Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Great Quarter Experiment


Sometime back before the beginning of 2011 I read something somewhere about someone (hmm, this may be where pinterest comes in kind of handy) who saved every quarter that came into her possession as change for a full year.  At the end of the year she had over $700.00 saved.  Sounded good to me, although I suspected one actually had to spend a lot of money to garner $700 in quarters in change.

I was curious as to how we would do on such an endeavor -- modified of course to accommodate our thrifty (cheap?) lifestyle, since we don't have spending situations that generate change every day.  So, every week this year on each Sunday we dumped any quarters we had as change into a large jar.

Now, on New Year Day 2012 we have tallied the results:  $71.00

After an initial let down that it wasn't $700, or even $100, I thought this was pretty cool -- I didn't have to "work" at it at all.  I didn't have to deprive myself of anything, did not even consciously try to "save" quarters through the week -- if there were quarters at the end of the week, they went in the jar, if not -- no biggie.  I started wondering how much money we would have had to have on deposit for one year (like a CD or Money Market) to earn $71 at the current interest rates offered -- about $25,000!!  So not too bad, considering we "earned" that "interest" on money spent on groceries, occasionally eating out, magazine purchases, trips to Target, Hobby Lobby, etc.

Linking to Masterpiece Monday at Boogieboard Cottage

5 comments:

Mojo said...

Nice work. So how will you spend it? Or will you save it?

Ceekay-THINKIN of HOME said...

We always save our change....and we are like you...no big purchases...but it does add up. We use it if we have a trip or something to have a little extra spending money...but I tell you, it is getting hard for me to cash it in....at least I can see it sitting there...somewhat of a comfort!

Patty Marker said...

I love this idea and think even I can manage to save my change every week. I love the idea behind your blog and will be following you now. Patty

Sunny Simple Life said...

I love this. We always save our change and cash in the bucket before a vacation for extra spending money. But I love this idea of saving it for a year with maybe a purpose of what we will buy with it. It will seem sort of like free money since it is just small bits of change at a time.

Ann said...

Great experiment, Diana. My hubby and I throw all of our quarters into a vintage pelican planter that belonged to my grandfather. We end up filling it about three times a year and it usually amounts to about $65 for each fill-up. We use it as spending money on vacation. Not much, but as you say, it's quicker and cheaper than earning a like amount on money market.