Save your Change

When ever you buy anything with cash, use bills. Even if its $1.05. Give them $2.00. When ever you get home just put it all in a jar. At the end of the week, month, whenever.. take it to the bank and put it in a general savings account.

After a few weeks there is usually enough to get yourself something nice. A game, a DVD player, that radom thing on ebay (that will just collect dust in my closet), whatever. It helps keep the feeling that you can still get yourself things on impulse when you want to. For me that is the hardest part about saving... having to deny myself those spur of the moment things. This way I can. I go a head and make the purchase. Then I take money from the little account and transfer it to my regular one. This doesn't work with everyone. Some people don't use cash much. Some people don't want to never go to the bank and roll coins. But it helped me go on two mini-vacations for a day at times when I got a little stressed, usually about money, and wouldn't have afforded it otherwise.

Nick

Just be careful of the Money Jar Trap (http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4827) which can mean you lose money when trying to save change.
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I agree about the possibility of loosing money over the long term, but for me this isn't any kind of long term saving vehicle. The money I put in the savings account is only there for a month or so before I take it out and spend it. Doing it this way, it is money I've already written off as gone. Once a month or so I get the chance to buy "binge" and get myself something stupid, without affecting anything I am actively trying to save. For me, saving cash that I actually have in my hand is extreemly difficult. I am too much of an impulse buyer coupled with a computer nerd mentality that likes gadgets. This is a dangerous combination. When I try to limit my spending I unfailingly breakdown and buy some randome thing I neither need, nor will use. Same as trying to diet, you have to reward yourself every once and a while. But thanks for the advice about staying away from Coinstar and the like. I knew they charged a fee, but I didn't every pay attention to how much it was. 10% or so is enough to go from a base model to something with a few more bells and whistles :D

Thanks,
Nick

If you have a Bank of America debit card they are running Keep the change (http://budgetdial.blogspot.com/2005/12/keep-change-update.html) promotion where they round up your spenidng and put the difference into a separate saving account for you. It is money probably wouldn't have been saved just yet.

When I was single and had few bills, I would refrain from using my $1 bills and put them in a container when I got home from shopping. After a few weeks, I would gather up my stack of bills, and deposit them in a savings account. It worked vey well.

Once, a bank teller saw the stack of small bills and asked me, "Are you a waiter?"

My father has this habit of keeping all the changes in his piggy bank (yes, STILL A PIGGY BANK!) and always breaks it open at the end of every year.

My father always manages to save up to hundreds of dollars every year from changes.

I've always liked keeping my change. I use a 5 gallon water bottle (the kind you flip upside down and put in a water cooler) to keep all my change in.

It's pretty nice, because it takes a lot of work to get the money OUT of the jug, that its a deterent whenever you think you need to borrow from it. It also works for throwing your spare bills, and they are even harder to get out!

I'm using it as a possible college fund for our kids (when we choose to have kids!).

I have no idea how much is in there, but since it's a long term plan, I really don't care. Hopefully I'll be surprised when I decide to cash in!

Grant