When I was growing up my dad kept a huge water bottle in his closet that he would empty the change in his pockets to at the end of each day. Then at the beginning of December, we'd pour it out on the floor, count it up, and then divide the money between the kids. We used that money to buy each other Christmas presents with. It was always so exciting and there was always way more money in there than we thought there'd be. Well, not to long ago my dad gave us a water bottle just like he had along with some change to get us started. We've been filling it for about 8 or 9 months and tonight we decided we'd count our spoils so far...
It was a math lesson, history lesson, and bonding time all in one. We even found a penny from 1824! My dad must have slipped that in there.We first divided each coin by it's type and then by dollar increments. We started with the smaller coins first and ended with the quarters just because we knew that would be the most exciting pile to count.
As you can see above the bottle is barely full of coins at all and yet the grand total was(drum roll please): $148.20
We were so excited and as we counted we all came up with what we would use the money for once the entire bottle was full - years from now. We're pretty sure we want it to be a trip of some sort and it seems that if you fill the whole bottle you've gotta have roughly between two and three thousand dollars - maybe more! It's a really easy way to save - I empty out my wallet of coins whenever there are some in there and any coin we find around the house, on the street, or in our pockets goes right in. Of course it's not a get rich quick kinda thing but I it'll do for now...
We also had a lot of fun with these photos...disregard my boys fingernails in these photos. Needless to say they got a trimming after this photo was taken!
So, thanks Grandpa - for all that you do. We love you!
p.s. Here's that penny - it's 184 years old!:
9 comments:
nice! we did this when we were kids. emptying out wallets, pockets and such at the end of the day helped a lot. it was also fun b/c we would take family walks and see how much we could find on our walks. usually only a few pennies - but once i found a $5. :) it was great - then we used the money for a trip to disneyland. thanks for reminding me about this - we're totally going to start that here too!
that's a really great idea! i'd totally want to do that, only i don't ever carry any cash.
How much is that penny worth? I've never seen one like that before.
totally cool idea. i can't wait until my kids are old enough to not eat the coins as we're counting them.
those pictures of the boys totally remind me of scrooge mcduck! you guys will be swimming in the money by the end!
Was Becoming Jane kind of boring? At first I was really excited about it but the more I saw the previews the more it started to look kind of dull.
Sarah - I never carry cash either but mike does sometimes and every once in a while I find I do too. I am now doing it more often just so I can put some in there.
Erika - I'm not sure how much this one is worth. If it were in mint condition - which it is far from being - it would be worth $17,000.00! My Dad says it's somewhere around 25 bucks.
Megh - I didn't think it was dull at all. Though I am a sucker for all things Jane Austen. I just love those moody walks through the hills. I held off seeing it for a while because it isn't historically accurate - but in the end, who cares? It's just a great little romantic drama.
Perfectly fabulous idea. We just donated our change to an organization though - and it was kind of hard letting it go...sad, huh? I should be more pumped about helping people out...
Like the Morgan's (Kricket's family). Whoever is at there house at Christmas time gets to make a guess at how much money her dad has saved in a can for the year. Her brother Roger beat me the time I got to make a guess - so I figure he still owes me $400 (cause I know he probably got a chance to count it!!!) :)
Have fun continuing to save - and picking a super fun trip to go on.
so fun! love the idea. i think dave's dad does the same thing with pennies and cashes it out for his mom's christmas presesent every year. i would love to see where you guys go! i would go to west asia somewhere...
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