March Spring Clean: Day 10
It’s Day 10 of the March Spring Clean, and Day 3 of the personal finance week. Today’s action is very quick and easy, and remember that if you don’t have time to do a task every day then you’ll be able to catch up at the weekend.
As a quick reminder, don’t forget that our latest Tenner Week starts on the 15th of March. Meanwhile, on with the show…
Today we are going to start a coin jar. It’s up to you which type of coins you decide to save. For example, you could do what I’m doing this year, and saving every small coin: 1p, 2p and 5p pieces. They tend to clutter up my purse and get in the way a bit, so at the end of each week I’m just tipping them into some old jam jars. I’ve decided to spend them just before Christmas at a self-service till, and get some small festive treats, whether that’s a fancy bar of chocolate or a nice bottle of wine.
Or you could save a larger value coin every time you’re given one. For example, I know someone who puts £2 coins aside every time they’re given them in their change at the shops or the pub. This money builds up into quite a decent amount over the course of a few months, and the cash is used as guilt-free spending money during their annual summer holiday. Let’s just say it’s a whole lot of ice cream.
I know someone else who keeps an eye out for money on the pavement, and they add that to their penny jar whenever they see it. Apparently once you start looking for it, you can find quite a lot of dropped change, although I must confess that I’m not in the habit. Maybe I should be, who knows?
So, find a pot or a jar, decide which coins to save, and how often, and that’s it. Easy peasy.
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If you’d like a full month-long Jump Start programme with lots of extra activities and resources – including a comprehensive Tenner Week – we’ve made one in ebook format that can be downloaded from Amazon. Find out more about the Jump Start 2013 ebook.
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I used to find a small fortune in dropped change, but since the recession really started to bite it’s rarer and rarer to find coins more than once in a blue moon.
I used to see people outside the shop I go into every lunchtime throwing their change in the bin rather than put it in their pocket.
Hiya Meg – thanks for your comment. Interesting that either people are being more careful with their spare change, or more people are picking it up! I’ve also seen a few people put change in the bin because they say it’s worthless, but it’s not worthless to say, a charity. Every little bit helps.
If I see coins on the street I pick them up, because I think it’s a waste to leave it there.
It’s not much, but as you say every little helps.
Although I would hand notes in (eventhough I know they will probably never be handed back to the person who’s lost them).
I put almost all coins 10p and below in my piggy bank roughly every two weeks. I only try to keep some small change in my handbag in case I’m somewhere I need to spend money to use the facilities.
Hi Anja, sounds like you have a nice little system going there. Nice to know some people still hand things in as well!