Do you save loose change? Not the most original idea, but one that works well for us, we use our vintage demijohn (which we found at the Melrose Trading Post during a trip to LA last year) as a sort of retro savings account - collecting all of our loose change and sometimes a bill or two, all while being pretty enough that it fits nicely into our decor.
We're not exactly sure what we're saving for - sometimes it's a new couch, sometimes a vacation. But we've gotten into the habit of cleaning out our wallet and pockets when we walk in the door and dumping their contents in, which hopefully means when we figure out what exactly we want to spend the money on there'll be a fair amount there. Then we'll just have to figure out how to lift the thing - we suspect it's going to be mighty heavy once full.
(Edited from a post originally published 2.25.2008)
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Um - it's going to be hard to get the bills out, no? I suspect you're going to have to break it when you finally want your money!
While that's pretty for collecting change (and bringing to say, coinstar all at once), I prefer a deep bowl. That way it is easier just to drop a handful of coins in at once, and is MUCH easier to dig around in, looking for bus fare. I also pre-sort out the quarters into a smaller bowl for laundry.
But, I definitely agree that it is great to be able to make something as utilitarian as a change bowl, look beautiful.
good luck with that
in the 70s my parents filled one of those demijohns with matchbooks they collected from restaurants and the like. ahhh, the days when people smoked indoors!
Am I the only one who has an actually piggy bank? Well, it's a pretty clay elephant my mom or sis gave me for a New Year. I recently spotted a great leather "fishy" bank in the educational toys catalog, and I'm thinking about getting it for my kiddo. Last time my "ele-bank" got full, there were over $12. And I only collect pennies, dimes and nickels.
when were were little, we had a champagne bottle as a "coin jar"...
Oh I love these! My auntie used to have one and used it for exactly this purpose. I remember visiting her as a little kid and being facinated by it.
http://www.notyourgoddess.blogspot.com/
I use a plastic eiffel tower that you get from the Paris casino in Vegas as a coin jar. I deposited my coins today - $269. This doesn't include several greenbacks and dollar coins I have and about 10 bucks in other coins that didn't fill their wrappers. Took me about an hour to roll them and I think it was well worth it to wrap them rather than coin star them. I seperate the pennies from silver coins so I only had about 4 bucks in pennies. I loved seeing the $160 in quarters and 80 bucks in dimes. Me so proud!
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/look/look-demijohn-as-change-jar-043732
oh dear
don't wait till it's full to empty it -- not terribly practical, I'm afraid.
i have a buddha bank. its bright pink.
Oh dear. We did this, with a jereboam-sized wine bottle. Brilliant, until the day someone accidentally kicked it, and it shattered. Picking several hundred dollars worth of change out of a pile of broken glass was not a lot of fun.
The size and color of your glass bottle reminds me of the vintage 5-gallon glass water jug my mom used to put change in when I was a kid. The shape was different though. It was pretty much the same shape as the plastic 5-gallon water dispenser bottles you see now, only it was green glass. Unfortunately, it was damn near impossible to lift when it was even 1/3 full!
Ummm, good luck getting the money out. When you get a fair amount in the jar, it is going to be really tough to get it out. I did the same thing, you think because it went in easy it will come out easy...wrong. But I do think it looks nice!
I was just the other day remembering the beautiful blue bottle like that (thank you, now I know the proper name!) that we had when I was growing up. We did keep change in it and it was a huge project to empty it, but it can be done without breaking the bank (har, har).
My friends used to use a water cooler bottle. The mouth was wide enough that if you just gave it a shake money would come out.
I've just got a classic piggy bank.
whew, Ana you made me feel so much better. I thought I was having a freaky moment of deja-vu! then I couldn't remember if I saw this on another website perhaps, and felt really crazy...
@chusmabilly:
just so you know, commerce bank has one of those coin counting machines, and lets people use them for free. you get to keep all your money without those stupid coinstar charges and you get to go to commerce bank, where you can get pens and candy!
Aw, "demijohn"! The Italian dad always called that thing a "damigiana". Which is kind of pronounced the same way.
They were usually filled with homemade wine of often questionable quality.
Why was this reposted?
this is the first time i've heard the word demijohn...
just me then?
:-D we had precisely this about 30 years ago. and we had no trouble to get the money out, either ... but it WAS really heavy when it was filling up. we tipped it on its side and got half of the money out while it was still on the floor.
Repost!
the only problem is that you will have to break it when you want your change back
I like the contrast of the blues & greens from the demijohn, votive holders & portrait of Jerry Mathers as The Beaver against the stark white walls & radiator.
Ok...am I the only one that thinks that displaying saved change is a bad idea? If it is in the front entry...then anyone passing your door can look in and see it sitting there. Also, it is one of the first things robbers go for since it is already in a container. (You can trace electronics...not often... through serial numbers, but consider that $269 saved long gone). At least make them work for it if they are going to break into your house. I keep a nondescript piggy bank in my closet in my bathroom (some place robbers rarely touch), that way when I put my dirty clothes in my hamper in the bathroom, then I empty my pockets into the piggy.
kambykitten..I think you are underestimating the heaviness of that much change. and the noise it would make!
people on AT sure are negative.
its a change container, CHILL OUT.