Tag Archives: saving coins

My Annual Free $1,500 Has Arrived

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This is my third year of taking every toonie and loonie and throwing it into a jar for the year as my coin-savings account.

This year, it added up to $1,512! That’s entirely free money. It kept my pockets from sagging, my cup hold in the car empty and I never missed any of it. Yes, I find ways to “get” coins. I’ll go buy a coffee and use a five dollar bill knowing it’ll get me a toonie and a loonie. Any little trick to grow the pot with money I never miss!

If you didn’t know how well this works: You do now. Give it a try for a year. But making it smaller coin won’t work. You can search the stories back a few years to find it. I took a big pop bottle and filled it with small coin once. Turns out that was barely a hundred bucks if I remember correctly.

If $1000 to $1500 isn’t a big incentive for you: Congrats! Your financial world is different than the majority of the population.

If you pay mostly by credit or debit card: Sorry. Studies show you overspend 12 to 18% total. I know, you’re not going to admit that – but it’s true. There’s no direct association with money when you just pull out your plastic. McDonalds sales on credit or debit are 70+% higher, vending machines over 100% and there are tons of other examples. Try switching (back?) to real money. You may end up with a free thousand bucks or more and will definitely spend less. After all, when you’re out of real money you’ll need to leave the store!

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Last year (you can scroll back for the story “Want a Free Christmas Next Year?”) I managed to save around $1,200 by just dropping my toonies into a jar for the entire year.

So it seemed logical that making it toonies AND loonies this year, I would end up with even more money. But, it turns out that was a bust. Sadly.

Not only was 2021 a “full” Covid year which reduced my trips out of the house, I also received four Tim’s gift cards. So every trip for a $1.85 coffee that used to get me a toonie and loonie in change from a five dollar bill went on my gift cards this year. Thank you to the two people who gifted them to me. But no change meant no coins into the savings jar.

This years’ total was $875. Sure I was disappointed – but that’s still a ton of money and cost me exactly nothing to save. If you didn’t do it last year, try it for 2022. Maybe in a “more” normal world the thousand dollar savings mark will be possible again!?!?

Want A “Free” Christmas Next Year?

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Four years ago I saw a picture of a 2 litre pop bottle filled with dimes. It apparently holds about $500 if you fill it with dimes. I’m change allergic and wasn’t going to just take out dimes. So I talked about filling a 2 litre pop bottle with all coins thinking it’d be a lot more than $500 and started filling up the bottle. Wrong – dimes are the smallest size. It turned out that the bottled savings added up to less than $600 because other coins, especially nickels, used us so much more space.

In January this year I decided to just save toonies, instead. I have a big vase, and every toonie went in there until last week – so that’s just about a full years’ worth. I’m single – if you’re in a relationship, you’ll get a whole lot more money when two of you are diverting your toonies!

A quick trip to the bank for rolls that hold $50 each and 15 minutes of work was all it took. But I was stunned that it added up to 1,200 dollars! THAT is a lot of money for saving coins that I never missed. And I’m single. If you’re in a relationship, that’s two of you putting away the coinage!

Whatever you may have for a Christmas budget, something like a thousand bucks or more of free money should make for a pretty impressive Christmas present to yourself next year – if you want.

I do have to confess that I boosted my toonie savings a bit: Any trip to Tim’s for coffee, I’d pay with a five dollar bills. That made sure I was coming home with at least one toonie. If my dollar store purchases were $6.40, I’d give them $10.40 to get $4 change…thus another two toonies. Because, let’s face it, nobody is going to miss two bucks out of their pocket ever couple of days or so. If you want, add loonies to it as well. In fact – that’s something I’m going to do for 2021 now that I think of it. My vase is big enough and if I can divert toonies I’ll never miss, it should logically be 50% more if I add loonies this coming year.

If nothing else out of the crappy year that was 2020, I’m really looking forward to upwards of $2,000 free money next Christmas….