Great post! In the past three months I have paid for two emergency pet vet visits with $10s & $20s we keep hidden in our wedding ring boxes. And, we already started to replinish the fund with left over cash from staying under budget for Christmas. We don't often talk about "starting habits" in the New Year, but given our tough economic times, this is a great ritual for everyone to consider. Enjoy the day - C.

I have a cute piggy bank, but there's no easy way to get the change out without breaking it. So we put our change into a big bowl. We use a credit card for most purchases (fully paid off every month!), so like you, we don't accumulate change very fast.

And even when we do have a pile of change, we don't cash it in very often. See, a common extended-family activity is nickel-dime-quarter poker games. So yes, I save my change for gambling. But if I lose, the money goes to family. And I've never lost more than $5 in one night. Believe me, the evening's entertainment value is well worth $5. More often the game converts my loose change into paper money winnings, which then just go into my wallet.

The pennies sure are piling up though.

In Canada, we no longer have one and two dollar bills- we have coins called loonies and two-nies. So spare change adds up to some serious cash up here. I try to stash all my coin and have sometimes taken up to $400 in coin in at once.

My hubby and I use a 5-gallon water jug to save all our spare change, and it makes a real difference. I've been laid off and the jar just yielded a month's mortgage ($1500). Two years ago, we dumped the jar to contribute to the down payment on a new house; five years before that, we dumped the jar to have the roof replaced on our old home. Saving in the jar is the best thing we ever did because you never feel it; you just break dollar bills and dump the change in the jar at the end of the day. After a while, you won't want to spend the change at all. Good luck and happy saving.

What you can do further with these spare change in your piggy bank is to have another bank account for it. Bank in all the money everytime your piggy bank fills up instead of spending it. When the money grows into a sizeable amount, use it to invest.

my dad and I used to roll his spare change together when I was a kid. It was so great because it's one of my memories of something that was "our" activity together.

Today it's kind of a pain, but it beats losing almost 10% of it to CoinStar. I've heard that some banks will roll or count it for you, but I can't seem to find one in my area. So not long ago I convinced my boyfriend to sit down and help me roll them. He ended up having fun, and was surprised at how much change I had collected that he's started his own change jar now too!

I recently purchased a coin counting jar (on sale at CVS). Its amazing how obsessed I've become at emptying my pockets and purse at the end of the day. Seeing the coins add up is much more engaging than just guessing how much might be in the coin jar.

I've also read that its a good idea to take the smallest bills out of your wallet at the end of each day and stash them as well. Not so much as a way to pad your piggy bank, but as a preventative method to hitting the ATM everytime you need a dollar or two (in my case to pay for parking). If I take out $20 I'll spend the whole $20, so keeping extra singles around the house helps me stay on budget.

Hubby and I have been doing this since we bought our home 18 years ago. Prior to that we were in an apt. so most went towards laundry. We have an old mason jar that when full holds $200. We usually fill this at least 4 times a year. I know we should put it in the bank, but this is our do what we want with money. I have my jar every August for our State Fair, he has a Canandian fishing trip him and his buds take every June. We can spoil ourselves and not feel guilty. Actually used the last 1.5 jars for a new snowblower this winter.Doesnt hurt the checkbook.

Our nephew got married last year. Told them about the change jar now that they dont have to use change for laundry. In Nov. their dryer died. Hit the change jar and didnt even have to touch their checkbook. They were so shocked. They have an awesome one year old baby boy who hubby and I are Grandparents to, so we got him a piggy bank, course we had to fill it up some!!! They are going to start him with this concept, any change left from a dollar bill goes in the piggy bank. It has to be the most painless way to save!!!!!!!!!!!

I got a really neat bronze shiny metallic piggy bank from Urban Outfitters last year. It has recently filled up, and I counted out over $50 in there. I love the piggy bank - what else am I going to do with all my change? I also saw a couple of cute ones at Target recently...

I actually have several. I guess I'm a sort of amateur "collector" of them. I use one for all my found money, like someone else said above. Any time I find any change or bills on the ground it goes into the piggy bank. Last year I ended up with $167.19! I love bringing in all that change to the bank on January 1 and seeing how much I've found all year. Then I deposit it into a savings account and start all over.

ScotiaBank (here in Canada) as a program available for their debit users called "Bank the Rest". You set up a chequing and savings account with them, tell them what dollar amount to round up to, $1 or $5 (or something like that) and each time you use your debit card, they automatically move the rounded amount to your savings account.

Example: You have yours setup to round to the nearest $5. You spend $6.06 getting your lunch, and $3.96 goes into your savings. If you had it set to round to the nearest dollar, $0.96 would go into your savings.

It's like dumping the 'coins' at the end of the day but with interest.

Makes me almost want to switch back to them :D

Every year, my kids and I count the change in our banks and jars on New Years day. We wrap it for deposit and it can take a good portion of the day when you are doing three banks. It is a fun way to spend the day!

About a year ago, I decided to wash out the salsa jar when we were finished with it. Instead of stuffing it into the recycling bin, where it may or may not be correctly recycled, I washed it out and let it dry. After peeling off the labels, I had the perfect change jar.

Earlier this month, I decided to empty and count it. I had a total of around $60! Not bad for just emptying my pockets throughout one year!!

When I empty my purse every week (or so) of the accumulated change, I put half of it into my piggy bank (which is actually an old pickle jar with a crocheted 'hat' on top) and the other hald into our tzedakah box. (Tzedakah is a Hebrew word that roughly translates to charity.) I use the piggy-bank money to buy grocery 'luxury' items I wouldn't otherwise buy (like a really good bottle of EVOO), and the tzedakah money gets donated once a year at our synagogue's Mitzvah Day. Times are tough around here, but in this way, I'm able to make a pretty generous donation to charity at least once a year, with (relatively) no skin off my nose!