Managing Loose Change

ViktorOnopko
ViktorOnopko Posts: 115 Forumite
in Savings & investments
How do you folks deal with the loose change that comes back in to your house on a regular basis? There must be some clever ways of managing it on here :-)

We tend to drop it all in a bowl and change it when that bowl overflows but I'd love a better way of organising it.
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Comments

  • ChesterDog
    ChesterDog Posts: 1,111 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper Photogenic
    I take mine out with me when I go to the local Co-op and shovel it into the self-service checkout when paying.
    I am one of the Dogs of the Index.
  • AimHigh
    AimHigh Posts: 135 Forumite
    First Post Combo Breaker First Anniversary
    Whack some in your glovebox to pay for car parks that haven't been updated for 30 years :money:
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 17,580 Forumite
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    I spend it. I'm not really aware of this concept of lots of loose change. I tend to pay by card or contactless so very rarely have much cash about.
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • planteria
    planteria Posts: 5,321 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    same here jimjames. colleagues pile it into a container and I tend to weigh it in with £1 bags.
  • TBC15
    TBC15 Posts: 1,451 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Name Dropper
    I'm married so don't have loose change. Most days are a cross between a security check and a mugging.
  • Linton
    Linton Posts: 17,103 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary Hung up my suit!
    Keep the 10ps, 20ps and 50ps. Our local town carparks want 80p/hour which makes change a real hassle. 1 and 2 ps go in a charity box.
  • firestone
    firestone Posts: 520 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    TBC15 wrote: »
    I'm married so don't have loose change. Most days are a cross between a security check and a mugging.
    Please no talk of foreplay before the watershed:eek:
  • lpgm
    lpgm Posts: 355 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    I don't think of it as loose change. Cash is cash.
  • HeyG
    HeyG Posts: 4 Newbie
    Get a coin jar and just throw it all in there, it really all adds up. I've got one and I throw in coppers and silvers. Cashed it up and put it towards Christmas shopping - it was almost £70!
  • zerog
    zerog Posts: 2,478 Forumite
    In the places where I still use cash, I spend coins normally and don't understand why most people are unable to.

    Unless there's a specific reason you need to keep certain coins (e.g. buses that don't give change, coin laundrette) or a shop has run out of fivers, you should never have more than £9 in coins.

    Suppose something costs £3.62 but you have less than £3 of coins.

    If you have 62p, pay £5.62 and get £2 change instead of £1.38. Or pay £10.62 or £20.62 if you really have to.

    If you don't have 62p, but you do have 2p, then pay £5.02, getting rid of 2p is better than getting another 8p.

    Instead, some people seem to have an aversion to spending coins.

    Germans don't seem to have a problem with doing this.

    In Japan, another advanced country where cash is still heavily used, many shops have a coin counter in their registers, even if it's not a self-checkout - so you just put all your coins on the tray and their machine will do everything for you, so you usually end up with the fewest possible number of coins in your wallet. This is also the case in Scandinavia, but cash usage in those countries has dropped and some places are card only.
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