Spare change anyone?

Congratulations! Many of you are already very organized with your keys.  This is excellent as most people I know are not.

Now, since you’re putting your keys in a specific spot when you enter your home, today I offer another suggestion.

• Put a little open jar or container that is decorative and not see-through right next to where your keys are.
• As soon as you get in the door at home, unload all your coins into that jar.
• Every day, every time, when you get in the door.
• Do NOT peek into the jar … that’s the reason it is not see-through. It will help avoid you ‘stealing’ from yourself to buy your coffee in the morning when you leave for work.  Take from it even once and you’ve set yourself up to do it again … and again … it will ruin the whole point of the exercise.

On a specific day (such as the first day of the month; first Sunday of the month; last day of the month; 15^th … whatever you choose), empty the jar and roll up the coins.  Put them in a safe place somewhere else in the house (like a shoebox on a shelf in the back of your neatly organized closet) for now.  You can buy bags of coin rollers at the dollar store for pennies each.  Whatever you do, do NOT take your coins to a grocery store and put them into one of those machines that ‘cashes’ you out.  You may not be aware of it, but if you read the fine print, the machine keeps a portion of your money – around here it is 10%!  Ludicrous!  On the other hand, being lazy deserves a penalty.

At the end of the year (or, if you’re always short of money around Christmas to buy gifts, do it then), go and get your stash of cash.  Take it to the bank (this is why you rolled the coins.  There is a rule on what amount of coin is considered to be ‘legal tender’ – generally one coin less than fits in a roll for that coin is the legal tender … example: $9.75 in quarters is acceptable, but not $10 or more … good luck trying to pass off a lot of coinage, most stores are not interested) and deposit it in your savings account.  You will be amazed at how much money you have ‘saved’ over the course of the year.  Now, the only decision is to choose what you want to do with it – I would suggest you treat yourself with a portion of it and invest the rest.  It’s your life and your money, enjoy it as you see fit.

Want an idea of how much this could be, without you having to do any math?  From now until December 31, there are approximately 270 days.  Say you put in an average of $1.50 a day in the coin jar – you’ll have just over $400 by year end.  We could all use that!  Remember the old adage “a penny saved is a penny earned”.  In Canada, we are fortunate in that we have $1 and $2 coins and they sure add up quickly!

Happy savings!

Sue Crutcher, Baby Steps to Financial Success