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A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned-----

If you see a shiny new penny laying on the ground do you take the time to lean down, pick it up and stick it in your pocket? What about a nickle? What about a dime? How about a quarter? Oh, a quarter that sound more enticing! Easy to take the time and pick up, eh?

It's amazing as I go shopping, sit in a park, drive an area, the amount of people who don't bother with change. Many will tell the sales clerk to just keep it. Many more will let it sit in the change dispenser as they pick up their groceries, or whatever and move on. NOT me...I save every penny I see! We have a large 'sparkletts' type bottle that we call our 'Retirement Fund' (joke, cause we are both retirement age)....and into this bottle we drop all change. And then every few years we dump it all out on the floor, separate it down to piles of pennies, nickles, dimes, etc and then get the wrappers out. The kids use to laugh and say 'oh mom there's no more than $50 here' Like $50 was nothing! Not in my eyes it wasn't!

dollar Our change amounts to A LOT more than $50 though...once we had over $350, enough for a really nice dinner out with all of our kids (3, so total 5 for dinner). Last week I counted it and wrapped it again....$567.47. AWESOME...a nice little gift for the daughter to help with wedding expenses. One thing I've found that makes our 'pot' bigger now is the post office machines give change in silver dollars. No one wants to take these when I try to spend them....cashiers look at me like 'what's this'? And of course, you can't put them back into the postal machine and get more stamps...you have to use 'regular dollars' or 'regular change'....so I just drop them into the 'Retirement Fund'. What a cool and easy way to save some money! And most of it is just change that gets thrown around or left in pockets.

Start now...it's a great way to teach your kids to save....to force yourself to save a little. There are now 'counters' that you can dump your entire funds into....but it charges 8%.....that's 8cents on the dollar...I'd rather save that $40+ to exchange this $567.47 and do it myself.

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Posted by Mary Warren on 10/15/2007 12:48 AM

Comments (17)

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Originally posted at: : A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned-----

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17 Comments on A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned-----

OCT

2007

I just had a conversation with someone last week about the topic of money. That it's generational....meaning my grandparents came from the depression, they saved everything and farmed for a living. They died rich. They in turn taught my dad to work hard and be frugal. He did but at the same time he gave more to his kids because he didn't have it when he was growing up. Now here I am with my son.....look out. This generation has no concept whatsoever. We need to change their stinkin' thinkin'! My fault though. We do need to understand that a penny will add up and when times get tough we too will run the the Alhambra 5 gallon water bottle (aka piggy bank). And I too will roll it myself I know how long it took to save that 8%! :-)

Thanks for the insight!

It's not always a bad thing to keep the change...heck, just the other day I was starved for a pastrami sandwich from Tiffany's (that's the cafe around the corner) but they're cash only. I only had my ATM card so I reached into my back pocket and the change tray in my car. And guess what, well over $5 in quarters, nickels and dimes. :-) I didn't feel silly at all. I ate my sandwich and drank my green tea :)

I think it's cute and fun what you do to have the kids sprawl on the floor and wrap them up into those coin packets.

My father instilled in me the habit of picking those pennies up - they all add up! He also was a young boy during the Depression and the things he saw and lived through formed who he was.

I thought the 1.8% that my bank charges for depositing coins to my commercial account was high. 8%?! That's obscene!

Mary, it sounds like we had a similar type of upbringing. I save everything. I have a bank for pennies and another one for nickels, dimes, and quarters. I also 'cheat' myself on my check register. It's a tip I learned several years ago from Money magazine. I always round up to the nearest dollar. Sometimes more. For example, if I write a check for $28.50, I'll deduct $30 when I enter it in my check register. I had more than $600 set aside in less than a year, then decided to transfer it to my money market fund. That spare change does add up.

Good advice Mary. I have been saving my change for years. It does add up. And yes, I still bend over to pick up pennies.

Mary, my oldest son has a small fortune in change. He calls it his "401K plan". I tease him all the time to roll it up and drop it into his savings account, but he loves to watch the jar (oversized bottle!) grow so heavy that it can't be moved without a hand dolly.

Nice post :-)

Mary, I do it too... An interesting story, When the tech boom was going I calculated that if Bill Gates dropped a $100 on the ground, it would cost him more money to pick it up than to keep walking... Scary stuff...

Mary: This is a very smart thing to do! Very smart. It is money that you don't think about but it adds up!

Also, I think Bank of America has a program that will take the remainder of a whole dollar on debit card transaction and put it into a saving account that draws interest.

Mary - Nice story! I was taught the same this exactly! Funny how the younger generation doesn't always see it that way.

Mary, we have an upstairs change container and a downstairs change container. We cashed ours in a few years ago and it helped pay for us to go see our son when he was stationed in Germany. I expect we will continue saving for another trip.

We bought one of those little change seperators which works great. We can then wrap the change ourself. I did not like paying the extra amount they take in the big machines at the grocery store.

OCT

2007

Mary, I missed this post but I'm glad I found my way back to it. I read not too long ago that the mint was saying that there were so many pennies out of circulation because people throw them away and discard them that after a while (can't remember how long it said) it would cost more than 1 cent for production of the penny. The article was encouraging people to get those pennies off the ground and get them back in circulation.

Mary~ here in NJ it's so easy to get rid of change. We just bring it unwrapped in a container, dump it into the change machine at Commerce Bank and leave the bank with the green stuff, all at no charge!! I usually collect the change and use it for vacation expenses.

OCT

2007

Such great advice. When I was a kid my grandparents had made all us kids really big piggy banks that when we came over grandpa would empty his pocket of change and devide it among us all. Never knew what would happen to that change until I got my piggy bank as a wedding gift myself. It had $300 and some odd dollars in it. I thought that was pretty awesome!

OCT

2007

Hi Mary! Oh I agree. I always save my change and if I see a penny....you know that old saying. See a penny pick it up and all day long you'll have good luck. I'm old fashioned that way. :)

Hi Mary...... I agree with many people here that it's a generational thing. My kids wouldn't think of stopping and picking up a penny. Me, on the other hand.... absolutely. I'm always amazed on how much money I come across when I'm walking the dog. I usually just throw it in the "Change" (ash) tray in the car. The other day I happened to have no bills in my wallet and dug into the change looking for coffee money.......$13 dollars worth of "found money".

I'm from the UK and was taught to "look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves"

have Fun

Alan

I rescue every penny (or coin) that I find. I have jugs of found money. One day I will cash them in and use it for vacation.

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Mary Warren

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