Parent Hacks

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Use your coin jar to buy gift cards with Coinstar (with no fee)

in: Fun & Learning, Holidays & Special Occasions

Amazon: Emerson Digital Coin BankLeAnn's practical demonstration of "a penny saved is a penny earned":

One of my favorite holiday hacks is to use my coin jar to buy Christmas gifts.  Our coin jar amasses quite a few coins by the end of each year, but I'm too lazy/busy to roll them up and take them to the bank. Instead, I take the jar to a Coinstar machine (there's one at a grocery store in town) and cash it in for gift certificates. Coinstar charges a fee to turn your coins in for cash, but turning them in for gift certificates is free!

Coinstar has a bunch of retailers to choose from — Amazon, Gap, ITunes, and more! (The Coinstar website contains a full listing of participating retailers.) I usually end up with at least $100 for Amazon, which covers a nice chunk of my Christmas shopping.

Brilliant. This hack is also great for kids and their piggy banks.

Related: Stick to your budget by paying with gift cards

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About Asha Dornfest

Asha Dornfest is a writer, parent, and insistent optimist living in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of PARENT HACKS, co-author of MINIMALIST PARENTING, and co-host of the Edit Your Life podcast.

Comments

  1. Miz Loo says

    December 16, 2011 at 6:02 am

    Brilliant. My go-to grocery has CoinStar, which I’ve never used because of the fee. My Credit Union has a free coin counter, but not at my local branch.

    Also, if I turn the coins into a card for something I use, it sequesters the $ from the general budget. At the CrUn, I always put the $ into my savings account, where it just looks like any other money.

    Thanks for the tip1

  2. Michelle says

    December 18, 2011 at 6:21 am

    The CoinStars around us… NEVER WORK (<— not an exaggeration). Or, the GC option is broke and you can only turn your coins in for a voucher (with the service charge). I found out about this a few years ago and think that it is a brilliant idea, but I decided that CoinStar was up to no good when the machines in my area never work for the 'no service charge' part.

  3. Krys says

    December 19, 2011 at 5:20 am

    My local bank branch still allows people to bring in their coin jars, and doesn’t charge a fee, so I haven’t run into this issue yet. Good to know it’s an option, though – since banks seem to take away more services every day!

  4. Andy says

    December 20, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    Also, look through your old coins before swapping them out. Dimes, Quaters and Half Dollars from 1964 or older are 90% silver and have material value greater than their monetary face value.

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About the Author

Asha Dornfest is an author, optimist, and mom of two. She started the Parent Hacks blog in 2005, and turned it into a book in 2016. More about Asha »

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