Saving Spare Change Can Help Pay Down Debts
When you are financially struggling, and facing a stack of bills, you probably don't think about your spare change.
Those nickels and dimes are too small and too humble for anything besides buying a cup of coffee.
Stop right there...
Nickels and Dimes, Baby!
A huge money mistake that many people make is thinking that a small sum is unimportant. NO amount of money is too small to be helpful.
You can put that pocket change to work paying off your smallest debts, and see debt-freedom even sooner than you thought.
All you have to do is...
A huge money mistake that many people make is thinking that a small sum is unimportant. NO amount of money is too small to be helpful.
You can put that pocket change to work paying off your smallest debts, and see debt-freedom even sooner than you thought.
All you have to do is...
Save That Change Like It is CASH
That $1.56 in change rattling at the bottom of your purse is not just "mere pennies". Think of each coin as a fraction of a fortune.
How can you turn your spare change into enough money to count? First, start thinking of it as actual money. It is part of your total worth. As part of your own personal fortune, it needs to be saved and spent in ways that benefit you the most.
What would help you more in the long run? Having less debt, or eating a Snickers bar? (I know. Unfair question.)
I see people who are barely scraping by, struggling to make ends meet. They won't spend a dollar bill on anything they don't need, but they will dig into their pocket or coin jar to buy a newspaper, a coffee, or other small item that costs less than $3.
And they feel that they aren't really "spending" anything. That is "free money", since it such a small amount. Since it isn't CASH.
A few cents here and there won't break you if you just have to have something. Habitually blowing your coinage like it isn't real can be a bad spending habit that needs to be broken if you really want to help yourself.
Save that change like it is $100 bills!
Find a container. It can be a jar, a bucket, or a cute bank. Just get something and start socking away those nickels and dimes. Choose when you will take your jar to the bank. (When its full? When it reaches a certain total? Once a month?)
You don't have to move it to the bank often, but you will thank yourself. Its fun to think of having gallons of money hidden in your house...until you have to carry it anywhere.
But Can You Really Use Change to Get out of Debt?
If you dutifully save your change for awhile, you will be surprised to count it out and find you have enough to pay most (or all) of a small debt.
If not, you may be able to pay it off soon with help from more quarters you might have otherwise thrown into a vending machine.
For example, lets say you have a bill for $500. You've set up a payment plan and you are diligently sending off $40 a month. All the while, you are struggling to pay other, larger bills as well.
If you can accumulate just $3 in change per week, then you can add $12 extra dollars to that payment. That is $52 a month. Your debt will be paid off in 9 months instead of 12.
Shaving off three months of $40 payments saves you $120 to apply toward your next debt pay-off. (Even more if you were paying interest as well.)
By conscientiously saving change you naturally accumulate, you don't let it slip through any cracks (real or figurative). Its all yours to roll into those payments.
How to Get Change
Does it sound unreasonable to even have $3 worth of change at the end of a week? Not really. That is roughly .43 per day.
If you buy anything over the week, use cash rather than your bank card. Technically, you aren't gaining any money. You are just relocating it to your piggy bank.
BUT...
You may find yourself more reluctant to add that $12 towards debt each month if it is sitting in your checking account. Why?
Because anything over $10 tends to "feel" like a substantial amount of money. We look at it and think about all the other things we need to use it for over the month.
When we think too much, we get overwhelmed by our expenses and try to hoard that extra bit. Or it gets divvied up among other payments. Or worse, it grows a little bit, and because it is "extra" we use it to cover an impulse buy.
Buy in cash, save your change, apply it where it can do you the most good at the moment.
On the other hand, it IS saving money if you shop often at places that don't take debit cards or checks. We live in an area where many local business accept cash only, or they will only run a debit card if your purchase meets a minimum. (Usually $20)
So, by using cash at these places, we save all that money we would have had to spend in order to 'earn' the right to use our debit card.
We also buy some local goods that are priced at something like "$1.28 per dozen farm eggs." Naturally, someone selling their free range eggs once a week doesn't take debit cards.
In this case, we are going to spend money anyhow, and it is going to be cash. (Because if what I need is $16.75, I'm not going to buy extra stuff just to reach the debit minimum.
