In a comment to a previous post, reader Isabel shared her tip in saving up small change which leads us to our newest Money Tip here on MWS.
Save your small change.
I have a bad habit of leaving coins lying around the place. Since coins are heavy and bulky, I sometimes empty them out of my wallet so it doesn’t make my bag too heavy. I used to leave them on my dresser until one day, I scooped them all into a container. Thereafter, every time I had small change I wanted to empty out of my wallet, I’d empty it into that container.
It acts as a very basic form of savings and it adds up without you even realizing it. By the time your container is full, you’d have quite a tidy sum in there that you can take to treat yourself with.
I use this loose change to treat myself to a nice meal now and again. It might even buy you that new lipstick that you are coveting and you’d really be saving for it without even thinking.
For us here in Malaysia, our coins go up to a maximum of 50 sen so whilst putting away the small change might not seem like a lot, you might just surprise yourself. If your coin denominations go higher, boy are you in for a treat! 😉
So your finance challenge from now is to get yourself a container, and keep away your small change. You will lighten your wallet in the short term, but have a nice tidy sum to look forward to in the long term that can buy you something nice!
Try it and see 🙂
Paris B
Jenn says
June 1, 2010 at 9:08 amSo coincidental!! I was just telling my husband that i’ll do that from now on because i have a bad habit of not using my coins (always break the notes), so my coin pouch is always so heavy and overflowing!! lol!! 😀
Yeah i think by the time the jar is full, we should be able to treat ourselves to a nice meal! hehehe!! 😀 Any idea if we can bring the coins to a bank to exchange for notes??
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 9:37 amYes you can take it to a bank! Just don’t exceed a certain amount like RM2,000 or something or they’ll charge you to count the coins hehe.
ieda says
June 1, 2010 at 9:28 amoh i have been doing that since last few months. and to my surprise before my wedding day – the piggy bank was full. so i smashed it to the floor and i have got RM 450+++ in it! wohooo!
i was jumping up and down that moment, so the money actually went to buy few wedding stuffs for myself! 🙂
now that my hubby has the habit of leaving the small notes and coins like everywhere. so all goes into my piggy bank! hihihihi
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 9:38 amClever girl! Sapu your husband’s small change some more! 😉
xin says
June 1, 2010 at 9:32 amHHEHEHE i have the good habit! *wave hands* i hate the sight of small coins lying around. and and, i save up ALL the 50cent coins i have and never spend them. it’s been about 3 years and guess what? I think I have almost close to rm1000 worth of 50cent coins! 😀 i want to spend the money for my air tic one day 😀
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 9:40 amWow! That’s a lot of savings with just coins and that’s a great goal to save up towards! 😀 I love travelling too!
Sam says
June 1, 2010 at 10:00 amI do that too with a piggy bank- saved up about $100AU last year. Plus it’s very useful when you need change for parking etc!
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 1:40 pmThat’s true too but I try not to dip into those coins unless necessary 😉
synical says
June 1, 2010 at 10:07 amI’ve been doing that for several years now – every 6 months I just change the lot with my dad because he needs coins for parking.
As much as I’ve tried saving every coin, but it never happens. I also just deposit what I get at the end of the year into the bank.
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 1:41 pmI never save everything too – just what I happen to empty out of my wallet when I do my weekly spring clean – the amount of stuff I accumulate in a week is mind boggling!
rinnah says
June 1, 2010 at 10:12 amI wish I could practice this money tip but sadly I think this doesn’t apply to me… because I am the type of gal who likes to pay exact change (back when the 1 sen was in existence, I used to drive cashiers [and the customers behind me] mad by insisting on digging out all the 1 sen coins from my coin purse. LOL.) so I find myself using up my coins faster than I can keep them! 😛
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 1:42 pmHaha Type A 😀 I sometimes take the lazy way out and pay using notes hence the extra coins but I do try to keep some coins in my wallet because they can come in very handy!
Isabel says
June 1, 2010 at 10:26 amA tip about changing coins. If you visit certain hawker stalls / sundry shops regularly, you can talk to them about changing your coins for notes. From experience, they are only too delighted to get small change as they run out of it quickly. And you get nice crisp notes to go shopping. Win-win situation!
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 1:42 pmThat’s a great tip! I tried it with a couple of hawkers once and they were thrilled to get the coins
domncroxd says
June 1, 2010 at 10:35 amI should definitely start that habit. I’m horrible with loose change…sometimes it happens to me with notes even! I’ll flip through my bag and suddenly pull out RM1 or 50c. It makes my day but still, probably not a good habit.
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 1:43 pmSometimes I too find money stashed away and I don’t even know why I stashed them there 😛 Like you said, nice surprise but bad habit
Adele says
June 1, 2010 at 10:45 amI’ve been piggy banking my loose change too! It sounds simple but it really does add up to a lot.
It’s particularly good as well for scatterbrained people like me who have the tendency to misplace coins, or have them drop out of wallets when rummaging for notes.
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 1:44 pmThe darned coins are part of the reason I have a HUGE wallet – I need to keep it altogether. Anal that way 😀 I want to find a cute container soon – I’m now using a random plastic one
beetrice says
June 3, 2010 at 10:13 amTime to hit up Daiso for a cute container for coins? 🙂 I actually reused a Crabtree & Evelyn mini-cookie tin – just redecorated the outside and voila! heehee…it’s back in KL though.
Maybe should start another one in SG since there are $1 coins here….hmm… 😉
Kahani says
June 1, 2010 at 11:27 amhahah i don’t have that problem in M’sia but goodness, the Danish Kroners go up to DKK20 (just over RM10) they really REALLY add up!
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 1:44 pmOh boy they would! European coins tend to go to higher denominations I find so there’s a goldmine there 😉
Abby says
June 1, 2010 at 1:06 pmI’ve been doing this since I was a child. I think every child should be taught to save, however little the amount. Every time my piggy is filled up I change with some coffee shop people. BUT I keep the 5 sen coins in my coin purse and drive people nuts with them. Coffee shop people rarely use 5 sen coins I learned. It does add up so start saving!!
Maybe start a few piggies. One for every new thing you are saving up for?? New lippie=1 piggy…
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 1:46 pmYay for good saving habits 🙂 I do agree that every child should be taught the importance of saving. I don’t separate my loose change savings because I have my separate bank accounts for that. So my loose change is just for “fun” things – usually a nice meal 🙂
ilif says
June 1, 2010 at 1:47 pmI did the same when I was in my first year of degree 😀 For one whole year, I collected about RM150++ and I banked in all of them. Damn proud that time haha.
For this year, sadly, my piggy bank is barely even have coins because my campus has just open a laundry with coin slot. I ended up using most of my coins washing my cloth there -_-
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 2:36 pmWell at least you don’t have to do hand washing so that’s money put to good use 😉
Doriosity says
June 1, 2010 at 1:50 pmI only do this for pennies (1 cent Canadian) simply because they’re too heavy and worth much too little, It’s NOT worth the shoulder pain :S.
but I’ve been saving for about a year now, and I think I have about 13 dollars so that’s 1300 pennies 😛
ParisB says
June 1, 2010 at 2:36 pmThat’s still a pretty good bit of money there! I’m sure you can get something nice with C$13? 🙂
electronicfly says
June 1, 2010 at 3:09 pmI’ve been doing that for quite a few years already 😀 It does accumulate to quite an amount. Everytime my one piggy bank gets full, I would have about RM40-50 worth of coins. And my piggy bank gets full quite fast (I ditch all my coins into it every evening) so yay for savings! 😛