saving loose change (merged)

geordie_joe

noh wrote: »

The more obvious course of action to me would be to not draw the £120 cash out of the bank in the first place and spend your loose change should you have any.

Nigel

That is what I do, sort of. I used to pay for everything with notes. If I wanted to buy something for 79p and £15 worth of loose change in my pocket I would still pull out my wallet and pay with a note. I use to keep the change as savings.

Then one day an old woman who was in front of me in a supermarket queue spent ten minutes counting out loose change to pay for something when I could see she had plenty notes in her purse. I stood there thinking it would be a lot quicker if she just gave the checkout girl one of her tenners and let the girl give her £1.01 in change.

She stuck with it and managed to come up with £8.99 in coins. She turned to me and apologised for keeping me waiting adding "I'm on a budget and always spend the coins and keep the notes"

I thought about that for a while and changed the way I pay for stuff. Now instead of trying to save coins I spend them and save notes. I don't think I save any more doing it this way, but it does mean I have notes to pay into the bank each week instead of a jar full of coins that are not quite enough to make whole pounds/50p.

I used to think counting out coins to pay for things was a sign of being mean or poor, but now I just take out the coins and say "you don't mind if I pass all this on to you, do you?" They always reply "no" and quite often are pleased.

Margaret54

Hi 1jb, welcome to the site. It is a great way to save all those coins which soon mount up. My husband and i have been saving this way for years now and we bag the coins up every now and again, and feel pleased when we see the savings adding up.:j Our local banks only take 5 bags of coins at one time but that is fine, and we always ask for some coin bags too and on we go, for the next time. You don't miss the coins at all, and i am amazed at times how much we have while baging it up. We just save up the ones twos and five pence coins.My Granny always said look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. How true:T

plzhelpmesave!

ive just started a savings jar - started off with a £2 coin jar, and then kind of just started chucking in any spare money... it soon adds up!

noh

Big_Nige wrote: »

Nigel, the first line of forum etiquette states "pls be nice to all MoneySavers". What works for you, might not work for others, I have personally been saving loose change for the last 20 years, whilst not drawing money from the bank.

Big.

My post wasn't meant to be "not nice"!
I was just pointing out that it is not an efficient way of saving. If a persons income is paid into a bank account and they collect £120 of change in a 6month period all they effictively have done is moved £120 from the bank into a jar. A more efficient way of saving would be to draw out £20 less a month from the bank account and set up a monthly transfer of £20 to a high interest saving account.
Even if your income is in cash it is more efficient to pay the £20 monthly to a high interest account rather than storing it in a jar where it earns no interest.

Nigel

Cornishpixie_2

Just to lighten the moment !My hubby, who used to live with his parents, (going through several jobs), once came home from having a few too many ,and peed in his parents whisky bottle savings. It turned their two p's green! Shocking!

noh

Cornishpixie wrote: »

Just to lighten the moment !My hubby, who used to live with his parents, (going through several jobs), once came home from having a few too many ,and peed in his parents whisky bottle savings. It turned their two p's green! Shocking!

Must have really good aim:D

Nigel

1jb

noh wrote: »

My post wasn't meant to be "not nice"!
I was just pointing out that it is not an efficient way of saving. If a persons income is paid into a bank account and they collect £120 of change in a 6month period all they effictively have done is moved £120 from the bank into a jar. A more efficient way of saving would be to draw out £20 less a month from the bank account and set up a monthly transfer of £20 to a high interest saving account.
Even if your income is in cash it is more efficient to pay the £20 monthly to a high interest account rather than storing it in a jar where it earns no interest.

Nigel

No offence taken, I see your point there, although I do also do the money transfer to a high interest account.

jessie18

Margaret54 wrote: »

Hi 1jb, welcome to the site. It is a great way to save all those coins which soon mount up. My husband and i have been saving this way for years now and we bag the coins up every now and again, and feel pleased when we see the savings adding up.:j Our local banks only take 5 bags of coins at one time but that is fine, and we always ask for some coin bags too and on we go, for the next time. You don't miss the coins at all, and i am amazed at times how much we have while baging it up. We just save up the ones twos and five pence coins.My Granny always said look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. How true:T

Hi there, im not sure if im doing this right as im a newbie, but here goes. You mentioned you wanted knitting patterns, you could try charity shops some sell them for 20p each and knitting needles for 10p each. Always ask though, they are not always on display and kept out the back. Hope this helps.

dazzer21

Following on from my initial posting (don't know if I should be putting this elsewhere or not), I've come across a tin chock full of OLD 5p and 10p coins (must be about £40 worth (in old money) at least - haven't counted yet...). Would these be of any use to anybody in return for cold hard cash..?

geordie_joe

dazzer21 wrote: »

Following on from my initial posting (don't know if I should be putting this elsewhere or not), I've come across a tin chock full of OLD 5p and 10p coins (must be about £40 worth (in old money) at least - haven't counted yet...). Would these be of any use to anybody in return for cold hard cash..?

I am assuming you mean pre-decimal currency.

You could sell them on ebay, they have a coins section and a "collections/Bulk" section.

Just have a look round and see what people are buying. I had a look a minute ago and someone bid £7.99 on 34 x SIXPENCES

You could try selling them as one lot, but it may be worth splitting them up into smaller ones. Try to get a theme, something like "20 x two bob bits, one for each year from 1950 to 1970"

Or possible one coin for each year of a king/queens reign.

Depends on what you have got, but I would sort them out into years then take it from there.