CoinStar
I haven’t used this product yet, but they are everywhere and searchable. It’s basically a coin-counting machine that skips all of the paper wrapping process and all the other annoying features of counting spare change. From what I understand, the machine counts 600 coins per minute and you are either charged 8.9 cents per dollar if you want cash or are not charged anything if you just want a gift card for their partner stores (iTunes, Borders, Amazon.com, etc). I knew most houses had cash just sitting around, but wasn’t aware that the average amount is $99. Let me know if you try one of the machines out before I do, lol. Visit http://www.coinstar.com for more information.
Grandma and I did it at Meijers…because her two grandsons that usually counted it for FAIR MONEY….were grown….I believe she had like $ 66.00 we used it to go on a fun outing or something….it was quite lighter than her “change” zip lock that she use to carry with her for all of us to stop and get a pop. We had a blast with her didn’t we…..and only Grandma….would give her change to the two boys she loved so much, so much.
Pretty crazy to think that kind of change just sits around our houses, lol. Marla informed me that these Coinstar things have been around for a little while, although they have been upgraded I guesss. Maybe I should do more research and find out for sure that something is new, lol.
We used one earlier this year. We’d had $141 cash, even after the coinstar fee in loose change. Part of our savings plan is that we empty our pocket change into a container every time we come home in order to build up that amount of cash. It only took 1 year of pocket change to amount to $141. Not bad!