The penny jar

After a hard day of shopping your coffers are likely loaded with copper and silver that will wear their way through even the toughest pockets and make you sound prematurely Christmassy as you jingle merrily along.

These coins, once unloaded, have a nasty habit of disappearing down every nook and cranny, so it can be useful to have a jar or other container that you can dump your coins into without really having to worry about them.


What can I use?
Some people use jars, some use empty giant whiskey bottles (no, making a penny jar is not a good excuse for buying one!), some use traditional piggy banks or tin cans. It doesn't really matter what you use as long as it's big enough to hold all the shrapnel that your favourite stores so enjoy landing you with.

Some people like to use containers that they can't open until it's full like a ceramic piggy-bank that must be smashed open or a tin can that requires a tin-opener. This can be a useful way of saving up for something specific, but it also means that your cash could be left sitting at home when it could be in the bank gaining interest - however slight.


What to do when it's full
Finding the penny-jar full can be both exciting and daunting. Chances are there could be upwards of fifty pounds in there, but the prospect of counting and bagging it it all up to find out can hardly seem worth it. There are, however, other methods.

The company Coinstar offer change counting machines that are easy to use and are usually placed in convenient places like supermarkets. However, there is a catch: Coinstar deducts around 8% for the convenience: that's eight pence from every pound; eighty pence from every tenner, and eight pounds for every hundred.

Some branches of the HSBC offer coin-sorting machines to account holders. The machines deposit the funds into the elected account without any deduction. After that is done, there's nothing to stop you from deducting your money straight away. Of course, this is only a convenient option if your local HSBC carries a coin sorting machine.

Alternatively, you could purchase a coin sorting machine of your own. Check out Penny's Shop to see some of the models available. All banks offer coin bags free of charge so, once sorted, the coins can be taken straight to the bank. It should be noted, however, that the most functional of these tend to be fairly expensive in themselves, and the idea of spending pounds to count pennies can seem counterproductive.


Bank it
With today's interest rates for online savings accounts, it's not unreasonable to expect 3%: 3p a year for every pound. It may not sound like much, but it's not unusual for people to find that their penny jars contain hundreds of pounds - hundreds of pounds that could have been making something as opposed to nothing. Put simply: don't let your money sit around in jars and shoe-boxes for too long.


Conclusion
Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. It's surprising how quickly shrapnel can add up into serious money, so do yourself a favour and keep all of it in one place. Once you've collected a fair amount, consider sorting and banking them.