One of the little ways in which we try to spend less money on frivolous things like dinners out and fun things like entertainment, is to save our change whenever we have a few quarters, nickels and dimes that are leftover. I regularly get a lot of change, since I do pay for a lot in cash like fast food, or small items at drugstores and things like that, if it’s a small amount and I don’t necessarily feel like using my debit card, so I tend to have a lot of change jangling around in my purse/wallet at all times anyways.
What I do, is at the end of every day or at least at the end of every few days, I take the change and throw it in sort of a kitty – which is an old standup cosmetic bag that I happen to have laying around, and let it build up. At the end of a year or so, I’ll roll the change or take it to a Coinstar location where the machine can give you dollar bills for your change when you throw it down into a little receptacle, and pay about 7 cents on the dollar for the priveledge of getting my change turned into dollars quickly and with minimal inconvenience.
If you don’t like paying that much on the dollar, then take it to a bank all rolled up or go to your bank and get money rolls, I’m not sure if they charge for them or not, and roll the coins and exchange them for cash money. Then, you can have a nice dinner out or two and maybe a movie, depending on how much you saved up (aka how much change do you generate over that period of time), and not have to feel guilty about it like you would if you were spending your “hard earned” money that you have in your checking account of whatnot.
I know it’s neither here nor there, because you could spend that money on some outstanding debt that you have and make that your duty for the money, or you could spend it on a night out. My money’s on the night out, because you gotta live, and this is a way to do it without feeling guilty about. I know money is money, but this feels like it’s sort of a freebee in a way I supposed.