A Penny for Your Thoughts

Food Storage Quick Tip #6 – Saving some money

This week’s tip is about saving some money.  There is no right or wrong way to achieve this, even if only a few coins a week.  We just need to start!  Of course it is not a good thing to have a lot of cash in the house; but it would be good to have a little on hand.  If the ATMS are not working in an emergency, it might hold you over until things get turned around.

Here are a few examples of saving some coins:

• Coin tray in your car.  Save your change from drive-through transactions.  It has saved my life a few times when I forgot my purse.
• What’s your favorite coin?  Some people like pennies.  Dimes are kind of cute.  Check out the links at the bottom for coin savers that made the news.
• Find change in the washer?  My vote:  It’s unclaimed property
• Clip coupons and pledge that amount saved to your emergency account.  You’ll want to put your receipt in your scrapbook.  What a good wife!
• Save a quarter a day.  Or a dollar a week.
• Start a swear jar.  Caution:  Don’t swear more just to add up the quarters.

The Internet has given us opportunity to at any time manage our bank accounts.  One way to save a little bit each month is to use their automatic transfer system.  You can set it to transfer $1.00 a week, or whatever, on a prearranged day.  Even if it doesn’t seem like a lot, it adds up.  Another suggested way is to look at it by percentage.  If you faithfully pay 10% every month back to the good Lord, think about putting away 1% every month for yourself.  Decide with your own family’s needs in mind.

Assignment:  Start saving some money.  Even if it is only a few coins a week in a jar.

Links:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318018,00.html
Article about a man who buys car with coins.
http://www.coinstar.com/us/PressReleases/723130
Article about a man who makes a record exchange of pennies at a Coinstar machine.

TRIVIA QUESTION: Where do you see people in the movies put their emergency cash?
In a boot (Maverick)
In  a shoe
In a shirt (The Dollmaker)
Hidden in a hat lining (Paper Moon)
In a milk jug
In a cold stove (Unsinkable Molly Brown)
In a Mason jar buried in the back yard
Sewn into the lining of an orphan child’s jacket
Saved in a piggy bank (to be opened by a giant cartoon hammer)
A safe is good for large quantities counted often and nicely stacked.
In a sugar bowl, cookie jar, or ice box
A cigar box
A baking powder can (Where The Red Fern Grows)
Stuffed in a mattress (When banks are not to be trusted)
Between pages of a secret book
Inside a rag doll (Night of the Hunter)
In the brazier (Next to the Kleenex )