I stumbled upon this useful blog post on the Lifestyle Management Blog. A huge thank you to Julie McMahon who wrote it and Margot Bloom for letting me borrow it!
Do you have a jar or pot that you keep all of your loose change, particular 1p and 2p coins in? If so, you are not alone! Thousands of Brits have some sort of container in their house where all loose change is deposited. What’s amazing is that research suggests that Brits are hoarding around £65 million worth of pennies in their homes! Personally, we have an old celebrations sweet tub with coins in. Whilst there isn’t much in it at the moment, when we emptied it out a few months ago, there was well over £50 worth of change in there which goes to show how quickly it can add up! You may also be surprised by the amount of money that you will have lying around the house; in handbags, old purses / wallets, coat pockets and down the back of the settee!
If you are one of culprits of storing loose change and never doing anything with it, why not start now? Christmas is coming up and I’m guessing any extra cash will come in handy for most!
There are a couple of different ways you can ‘cash’ in on your pennies. One of the most popular methods is using the coin machines usually found in supermarket lobbies. Although the machine will do all the hard work for you in counting your change, they do charge you for the service, anything from around 9-20%. If you are short on spare time or have a large amount of change building up, this may be your best way forward.
For the money savvy of you out there, the best option is to count the change yourself. Whilst this is likely to take some time, you will get to keep all of the money yourself! The first stage is to go to the bank or post office and get some assorted money bags. These are bags that the money must be put into and in set quantities. They are as follows:
- £20 bags of £1 coins
- £20 bags of £2 coins
- £10 bags of 50ps
- £10 bags of 20ps
- £5 bags of 10ps
- £5 bags of 5ps
- £1 bags of 2ps
- £1 bags of pennies
Make sure that you count them into the bags accurately to avoid being rejected by the bank! They will weigh them to check they are accurate when you cash them in!!
Cashing in on your pennies is a great way to turn a tub of ‘useless’ change into a useable form. After all, nobody can walk into a shop and pay with a bag of pennies!!
Why not count up your old change jar today and see how much you can cash in.
** THE PENNIES 4 PARENTS PENNY CHALLENGE! **
After I read this post I went and emptied our "penny pot" (and raided my Husband's coin tray but don't tell him that part!). There's now £17 extra in the bank!
Do you save your coins? What do you keep them in?
My challenge to you, should you choose to accept it, is to go and find out just how many pennies you have stashed away in your home and get them into your bank accounts, just in time for some Christmas shopping!
Let me know how you get on. :o)
