Empty your pockets and what do you find?? Better yet, empty your purse! As a mother, all sorts of things cram
every crevice of our pockets, whether in our pants, diaper bag or purse! We could all be very successful in Let’s Make a Deal … remember when the contestant would get $100 for having a nail file! Now think of the number of coins you find lodged between gum wrappers and coupons in your bag.
Today I want you to think about those pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters that you find in all those pockets. What do you do with them at the end of the day, while doing laundry or switching out purses? In our Smart Home, we have 4 separate containers ready to receive the change. Two traditional piggy banks collect the pocket change in our bedrooms and a non-traditional 5 gallon water container sits next to the laundry machines.
The Laundry Bank
On our kitchen counter a digital change collector (got it on sale at Macys earlier this year) sits just next to my husband’s “key bowl” . This tremendously increases the chances that the random coins will go from point A, his pocket, to point B the change collector.
Each day we typically deposit no more than a dollar in coins collectively into the banks. We don’t really think much more of it. Recently, I asked the bank teller for some paper rolls. My husband has been anxious to see how much money we’ve actually saved from this easy saving account. He sat there for about an hour smiling for much of the time, counting and rolling the pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Much to his amazement, and mine, he discovered that just a portion of the kitchen “bank” had already summed to over $100. Wow! That’s 2 week’s worth of gas or a trip and a half to Publix!
Thinking of how our smaller kitchen counter bank was able to save so much, what could the 5 gallon container have already saved? Well that’s for another day, and a lot more paper rolls!
Smart Mama Next Steps
Counting the Money
What’s your current change collecting strategy? How has it worked? Not worked?
Caroline is a 30-something Hispanic mom based in South Florida. She dedicates her day to her beautiful little girls and her wonderful husband Tom (@SmartyPantsDada) and her extra time to her Smarty Pants Mama network.
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