Another way to pay for your knife purchases

powernoodle

powernoodle

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Jul 21, 2004
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We had 2 coffee cans full of coins taking up space here at the Powernoodle Compound, so I took one to a "Coinstar" machine today. For those of you not familiar with Coinstar, its one of those kiosks you might see at the grocery store where you can turn your coins into paper money (and pay a 9.8% fee), or convert the coins to various gift cards with no fee. Coinstar website.

I took in one of the 26 ounce cans of coins, and to my delight ended up with a $152.92 in "free" Amazon gift card knife money. So of course I immediately bought a Cold Steel XL tanto Voyager, with about $100 left over for a rainy day. Best part is that I'm not stealing from the household budget.

According to my receipt, that 26 ounce can contained:

- 2 dollar coins
- 0 half dollars
- 335 quarters
- 411 dimes
- 295 nickels, and
- 1132 pennies

So start throwing your coins in a jar, and before you know it you'll have a "free" shopping day.

 
It will surprise you how much change a container will hold.
My son made this bank for me years ago and it has yielded close to $150 several times.

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Didn't know about the gift card thing. My local bank takes coins, but I've been to other branches of my bank that won't take them loose.
 
I cash in pennies, nickels & dimes with Coinstar. Quarters are a high-enough denomination that I just roll them up and use them like cash. However, now that I know about the Amazon gift card thing, I might just cash it all in. We end up with about $200.-$225. a year.

My dad had an old stainless steel suggestion box when I was a kid, and he fitted it out with a lock hasp & padlock. If I remember right, it would hold around $600. in regular change, and it would fill up every couple of years. We'd go through it and save the silver - we always found at least $5. worth - then take it to the bank, and they'd run it through a counter for us.

It's amazing how fast your pocket change adds up.

~Chris
 
My bank has a change counter in the lobby and It's free. Several years ago I went into a coin saving mode. I always put bills in machines, never coins. I sometime would just stick in a $5 bill and pocket the change. No matter where I spent cash, I never used any change in my pocket. I had a big 5 gallon water cooler bottle that I was trying to fill with coins. When it got about 3/4 full, I couldn't take it anymore. I put the money in these big white canvas coin bags and off to the bank I went. I did have to use a folding hand cart to wheel in the coins. I ended up with almost $1700.00.
 
Been doing the can thing (jar, actually) for years. Never thought of using it for my knife addiction.

Thanks for the idea, Powernoodle!!
 
Cool idea, if you use cash.

I've been mostly cash-free for ~10 years. My bank does offer a similar option on your checking acct. From every bank card transaction, the remaining change is rounded up, and that amount is shifted into your savings acct.

That adds up to about $30/month for me, and I also have my direct deposit from my pay-check split into checking and savings, with a whopping $30 going into the savings acct. every two weeks, on top of the rounded up change. This almost makes about $100 per month into savings.

Unfortunately, I take a lot of that out at the end of the month for bills, but if we've been good, I use that for my knife purchases. I end with about $600/yr to go towards my knife habbits, as well as cigars.
 
I couldn't do it again because I'm pretty much cash free as well.
 
mossyhorn said:
My bank has a change counter in the lobby and It's free. Several years ago I went into a coin saving mode. I always put bills in machines, never coins. I sometime would just stick in a $5 bill and pocket the change. No matter where I spent cash, I never used any change in my pocket. I had a big 5 gallon water cooler bottle that I was trying to fill with coins. When it got about 3/4 full, I couldn't take it anymore. I put the money in these big white canvas coin bags and off to the bank I went. I did have to use a folding hand cart to wheel in the coins. I ended up with almost $1700.00.
Click to expand...

:eek:
I tried that once, I got half way up and ended up with somewhere in the neighborhood of about $1,000. It took me about 4 years when i was a teenager. It took 3 weeks to make rolls. ;)
 
If you've ever lived in Europe, that can would have had €500 easy. We've been doing that in our household for a while. I agree it's like free money you never knew you had.
 
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You'd be surprised how much you can end up with.

It's the little things that count. For example, I put silica gel packs in my knife collection and my coin collection to help with moisture. It may not completely prevent rust and oxidization, but it's a big help.
 
Indeed. I throw my change into can at the end of each day, and then once a year when we visit Las Vegas, we cash that in and use it for pocket money for the trip.

My credit union counts the money for me for free. I know that Coinstar has to make something , but 9.8% seems a bit much.

Saving is a good thing, more people should do it.

best

mqqn
 
I've got a small iron cauldron sitting on a bookcase in the living room. Every day when I get home from work, I take my change, drop it into the cauldron and say "there will always be plenty". Once a year or so, it all goes to Coinstar and Amazon gets some of my business.
 
CJZ said:
You'd be surprised how much you can end up with.

It's the little things that count. For example, I put silica gel packs in my knife collection and my coin collection to help with moisture. It may not completely prevent rust and oxidization, but it's a big help.
Click to expand...


One time I had nothing to add to the conversation, so I completely veered the topic in another direction. :D
 
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