Every year I think I will have Christmas shopping done by Halloween. Seriously, I vow it EVERY YEAR. It has never happened. This year is the same. I will be that person out shopping the day before Christmas trying to get it all done. We haven’t even purchased a Christmas Tree. Due to an emergency I haven’t been working all that much and funds are extremely tight. But I am pinching pennies and stretching that holiday budget with Coinstar!
Did you know that most people will estimate that they have about $26 in spare change laying around. Well, according to Coinstar’s nationwide kiosk data, the average amount that customers convert when they cash in their coins is $56. That’s nearly double the estimate. So I am on a mission to find every coin laying around my house…check out this infographic.
I totally need to go through every purse, bag, couch and the cars! I bet there is about $5 just on top of my washing machine!
Coinstar really gives you a lot of options when you cash out your coins. You used to only get a voucher to take to the counter to redeem for cash. It charged you a small fee and you had your cash that was easier to carry than your change. Well now you can do much more! You can have it sent to your paypal (which I love)! You can even turn those coins and cash into eCertficates or gift cards at retailers like Amazon, Old Navy, Toys“R”Us, Starbucks, Nike and Southwest Airlines, without an additional fee. Yes, you read that right…no fee! With Christmas right around the corner you can use this to turn your spare change into gifts easily!
Also, if you fee like paying it forward, you can give it to charity! You can do this right at the Coinstar Kiosk! They make giving easy!
I love that Coinstar is user friendly. I tend to get overwhelmed easily these days. I have anxiety and panic attacks can be triggered by the most simple things. My brain just doesn’t process things the way it used to and things have to be easy for me to do them. I was able to navigate all of the new features with no problems!
So, get your coins… (yes…I am aware that I am losing my hair…)
Head to your local Coinstar machine…
Dump your coins into the tray…
Choose your option…(See how easy? Really….)
If you choose the cash option there is a 10.9 cent fee per dollar processed.
Here are just some of the gift card options available to you through Coinstar…
If you choose the Paypal option, you will need to enroll at Paypal to use Coinstar beforehand.
If you choose to donate, you have plenty of options. Here are some of the available charities to choose from…
Once you make your choices you can begin having your money counted…
It really is effortless! The only thing that would make this easier would be to have a Coinstar machine in my house! You can find a Coinstar kiosk at more than 19,000 retailers though, so that is simple enough. How much spare change do you think you have laying around?
Be sure to like Coinstar on Facebook and to follow Coinstar on Twitter!
I have partnered with Coinstar to bring you this information on stretching your budget this holiday season. Monetary compensation was received, but all opinions are my own and I am an avid Coinstar user.
Girl on Fire
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I love that you can donate your coins to charity – but I also love that I can get an Amazon GC without paying a fee to cash in my coins!
I don’t have any coins…my kids steal them and put them in their banks LOL. Now they have TONS, I remember seeing a Coinstar machine at our local grocery store. I like the idea of donating, can you donate just SOME of it? I’d love to have my kids turn their coins in and give some and keep some.
I love Coinstar machines – the kids (and Hubs!) often accumulate lots of coins and it’s such a pain counting them up and cashing them in. Love that we can just dump them in the tray and it does it all for us 🙂
We have a HUGE coin bucket in our house. Phoenyx likes to dump it out and swim in it..this might be a better solution. HA!
It’s been years since I have done Coinstar! I love all of the options you can get now!
Our saved change is how we typically pay for the gas on vacations. We save them in our piggy banks and cash them in at a Coinstar right before we leave. I wish I had one of those nifty bags!
My kids are always wanting me to take coins there. Maybe I will surprise them and do it! They are dying to use the machine!
My husband and I switched to a cash budget last summer, and we save all of our change (we don’t ever use the change!) therefore rounding up every transaction to save for something special. We put it into a jar and Actually right now, we are already enjoying our reward of a trip to Wisconsin Dells! Fun Stuff!
We need to bring in a load. No way I have time to roll coins anymore!
All our change goes to the kids piggy banks. Every 3 months we head to coinstar so the kids can get their money. They then spend it, though my daughter likes to put at least $5 into her savings account. It’s a great way to teach children about money and saving!
I remember doing this with my mom! It was a big deal to be the kid to pour the coins in! It was just a cash option then, but I am loving all of the available options for “cashing” out!
Oh I had no idea you could get gift cards through them, let alone donate! That’s great. I used to wait tables in college and I remember hand rolling the coins when my jar got full- this would have been awesome back then!
I cash in my change all the time. We save all of our lose change for our road trips. When the kids were little we would cash it in and divide it among the three of them so they could would have spending money. Now that they all work and have money of their own, we put it towards our road trip expenses. That change really adds up! Using Coinstar is so much more convenient than rolling all our lose change- though we sometimes do that too.
I had no idea Coinstar started depositing to PayPal. I love that option.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been to a Coinstar machine and you know, my change jar shows it. I should cash it in now and see how much I have laying around. I could get an Amazon card and add it to my collection for decorating the twins’ bedroom. 😉
Did I read this right? Gift cards options? OHh i am so IN!!! Thanks!
I need to do this with my son’s piggy bank!
Dude, I can so relate to all of this – from the anxiety when things are too complicated (I have ENOUGH STRESS ALREADY LOL!) right down to the Christmas timeline. I, too, always have grand plans of being finished early. I do get things throughout the year and I’m always thinking about it, but somehow I always end up missing a few items. I looked at the calendar last night and did a double take when I realized that Christmas is next week and I’m still missing half my list – nooooo! Looks like it’s time to dig out the change. LOL!
I know this is awful but when I was on vacation in Maryland, someone came in my house and stole a giant pickle jar filled with change from us. It also had cash in it. They took it to the coinstar. I wish I had done it before our trip 🙁
I love Coinstar!! I use it like once or twice a year. We always have so much loose change lying around, we now have a giant bucket. A couple years ago we had a little over $50 in coins that we cashed in for our Disney Trip as spending money. It was great.
I’ve been using Coinstar for ages, they’re at all of our grocery stores! I love that you can save even more by cashing out for gift cards!
I had no idea there were so many payment options, including Paypal. Cool! I didn’t realize the fee was over 10%, but I guess you pay for the awesome convenience. 🙂
I have a full piggy bank that I can barely pick up, and a tupperware dish full to the brim. I am saving it all for an emergency~
Now I am wondering how much change I have around the house. I love that you can cash out for a Starbucks gift card. We save our change up and buy a gift card so we can treat ourselves to date nights at Starbucks and a movie.
the kids LOVE doing this as their piggy bank fills up. we put it right in their bank accounts
I’ve never used CoinStar before but love to hear it’s user-friendly. And the Starbucks gift card caught my eye. 🙂
we’ve never used a coinstar, we just go to the bank. but it’s pretty cool that they do gift cards! might have to throw some change in there and have it hock up a gamestop card for me xD
I’m trippin’ out that they have a PayPal option, that is my world! lol
We just bought my daughter one of those giant crayon piggy banks for the hundreds of coins she has collected, and I’m definitely going to take her to Coinstar when she fills it up.
I’ve done it at the grocery store several times for an Amazon gift card. It’s amazing how quickly spare change adds up. I didn’t realize they had charity options though!
Coinstar rocks! I am the treasurer for an organization & I use it all the time. The bank doesn’t like ti when we bring in gobs of coins to deposit so I just run by & use CoinStar to get bills.