it was time. no etsy sales, no takers for my personal organization service, i had to put at least a little something into the pot today. time is running out, and i am doing a piss poor job getting it together. coinstar to the rescue! well, sort of.
after a serious bout of searching in couch cushions and pants pockets, i came up with a fairly sizable sack of pennies, nickels, dimes, and one random half dollar to cash in. you may notice the conspicuous absence of quarters from the list. unfortunately, we are still tethered by the shackles that are pay-laundry. all quarters (without exception), are to be placed in the laundry fund. bummer.
still, i had a pretty good wad going on. to the grocery store!
what’s great about coinstar is that it’s everywhere. pretty much ever major supermarket in town has one of these bitches, and for the very small fee of $.02 per dollar, your 10 lb. sack of pennies gets turned into dollar bills in about 5 minutes.
but is it $.02 too much? as far as coinstar is considered, they always give you the option of donating the full amount to a non-profit of your choice. or at some machines, you can get the full amount on a gift card for cvs, old navy, itunes… or some other crap i don’t care about.
but if you want all your money in cash, you do still have a couple other options.
anyone up for some good old fashioned change rolling? this doesn’t entirely qualify as free, unless you already have some/can score some coin wrappers for free. otherwise, you’ll have to buy some– and it looks like they can cost over $.04 each. also, i can’t imagine anyone actually wanting to hover over a pile of loose change for hours quietly counting and rolling… but hey, just letting you know what your options are.
but seriously, your best bet for fee-free coin counting is definitely the penny arcade located at TDbanks. it’s pretty much just like coinstar in function, except that an adorable cartoon girl leads you through the process. AND, you get to play a game where if you guess your total change within $1.99, you get a prize. despite copious googles, i have yet to find out exactly what the “fabulous prizes” actually are (although this story is really tragic). anyone? anyone?
i chose coinstar because the bank is closed on saturday, and i didn’t feel like waiting anymore (or carrying all my fucking change across town). regardless of the fee, i still and managed to finally put $14.72 toward my $1,000 goal. $985.28 to go. fuck.
broke 207 
I found a penny in a handicapped parking space at Wal-Mart tonight… in the dark… in an oil spot. I think my boyfriend thought I was insane for stopping to pick it up. You would have been proud of me.
you bet your ass i’m proud! it’s amazing how sharp your eyes get after a while. last weekend i crawled under a ford explorer in a big lots parking lot to rescue a dime and a nickel. and i felt like i won the fucking lottery.
When I was waitressing I had shit tons of change and we would get free wrappers from the bank.. You just have to ask nicely.. and quietly rolling change with a friend and listening to music is kinda nice..
you make two excellent points. with the advent of coinstar, i wonder if the bank still gives away free change rolls?
But rolling change makes your fingers dirty and they smell like metal lol
you’re talking to a girl who used to like the taste of pennies as a child (and still occasionally thinks about it)… i think i have reverse germaphobia. i’m gross!
My bank has always given me as many free coin rolls as I ask for. They do look surprised when I ask for them sometimes, though. Can’t imagine letting a machine count my money. Hand-rolling coins is the only way to go.
i find your attachment to the old ways to be both cool and classy. fortunately for me, i am neither of those things. coinstar all the way. *GO COINSTAR!*
So… I just take my cions to the bank, leave them there in a container with a deposit slip and they put it through their coin machine and put the deposit in sometime later that day or the next day…..all of it… no charge at all.
I grew up in the midwest and nobody…i mean nobody ever rolled coins like they do here. The first time I went to take my coins to the bank my husband looked at me like I was nuts and said I had to roll them…then I looked at him like he was nuts.
what!?! i’ve never heard of such craziness. next time i go to the bank, i’ll ask them if they actually do that (maybe it’s just an insane midwest thing?). i can’t believe how much time i’ve wasted rolling pennies this whole time!!
My bank here in Augusta does…Kennebec Savings. Don’t know about other banks though
augusta!! that’s my home town. the kennebec savings bank on the rotary is like 100 feet from the house i grew up in. um… how is augusta treating you? do you like it? it’s really changed a lot since i was a kid. on one hand, there’s a target. on the other hand, water st is a ghost town. i mean, except for the stripper store and the bus station. 🙂