Pooh Bank as Fun Money
In our house the “what to do with spare change” question got answered very early on. It goes into the Winnie the Pooh bank atop the refrigerator. While we have no kids, I am a kid in big person clothes when it comes to a little Winnie the Pooh so the bank graces our
otherwise very subdued kitchen. In reading Allison’s “Change Saving Experiment” the other week and then our recent trip to Rehoboth Beach I got to thinking about our systematic change saving.
I’d like to say that the Pooh bank gets used for some great goal like saving, investing, donating to worthy charities, creating world peace, or even paying down debt. The truth of the matter is that this little bank of coin is plain, unadulterated play money. You see we throw our change (and occasionally some single dollar bills) into the bank whenever the mood moves us (which is basically anytime there is coin in my pockets) and forget about it. I think this habit got ingrained in me early on because my Dad always had a huge (think more than a foot tall) Cutty Sark bottle that he used to drop pennies in. This bottle doubled as a door stop to my bedroom for a while. I have no idea what he ever did with the pennies when it got full (although I do remember counting them and figure I probably ended up getting something out of the deal) but it was always a heartwarming thing to see and was a good reminder that even insignificant amounts of cash can add up to something over time.
As for our Pooh bank we pretty much forget about it until we are going on a trip somewhere. Then, if the bank is sufficiently heavy — this is determined by a highly scientific move where I pick up the bank and think “yep, heavy enough” or “nope, too light in the loafers” — Kim takes it to the bank and gets it converted to cold hard cash in regular denominations.
This coin never adds up to a fortune. In fact, I think the most we ever maxed it out for was around $150 or so. Yet, it is always a nice chunk of change around $80-$100 or so that we can use as mad money. Sometimes we buy something we want. Other times we use it to pay cash for dinner (or part of dinner depending on the scale of dining involved). It is always a welcome relief to have something on a vacation paid for with seemingly “free” money. I find this whole approach to be more satisfying for me than using it for some bigger financial goal like saving. As much as I am a devoted saver, I don’t get that same conscious and satisfying “hit” s I do from spending it on something I want when money automatically goes into savings or I deposit some dough into an account. So, while I could potentially have a few more dollars down the road if I did something responsible and long-term about it, I prefer the more immediate (well, semi-immediate since it takes a while to save up the change) gratification of trading change for pleasure.
For the last 4 years, My partner and I have taken our spare change and thrown it into one of those automatic change sorters – the kind that drop each coin into a coin roll. Once a year, on our anniversary in December, we cash in those rolls of coins and use it to go out to dinner. Usually close to $200, it makes for an amazing time with no guilt & no breaking the budget. I remember each one of these dinners in detail and look forwrd to many more. Thanks for the pooh bank story.
When I was a kid my family would save change for vacations. while I was in college I tried the same with my gallon jar regularly raided for laundry quarters. Before leaving for basic training my jar had $35 in it to bank for taking my partner out to eat when I see him again in September. The new jar will finance frugal entertainment as he finishes school and I pay off debt.
We’ve got the same thing… but it’s a regular ol’ tin can instead of a cool Pooh bank. I wonder if cool banks makes saving more fun…. ?
We use loose change for our daughters savings account. A few bucks here and there will pay huge dividends since she is not even a year old.
I’ve been saving change forever. I cash it in when I go on vacation and use it for something fun. But instead of a Winnie the Pooh I have just a huge plain jar. Hmmm .. now I want a Winnie the Pooh.