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Look! Demijohn as Change Jar

2-25-demijohn2.jpgDo 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.

 
 

2-25-demijohn1.jpg
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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Comments (32)

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!

posted by sylvia_f on October 30th 2008 at 12:56pm
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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.

posted by Craftypants on October 30th 2008 at 12:59pm
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good luck with that

posted by smorgenstern on October 30th 2008 at 1:06pm
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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!

posted by bibliogrrl on October 30th 2008 at 1:08pm
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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.

posted by Nudik on October 30th 2008 at 1:12pm
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when were were little, we had a champagne bottle as a "coin jar"...

posted by Nudik on October 30th 2008 at 1:13pm
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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/

posted by Harpa on October 30th 2008 at 1:25pm
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Cute portrait!

And oh by the way -- what the ^%$ is a demijohn?

posted by outonalimb_2008 on October 30th 2008 at 1:30pm
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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!

posted by chusmabilly on October 30th 2008 at 1:32pm
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http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/look/look-demijohn-as-change-jar-043732

posted by Ana on October 30th 2008 at 2:14pm
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oh dear

posted by twenty twenty-one on October 30th 2008 at 2:17pm
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don't wait till it's full to empty it -- not terribly practical, I'm afraid.

posted by dmh on October 30th 2008 at 3:09pm
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i have a buddha bank. its bright pink.

posted by art_brutale on October 30th 2008 at 4:27pm
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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.

posted by vita on October 30th 2008 at 5:40pm
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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!

posted by Stephie_is_a_dork on October 30th 2008 at 5:49pm
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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!

posted by Mrs.B on October 30th 2008 at 6:00pm
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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).

posted by still life mercantile on October 30th 2008 at 6:17pm
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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.

posted by charlenemcbride on October 30th 2008 at 6:28pm
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I've just got a classic piggy bank.

posted by Jessa on October 30th 2008 at 6:45pm
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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...

posted by kgenesius on October 30th 2008 at 6:49pm
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@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!

posted by bunbun on October 30th 2008 at 7:49pm
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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.

posted by natomaton on October 30th 2008 at 7:57pm
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Why was this reposted?

posted by f.in.eur on October 31st 2008 at 12:51am
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this is the first time i've heard the word demijohn...

just me then?

posted by khanzen on October 31st 2008 at 1:24am
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:-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.

posted by maike on October 31st 2008 at 6:13am
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Repost!

posted by VeryVee on October 31st 2008 at 7:35am
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the only problem is that you will have to break it when you want your change back

posted by hanako66 on October 31st 2008 at 8:27am
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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.

posted by tailfin on October 31st 2008 at 9:54am
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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.

posted by kambykitten on October 31st 2008 at 10:00am
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kambykitten..I think you are underestimating the heaviness of that much change. and the noise it would make!

posted by laddibugg on October 31st 2008 at 10:39am
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people on AT sure are negative.

its a change container, CHILL OUT.

posted by Hollyconda on November 3rd 2008 at 10:51am
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