Man pays for 3 cars using saved loose change

[boba1212]

Originally Posted by Rebecca

That is so cool! I never pay with change - I always take the change and immediately put it in my change jar. I used to use the CoinStar but now I'm wrapping up the coins myself to try to save more money. Not as convenient, but I'm too tempted to use the Coinstar to turn the money into a Starbucks giftcard to support that addiction. I do it about every 3-4 months and usually end up with $50.

I'm also sorely tempted by the Starbucks gift card...but I must resist...

I would love to have seen the car salesman's face when presented with all those rolls of change =)

[FrugalNYC]

Interesting story. I just do laundry and try to use up the rest. Put the rest in a piggy bank for the kids

[Babalu]

Coinstar charges a fee, don't they? I would roll up the coins and bring them to the bank. You get 100% of the value of the coins this way.

[Julie Rains]

Some CoinStars have the option to convert change to a gift card without paying the fee.

My husband is just like Mr. Brant -- he makes change but doesn't usually spend it. Though I do and wrote about it a while back: Making Change Count with discussion of options for using change; quarters are easy to count, store, and use nearly anyplace but smaller coins are trickier though usable. Still, we would generate about $200-400 per year in change rather than $1905 (average) that Mr. Brant would have had to save over 14 years unless he had some left over from the previous car purchase in 1994. Still, a great idea to say I won't buy a car until I can pay for it in coins!

[MoneyTrev]

I saw this on Digg. This guy is crazy.

If you go buy a newspaper from a newspaper stand, you can just ask that they switch your $20 of coins into 20 bills. The stand will appreciate it as they wouldn't have a need for big bills.

[Philip Brewer]

Around here, most banks will count your change for free, if you have an account with them. We save our excess change in a coffee can and lug it over when it gets up to a substantial weight. (Mostly just the pennies, nickels, and dimes. The quarters usually get spent on newspapers and the like.) It adds up to a tidy sum two or three times a year.

[Ecrivaine32]

I think this is taking frugality a bit too far. But more power to him for being able to do this. I think it would be very hard in this society to buy a new car in cash. I'm okay with having to finance, if that's what it takes to get a quality ride.

[violetdawn68]

I admire this man for having the discipline many of us Americans (a country of under-savers) don't possess. I think it's best to buy a used car with no payments, but a lot of people don't even want to be seen in a used car so they'd rather spend what they don't have on financing one.

I certainly would love to spend cash upfront on a brand new car. Two! - at that. No car payments! Suppose one loses one's job? Or just experiences any loss of income. Suppose your spouse loses their job or becomes divorced or disabled ? A paid-off car just like a paid-off house, is one less thing to worry about.

Cool thing was because he used quarters, it didn't take long for him to do it.

Personally, I wouldn't have done it the way the man did. I would have gone to Commerce Bank once a year and cashed in the coins or taken the loss from a Coinstar machine and cashed them in, then put the money in an interest-baring IRA.

[Babalu]

I oftentimes put my change gathered during the day in a coin bank, but what I do to make sure I always have meter money is to have a change purse in the glove compartment with quarters, nickels and dimes.

[tryingtobefrugal]

My change would never add up to that amount. I so rarely pay for anything in cash. It usually ends up in a tip jar or in a charity collection tin.