What to Do With All Those Pennies?
Originally posted at Get Rich Slowly on 22 Sept 2006.
Over at AskMetafilter, a user wants to know what to do with all his pennies.
I have a lot of pennies. They accumulated over the past twelve years. I need a permanent solution to this problem other than a big jar. What do you do with your pennies?
My favorite answer so far — because it’s handy and prevents you from accumulating new pennies — is this:
Carry around four pennies with you at all times; whenever you make a cash purchase, you can always give the cashier a couple of extra pennies instead of getting a couple of extra pennies back. Once you get into the habit, it’s not so hard; I successfully got rid of two years’ worth of pennies this way over the course of about nine months.
Andy Rooney hates the penny, too.
[AskMetafilter: Going Penny-Crazy]
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k34h2qf9vy2 said,
February 1, 2007 @ 4:19 pm
This is a good point. If you accumulate change at home then you are effectively rounding all purchases up to the nearest dollar.
I have a different solution:
(If you can’t trust yourself to pay your credit card bills every month skip this comment. I know we’ve been through this issue already but it’s relevant here too…)
I use my credit card for all purchases. I get 5% back on gasoline and auto repair, 3% back on groceries and 1% back on all other purchase. If you don’t take advantage of these rebates you are subsidizing people like me who do.
Since I never use cash, I also don’t have problems accumulating loose change, or worrying about ATM fees.
(I don’t like debit cards. If one gets stolen, the theives might empty your bank accounts and your checks might bounce etc.)
Andrea >> Become a Consultant Blog said,
February 1, 2007 @ 9:29 pm
I put them in a jar. When the jar is full, I take it to the machine at my grocery store. The machine sorts the coins and gives me a receipt. I cash in the receipt for cash, which I deposit to my son’s college fund.
Even though the machine charges 10%, I consider this to be money well spent. It can take up to an hour to sort and roll the same amount of coins and then I have to take them to a bank, which is more time. And carrying excess coins in my wallet hurts my shoulder. So it makes sense to use the coins as forced savings. Besides, if they’re just sitting in a jar, you’re better to get 90% of the value and invest it.
Brad said,
February 11, 2007 @ 8:06 am
Pennies, I love pennies.
Along with enjoying keeping my eye out for the pre 1960 wheat pennies and saving them as a small collectiuion, I save the rest in a large bottle. I also use the Coinstar machine, but only for the pennies. The rest of the “chicken feed” as my grandmother used to call it is worth my while to roll but the pennies are worth it to pay the 10%.
When my bottle is almost full (usualy about 6 months) there is about $70.00 in cash and I use it to treat my wife and I to a fine dinner out.