The Magic of Pocket Change

We had a guy come in today with a 5 gallon water jug half-full of change, for the tellers to count with our coin counter machine. Normally I wouldn’t have noticed, but I’m a strapping young man and I was called upon to lug this huge burden to the back room and fish out all the coins through the tiny bottle neck while dropping coins all over the floor… Why do people use these things!?!? I digress…

Again, the bottle was half-full of pocket change, quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies and the occasional stray dollar bill, Canadian coins, 3 small screws, a washer, lint, cat hair and all sorts of other crap I prefer not to think about. It took about 30 minutes for me to run all of this through our machine, had to change a few full bags along the way. The total came to $2430.00 (not exactly I just can’t remember the rest).

When the customer came back he was surprised to learn how much was in the jug, but seemed more interested as to what the screws were supposed to go to. Nevertheless, this is a great example of how that little jar on your desk, can be a great savings tool. Granted, he wasn’t earning any interest on this money, but it was out of sight, out of mind and that damn bottle neck prevented him from spending it. If you empty your pockets at the end of the day, it may be worthwhile to start putting it in a jug or a container you can’t see into (again: out of sight, out of mind). Just pick it up every now and then and make sure you can actually carry it to the bank. When it’s full it may surprise you.

One more thing… if you could empty it into a cloth bag (you can get one at the bank) or some other easy to access container before you bring it in, I’d appreciate it.