & Save feature to buy things like diapers and wipes.

So now, every few weeks I take a container of change along with me on my grocery shopping trip. I usually get around $80 of credit each time I go. It feels like we have gotten diapers for free for months!! And, I am hoping to use these credits to get a good portion of our Christmas shopping done.

For those of you looking for a way to save some money this holiday season, perhaps you can "find" some money of your own.