apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Boyfriend and I have been collecting change forever now and are pretty obsessive about its organization: quarters are in their own jar (a cracked porcelain flour container) for laundry; nickels and dimes are kept in old coffee tins; pennies are kept in an old glass milk jug. We plan on using everything (save the quarters) around the holidays--cashing in our change and turning it into an Amazon gift certificate to do a bunch of holiday shopping. Last year we were able to get bunches of books with all of the loose change that fell to the bottom of our pockets!

My husband and I save our loose change in a big silver piggy bank. It looks so cute while we're growing our fortune, and then, once it's pretty full, we cash in our change and go out to a nice dinner. I love it.

I keep my change collection in a large mason jar. I've had it for about 2 years and it's still not full. But I guess I might as well cash it all in and see how much is actually in there.

Quarters are kept in a smaller glass jar and get used frequently for laundry.

i have a real piggy bank for my non-quarter change. cute, smiling, fat pink pig. i did the Commerce Bank coin gig thing a few times and got about $30 each visit!

quarters are in a guatemalan change purse. for bulk laundry like blankets i don't want the laundromat to charge me an arm and leg for and for items i just feel like washing myself instead of dropping off at the laundromat.

change from international travel is in a separate bin, not to get traded in until things get REALLY desperate.

On a semi related note (ie the first picture) Broguiere's chocolate milk is awesome!

http://www.savings4.me.uk/terramundi-money-pots.asp

These are awesome, if only because they stop you raiding your savings on a whim!

We use a Carlo Rossi wine jug to save our change in for 2 years until it was full. There was about $400 in it. We used the money to buy wedding bands before we eloped a couple of months ago.

we put our change in a tacky cookie jar that was brought home after a game of dirty santa. it's a dog holding a sign that reads "merry christmas" or "welcome" (depending on which side you want showing). it's always on the "merry christmas" side because we're saving to get a dog. we might not get one this christmas because we're living in such a tiny place, but maybe next year!

I do this too but the jar stays for years ...

My partner and I keep a change pig, though it's not nearly as lucrative now that we've moved back to the States from Canada. All of those loonies and toonies added up quickly!

My ex, and now friend, is a bartender and his coworkers didn't like taking the change in the tips jar so he did. We put it in a big bowl and every few months took it to Commerce to turn metal into paper. The rule was that we had to use it for something fun. It was always over $100 and once we used it to go out for dinner at a really tasty and fancy place. Now I'm filling the bowl on my own and it fills more slowly - and with fewer quarters now that I'm using a coin op washing machine. But I'm looking forward to doing something fun with the total when it gets full enough.

I keep all our change in our truck, for when we make runs to the specialists in River City and need to use the toll parkway. Lives in the cup holders -- the truck has a built-in change holder, but is difficult to access.

We keep our change in large ceramic piggy banks. Currently it is a large white pig with pink and green flowers. The last one was a large ceramic ball we purchased in Barcelona which resembled a Gaudi building in its shape. The only way to get the money is to break the actual pig. The last two had about $600 in it.

I used to keep a coin jar until I decided it was clutter and dusty and avoiding the inevitable. I decided to make better use of the change section of my wallet and put more effort into using coins to pay for things. This has worked out well for a few years now.

I keep my coins in a tin cup and 2 Dundee and Croydon marmalade jar. When they are full, my sister-in-law rolls them and we split the cash ---having lunch and hitting our favorite antique shops. My father used to keep his change in an old sock. He would divide it evenly among his 3 children for us to buy Christmas gifts.

We keep all our change in a large mason jar. I keep several smaller jars around the house and then combine them occasionally. Then, we cash it in at our local coinstar machine and use it for something fun. It feels like free money! As a bonus my daughter (4) flips out every time I say it is time to cash in our change since she gets to help and watch the machine "eat" our money.

I keep mine in a giant liquor bottle. It's so full and heavy at this point that I can barely lift it. I'm saving it for my elopement which is only 2 more months away so thanks for the reminder!

We think big in our house! I raid my husband's pocket change pile frequently and this, plus any change that turns up in the clothes dryer goes into a repurposed Red Vines container (4 lb size). It is about 1/2 full, and hopefully, with the sheer volume of the thing, it will total a pretty penny someday!

I keep my quarters for laundry in a Royal Doulton cream pitcher ("Paddy", mentioned twice in one day for odd reason) and most of the rest of my change collects in a couple wooden boxes on my bookshelf. It's part of a subtle theme. Over the years, I cash my change in when I am broke, and it usually fixes things for a little while, long enough, whatever. There are definitely smarter ways to put that money to use so it's there for me when I need it, but eh. My system has never failed me.

Large pottery crock with lid. I fish out the quarters pretty often, and then take it the rest to Sally Army kettles at Christmas.

We keep the quarters in a small jewelry box on the dresser (for laundry) and the rest gets dumped in a vase on top of the refrigerator. It's almost full so I'm loving the suggestions from this post!

Yay! I love saving change. I keep it in some wooden cigar boxes. At least once or twice a year I take it to the bank's coin counting machine then deposit it. I then write a check to the principle on my mortgage for that amount (usually a couple hundred $$) When I was younger and first started doing this my boyfriend and I bought our vacation airplane tickets with it. It adds up if you add quarters.