That $1.56 in change rattling at the bottom of your purse is not just "mere pennies". Think of each coin as a fraction of a fortune.
How can you turn your spare change into enough money to count? First, start thinking of it as actual money. It is part of your total worth. As part of your own personal fortune, it needs to be saved and spent in ways that benefit you the most.
What would help you more in the long run? Having less debt, or eating a Snickers bar? (I know. Unfair question.)
I see people who are barely scraping by, struggling to make ends meet. They won't spend a dollar bill on anything they don't need, but they will dig into their pocket or coin jar to buy a newspaper, a coffee, or other small item that costs less than $3.
And they feel that they aren't really "spending" anything. That is "free money", since it such a small amount. Since it isn't CASH.
A few cents here and there won't break you if you just have to have something. Habitually blowing your coinage like it isn't real can be a bad spending habit that needs to be broken if you really want to help yourself.
Save that change like it is $100 bills!
Find a container. It can be a jar, a bucket, or a cute bank. Just get something and start socking away those nickels and dimes. Choose when you will take your jar to the bank. (When its full? When it reaches a certain total? Once a month?)
You don't have to move it to the bank often, but you will thank yourself. Its fun to think of having gallons of money hidden in your house...until you have to carry it anywhere.
But Can You Really Use Change to Get out of Debt?
If you dutifully save your change for awhile, you will be surprised to count it out and find you have enough to pay most (or all) of a small debt.
If not, you may be able to pay it off soon with help from more quarters you might have otherwise thrown into a vending machine.
For example, lets say you have a bill for $500. You've set up a payment plan and you are diligently sending off $40 a month. All the while, you are struggling to pay other, larger bills as well.
If you can accumulate just $3 in change per week, then you can add $12 extra dollars to that payment. That is $52 a month. Your debt will be paid off in 9 months instead of 12.
Shaving off three months of $40 payments saves you $120 to apply toward your next debt pay-off. (Even more if you were paying interest as well.)
By conscientiously saving change you naturally accumulate, you don't let it slip through any cracks (real or figurative). Its all yours to roll into those payments.
How to Get Change
Does it sound unreasonable to even have $3 worth of change at the end of a week? Not really. That is roughly .43 per day.
If you buy anything over the week, use cash rather than your bank card. Technically, you aren't gaining any money. You are just relocating it to your piggy bank.
BUT...
You may find yourself more reluctant to add that $12 towards debt each month if it is sitting in your checking account. Why?
Because anything over $10 tends to "feel" like a substantial amount of money. We look at it and think about all the other things we need to use it for over the month.
When we think too much, we get overwhelmed by our expenses and try to hoard that extra bit. Or it gets divvied up among other payments. Or worse, it grows a little bit, and because it is "extra" we use it to cover an impulse buy.
Buy in cash, save your change, apply it where it can do you the most good at the moment.
On the other hand, it IS saving money if you shop often at places that don't take debit cards or checks. We live in an area where many local business accept cash only, or they will only run a debit card if your purchase meets a minimum. (Usually $20)
So, by using cash at these places, we save all that money we would have had to spend in order to 'earn' the right to use our debit card.
We also buy some local goods that are priced at something like "$1.28 per dozen farm eggs." Naturally, someone selling their free range eggs once a week doesn't take debit cards.
In this case, we are going to spend money anyhow, and it is going to be cash. (Because if what I need is $16.75, I'm not going to buy extra stuff just to reach the debit minimum.
Look for Free Money
You can supplement your change hoarding habit by keeping an eye to the ground for lost change. I cover that subject in detail in my hub on "Where to Find Free Money".
Even pennies add up. So don't leave them on the ground. Even if you only find .06, that is six cents less coming out of your own money. Remember what I said earlier? No sum of money is unimportant.
You can also find free money as you shop. Did you just use a coupon for .20 off your deodorant? You may be patting your back about being frugal, but where is that twenty cents going to go?
Right now, set it aside. Don't let it fall victim to your next debit card swipe. Ditto for any cash rewards programs or shopping points. No matter how much they are, count them as spare change and put them someplace SAFE.
You are that much closer to paying off a debt. And that much closer to that fortune you know you have earned.
Sharesies: Do you prefer to "snowball" your debt by paying off the smallest first? Or do you aim for the debts that are more expensive or urgent first?
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