Depositing Coins - How Much Is Lost?

Not really an issue for me. Hardly pay in cash anything. The few times I do and get coins back, I simply collect them until I have 2-4 quarters worth of them, take them to the local bank (inside my favorite grocery store) and get them changed into quarters, which I use for various things.

With so much electronic payments being used now, I only use paper bills and coins very sparingly.  Even my checkwriting numbers are way down. Any excess coins, I just spend it at fast food places or drug stores.  There are a lot of people who carry a ton of cash and coins around, but I don't bother with that.  Most of my coins start to turn green from the PVC holder that I put them in.

I"m pretty poor by most peoples standards so I have to be creative in how I handle my money. I'm a single, middle aged man, make $12,000 a year and live in a city where the cost of living is 130% the national average.

At the end of each day, I put all my change into a jar. I put these jars aside and forget about them. When I go to buy stamps, I get them from the Post Office vending machine because they give $1.00 coins for change. I regularly raid my current jar for quarters for the laundry, parking meters and the bus.

  In 2008 I counted my change after 3 years, it amounted to about $700 and change ;) and probably would have been $1100 or so if I left the quarters alone. When I put my coins in rolls to deposit them I bring the pennies and nickels to the 7% Coinstar machine, it takes too much time for me to roll them. I roll the rest at home because this way I earn $14hr tax free for not using the machine. The way I see it, it compares to leaving home for $18hr doing something I don't like rather than sitting in my kitchen getting paid to count the plane fare for my 3 week vacation to Asia. Plus, Asiana Airlines doesn't accept Amazon gift cards that are offered by the coin machines as payment for their tickets ;).

 I do something else with my $1.00 bills, 1 year effort with those paid all the rest of my expenses for this past vacation.

 If I didn't do these things, I would not be able to take these trips as there are too many important demands on the dollars I make to make regular saving work.

 In 12 months I'll be in Borneo seeing the the last of the Urang-utans in the wild. In 2-4 years there will be no more left outside of cages.