I came up with an idea that I would collect my change and cash it in to use toward paying off a couple of old bills I have. Has anyone tried this before and we're you successful?
Saving change to pay for a bill is an excellent idea. I haven't done this before, but I do have a big change jar in our living room and once it is full I take it to my local bank and pour the change into the change machine. Me and my father will have a competition over how much the change will be worth and the one who is closest without going over gets to choose what we spend it on – it's normally a meal.
I save my change in a pickle jar but not towards paying off old bills. It's an emergency fund/christmas shopping fund for us. I suppose it would work the same way. If you use mostly cash for your purchases the change can add up rather quickly.
I deposit my loose change in my savings account. The last time I deposited a stash of it, it was enough to cover a minor car repair plus a couple gallons of gas, so I suppose I could say it goes toward an emergency fund of sorts. So I agree that saving change to put towards paying off old bills/debts is a good idea.
I already have about $10 saved in the jar I just started and it is going to go toward a $200 bill I have to begin with. I will probably cash out the money next month and then write a check for the bill or get a money order while I am at the store. It seems like a logical way to take care of the minor bills because the change gets forgotten anyway.
That's quite a tall order but depending on the amount you have to pay, it just might work. For instance, our water bill is relatively cheaper than our electricity and Internet bills. So by saving a bit of change every now and then, we can actually manage to pay our water bill every month. As for electricity and Internet bills, they're normally not as cheap. It would take months worth of change to actually pay for a singe electricity or Internet bill.
I pay for everything I buy in cash so anytime I buy anything I always have some change which I toss into a coin jar. I've never thought of using the money to pay the bills though because at the end of the month I'd have say $6 or $7. It isn't much but it's enough to buy an inexpensive gift for kids.
