Frugal Friday: The little things
I'm all for saving money on big things, but I'm also a firm believer that pennies matter, too. No, I don't drive all over town to save 2 cents a gallon on gasoline (Remember, time is money!), but I do try to be a wise steward in stretching our resources as far as I can. It's often the little things which make the biggest difference.
One tangible way we have saved our pennies ever since we were married is by having a loose change cup. Because almost every dollar, dime, and nickel which comes into our home as incomeis already set aside for a purpose in our budget, we don't have a lot of loose change. However, we went ahead and designated a spot for loose change in case we ever did have some. Believe it or not we've found that we often do have a few pennies, nickels, and dimes to add to our loose change cup each week. I'm not even always sure where they come from!
When Jesse was in law school and we had no extra cash for anything besides the bare necessities, we'd empty out this cup every few months and take it to the bank and use the $7 or so dollars we'd accumulated to do something special - like getting dinner and a movie. (Yes, we could do that for $7 - we'd either rent the movie at this place where we could get 2 movies for $1 or we'd get one from the library. And then we'd use coupons at a fast food restaurant to stretch the remaining $6 for a meal for the two of us.) We rarely ever had an extra $6-7, so this was a special treat.
Now that we have a small percentage of our income designated for dates and eating out, we decided to instead put our loose change cup money into savings. We let it build up for around a year and just recently took it to the bank. Guess how much money was in the cup? $35! I was rather surprised.
I decided to calculate how much we could save over 35 years if we put $35/year of loose change money into savings. Using the compound interest calculator and guessing we could probably get around 10% interest compounded annually on a good mutual fund over a 35 year period (Thanks, Dave Ramsey, for getting me all excited about the possibilities with mutual funds and how to wisely invest using them!), you know how much that loose change money would make if invested over 35 years?
$11,418.02
Not bad, if I may say so. And it proves once again that pennies really do matter.
Keep this in mind the next time you want to stop for a non-budgeted quick bite to eat or a latte. If you feel your finances are stretched beyond repair and yet you fail to take account for the little purchases here and there, you just might be overlooking an easy solution to your financial problems. Stop spending the pennies you don't have here and there and instead start saving them.
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posted by Crystal Paine at 3:56 PM
15 Comments:
About a month ago, we rolled all of our change that was around the house and in the vehicles. We had over $100. We always bend over and pick up those pennies that are on the ground. lol! You're right that it all adds up.
I have a bucket in the garage on top of the dryer for loose change. You are right, it really does add up. We have quite a few dollars worth in there after a few weeks. We take this change and donate it to our church charity. I guess you could call it our tithing bucket.
I so understand about using even the change to meet expenses. :-)The last two years I've kept our change for yard sale and thrift store money. I also keep it on hand if I want to buy an extra Sunday paper or two. This year, we've been saving as much as we can (even more than before), so I've been putting every little bit into savings. On a good month, it might be $5, but it does add up. Every rebate check I get back(even the little ones) goes right into savings. At first, I felt stupid taking the time to save such small amounts, but the pennies do start to add up and it makes a difference.
Lots of change starts to make me feel outa sorts... so we do the penny jar thing :)
But it does add up.. happy friday all
Blessings
GP in Montana
We have the change jar too! But in our case we take the money and put it into the college account, it is one of the ways we can find "extra" money to plunk in!
It is so surprising how little things like this add up!
We save our change too in a small fire proof box that has all our valuable things in it. When that box starts getting to the point where I can't lift it, I begin rolling change. On an average, there is usually between $15-$20 every few months worth of change. It just goes in our savings account. ;)
Saving money is fun!
We use a change jar too and just love it! It almost feels like "free money".
For years, before marriage my husband saved his change sorted by denomination. He had HUGE jars of each. We had to cash it in before moving as it was too heavy to move. It amount to several hundred dollars. It sure help us out with extra wedding and moving expenses!
Take Care,
Trixie
I pay for things in stores using bills and then dump the loose change I get back into the bottom of my purse. I empty the change into a coffee can in my kitchen cupboard. I also deposit into the can whatever money I saved using coupons at the grocery store. After about a year, I have managed to save well over $300! This is all going directly into our adoption fund. It's not a lot when you look at the total expeditures, but it will pay for a few nights in a hotel or quite a few meals or shopping for treasures for our daughters while in China.
I use an old wine jug for our change jar! I usually "pay" the kids allowance in change so I have to keep it on hand. I love change! We did go through a lot of it when our Ice Cream shop was open, so my stocks are down, otherwise the jug would be full & I'd have a use for the one in the recycling bin...
Our local crisis pregnancy center does a baby bottle campaign each year - they give people baby bottles to fill with their loose change and return. They figure each bottle holds about $25 in change. (not ours, though, because I use the quarters we bring home for laundry!)
I needed that reminder...having just done a fast food lunch that I shouldn't have! We've saved our change for ages and I've paid for skates, books, and now saving for a new sewing machine that way.
Hannah and I take walks around our neighborhood most days and I try to keep a look-out for change on the street (not much else to look at in terms of aesthetics in our neighborhood, so I'm not missing anything by keeping my eyes on the pavement!). It's AMAZING how much we've found. Just this last week, in 3 walks, we found a total of 71 cents! Mostly in pennies and nickels, a few dimes. It does add up.
When I was grocery shopping a week or so ago there was a man with his daughter (8 maybe) in line ahead of me. She had a coinstar receipt and got the money from the cashier. The cashier asked what she was going to do with it and she said she was taking it to the bank. Her dad then explained that a few years ago they told her to start putting her change in her piggy bank (I suspect the parents helped too) and that when it got to be enough they'd go take it in and put it in her bank account. So they did. I thought it was a great lesson for a girl that age (though I probably would roll it rather than lose the 10% or so with coinstar).
some great ideas! I jsut found you so I will have to think of a good tip for next friday and come back! Thanks!
This was a great post. Thank you.
Trixi
homesteadblogger.com/spencerschool
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