Sealed pots and penny jars - a help or a hindrance to DFW's?

Karb

I know a lot of people on this forum like to use sealed pots, penny jars or whatever to save up their change.

I always think that they are a bad thing, as the money that is in my jar could be just enough to stop me from having to take that extra tenner out of the bank or stopping me from making that extra small payment to the credit card company.

There's obviously no right or wrong answer here, but I'm interested to know how many people use them and how many think like me; or whether I could be persuaded to see the benefits.

Do they work for you?

bottleofred

Hi Karb,

I have 3 tins in total, although none of them are sealed. 1 is for coppers, 1 for loose silver change and the other for £2 coins. The coppers and silver I count up from time to time and normally end up with anything from £15 - £30 (if I'm really lucky it will be £30!). I've only recently started the £2 tin, but would estimate there is probably close to £40 in it. I'll let it go for a while though, or until I absolutely need it. If taking the £10 out of the Bank was enough to put you into the red and face additional bank charges, I'd say take the money out of the tins. If not though, give it a go.

Red

backinbusiness

I save £2 coins in a tin - but not sealed as I can't help counting it every time I update my spreadsheet!

I find this a reasonably "painless" way to save as you don't really "miss" the odd £2, but it adds up to a substantial amount quite quickly.

Since 1st Jan I've managed to put £126 into this tin. At that rate I'd hope to fund Christmas with it.

Agree with previous poster tho - no point doing that and incurring bank charges! It depends whether or not your budget enables you to sacrifice these coins.

bib

rising_from_the_ashes

I've tried various tins to put money away for things like car tax/service/pets etc over the past couple of years but always ended up raiding them if I was skint and wanted something or, as the others have said, it's not worth incurring charges.

This year I've set up "pots" from my bank account and this is (so far) working much better and the temptation to raid isn't there - I actually tend to forget about the money as once it's moved from my main account it's almost ike I've already spent it!

I do still have a couple of piggy banks:

£365 in 365 days - on track with this. I was going to save the whole amount but decided (after advice on here) that I will be clearing it out now & then & putting the money towards my overdraft.

£2 coin one - which I've had for years. I use the money for things I can't usually afford to buy like plants/pots/tools for the garden (currently saving for bulk bag gravel to do the front garden).

Wow BIB, I've only got around £20 in my £2 tin so far this year! (I don't keep count of them as I'd be tempted to raid if I knew the real total)!

I've also got a 50p one which is in case I need to get the bus to work/run out of money at the end of the month.

maganan

I've got a sealed pot for all change under 50p and this tin is feeling nice and weighty already and I'm hoping that this will be Christmas food and drink etc, anything left will go as an extra payment off debt

I've also got a "pot" from my current account to transfer money for all the one off bills TV licence, car servicing, house maintenance, emergencies, etc again my plan is that anything I dont use will go off debt payment at the end of the 12mths

My favourite pot is the £2 coins I've saved these for a while and last year (as my LBM was approaching!) these paid for Chirstmas food. Currently once I've got a bag of £20 they go in a building society for emergencies and hopefully a camping trip later in the year.

I know many of you will think I could be putting all this towards debt now but I'm terrified of something happening and having no access to any money, I'm a single parent and at this early stage of my journey to becoming debt free I feel I need some kind of finanacial buffer..............

Tink_04

ive had a silver tin for about 3 years its huge and sealed and i just chuck in the odd change i forget about it sometimes but its not full yet and have no idea how much is in there but once its full i may raid it and use it for a treat or xmas i havnt really decided - we have a copper dish where we just chuck the pennies every now and then we count these up and DH changes them at work for 50p's and they go in the tin

CashRequired

Mines unsealed, as you rightly say sometimes it comes in handy to not go to the bank.

I chuck in my change after a night down the pub or whatever. Then I take out £10 out my pot when i need it and just have it as pocket money rather than have to take out my current a/c. Sometimes i even save £5 notes.

Horace

I have 4 jars all unsealed..one for 2p, one for 1p, one for silver (usually 5ps) and another for £2 coins. When they start getting full I count them up and take them to the bank and pay them in. So far this year I have banked nearly £200...mainly in £2 coins.

I have another jar that I use for vouchers - I keep my consumerpulse vouchers in it - I got £100 Waterstones vouchers at christmas which I have used as presents for people and for me.

I don't think that having the jars gets me into debt quite the opposite in fact.

fuzzybear01

I'd be nervous saving vouchers just in case the company was to go bust. I'd be tempted to buy things and out them away instead, but that's only my view on it. We've got 3 different pots, 1p, 2p, and mixed. The mixed one is for my four year's trip to disneyland sometime in the future.

d3mon4ngel

I first started doing my own private virtual sealed pot, where you round your bank account down to the nearest £10 on a Friday. Rather than put the money into an account though, I just paid it across to my credit card. Money I wouldn't otherwise miss and helped to reduce the balance

I've always kept "penny jars", though tend to put all sorts of change in them. At the minute we have 4 pots at home. One for coppers, one for 5p's, one for other mixed silver and one for £2 coins. The mixed silver has been raided occassionally and the £2's are for our holiday (if and when we have one). The others just get counted up and put into the bank when they are full. Last time I went through the penny jars I had over £36 in them to put into the bank, which was quite a nice surprise considering that was pretty much all coppers!

debtfreewannabe321

I don't take part in the the sealed pot challenge, but i do have 2 jars/tins one has coppers (1p & 2p) and the other has silver & gold coins (right up to £2 coins) I empty my purse out everytime i get home. If all i needed was a loaf of bread say, rather than take out a tenner i would take the money from my jar. I am trying not to touch it though as I have ear marked it to pay for season ticket's to the local zoo, so i am about half way there atm and it's a good incentive not to empty it out and only use for emergencies!