I'm with chottomotto, large alcohol bottles hold my change. Pennies in an Seagrams 7 bottle and the silver change in a larger vodka bottle. I got the bottles years ago from my grandpa's coin collection. My grandpa was the king of saving his change. He had these two 5 gallon jugs and several of the large alcohol bottles that he used to put his pennies in. One summer he made a deal with me that if I rolled them all I could keep half of the profits. I made over 400 dollars. That means I rolled what 800,000 pennies? (since it was over $800 overall) That kept me busy the whole summer. For years after that I prayed he'd let me roll his quarter jugs (also in 5 gallon jugs). It was literally years and years of saving coins, I'd have to guess at least 15 .

actually, we use that same milk bottle!

I am a change junkie and have saved several hundred dollars over the last 2 years maybe. The trick is to keep the pennies separated from the silver coins. Pennies add too much bulk and not enough wealth to a jar of coins. I had a very large vase full of pennies - I took it to a coinstar and had 20 bucks. The same weight in silver coins was 250 bucks. It's kinda ghetto, but it doesn't look so bad - I keep my change in one of those Eiffel Tower shaped drink things from Paris Las Vegas. It looks pretty ok out on my book case.

Whiskey metal can.... even it is too big and it seems it will never bee full...

My husband has a big black piggy bank on his dresser that his $1 bills and all coins go into. I have a tin that looks like a €100 bill for all my euro coins, except for €1 coins. We leave those in the car because we need them for carts at the german shops. My us coins go in a tin on a shelf in the living room that everyone else in the house thinks is just decoration, otherwise the kids would pilfer it for candy money.

I drink espresso at home everyday, so I use my old espresso cans to hold my change. I keep one on my dresser and I dump all my change in it everyday (when I'm good) and/or when I find it piled all over the house. I hate having stuff in my pockets, so I rarely carry change and dump it out of my pocket at the first chance. When my main can gets full, I sit in front of the TV and count it up, then I separate pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters into their own cans. I counted it up a couple months ago and after about 8 months of dumping pocket change I had around $45 just in quarters, so I was pleased with myself.

I need to start doing this again - saving change.
There is a German tradition that the bride buys her wedding shoes with the PENNIES (1 cent coin) she's saved since her and the groom to be started dating. I don't know if i could ever save that many pennies - i have expensive taste when it comes to shoes.

This World has too much Money!!! When I recently got my Hamptons home bck after being rented for the summer. I found over $ 8 dollars in coins left around!!! Also one other day I went to the Southampton DUMP, and saw a guy unloading a truck from a rich persons home cleanout. In the midst was ajar filled with money. They had told hime throw EVERYTHING out, so he didn't want to be accused of stealing, and so he THREW OUT the jar of money. I grabbed it and was over $ 30 dollars the richer!!!
ONLY IN AMERICA FOLKS!!!

I only use bills when I pay for something and save all the change from my purchases, which really adds up. At the end of the month, I take the coins to Coinstar and get a giftcard for the full value. Sometimes I get Starbucks to treat myself or I get one from Amazon.com to buy a present for someone.

I used to keep all my change in a large mason jar, which I liked the look of. Then I went with my friends to one of those pottery places. I picked out a bank that looked like a whale and painted it leopard print. It came out great and I get to appreciate my art every time I add change.

i kept all my change in a giant bank shaped like a pepsi bottle from the time I was in middle school until my senior year of high school. a few days before i left for college my dad and i put the change in all these different smaller containers and lugged them over to the grocery store. it took two trips to get the change from the car inside the store, and about an hour just to get all the change in the coinstar machine (while people were staring in amazement, and asking for money). in the end, minus the fees, i ended up with about $600 to spend on making my college dorm look pretty and stocking up on school supplies. :)

saving change is cool!

I keep all my change in one of those glass decorative dry spaghetti holders with a cork top that comes in a gift set from gourmet shops. I got it as a gift years ago and it seemed wasteful to throw it out after I used all the spaghetti.

I also have a little metal bank I use to keep bills in. This bank is for money that I would have spent, but didn't (wanting Starbucks, but not giving in to the urge etc). It makes me think twice about just picking up little things that I really don't need and it adds up. Then, after a few months of not touching, it's used as fun money.

I used to save quarters in a little change purse for laundry. Now I drop all coins in an actual ceramic bank from my childhood -- a vintage Buckingham-Palace-looking-guard (forget what they're officially called) in a corner on the floor in a little hallway (a nice surprise of bright color). When it's full I'll cash it in for bills at the bank.

funny - i use the exact same type of milk jug (though from a local dairy that sells milk at the farmer's market in Union Square). If you are lucky enough to live near a Commerce Bank, you can drop all those coins in for hard cash for free (no coinstar fees).

Looks like I'm the only one to use my coins to buy stuff - like groceries!

If only I had enough money to keep in a jar on the counter....

For two years I was fortunate enough to live in a no-pay laundry situation, so I was able to save all my change, including the quarters. After two years, I planned a trip to New Orleans (Mardi Gras just before Katrina) and cashed it all in. I don't want to say how much there was, but it was more than enough to pay for the tattoo I got while I was there.

we keep ours in a cafe du monde coffee can on our dresser. at the end of the year, we take it to the coinstar and use that cash to buy our christmas tree. it's usually about a hundred bucks.

It depends why you're saving your change. If it's for laundry, etc, a coin jar is just fine, but if you're saving for something bigger, I use a Terramundi Pot as it removes the temptation of dipping into your savings whenever the fancy takes you.