Thursday, November 1, 2012

Contents of my Christmas Jar

Alright, time for the reveal. With lots of photos, because I was quite bored!

This was my 'jar'. It was a candy container last year I 'sealed' with red wax. A candle was all I had handy and I had to improvise! 

This is what it looks open. The red thing at the bottom is actually the second cover, which was supposed to not let me see the amount of money that was in it, but it got pushed down by the bills. There was more below! 

These were my latest additions. In order not to use the $200 'by mistake', I deposited it in my unused Bank of America account. So I gave myself an I.O.U. Then there's the $80 from Oct.'s overage. I forgot to picture the $120 I.O.U. from my credit card rewards.

And here's all the goodies! Plus...

A Chinese cookie fortune. I must've put it there to remind me of something. Just can't think of what... 

Here it is all counted up. The totals below.

I ended up with: $1.12 in pennies, $0.95 in nickles, $3.30 in dimes, $3.50 in quarters, $7 in $1 coins, $11 in $1 bills, $20 in $5 bills, $10 in $10 bills, and $40 in $20 bills. That's a total of $96.87! A lot more than I was expecting, and so close to $100, but barely under it.

My Christmas fund as of right now consists of $200 in bank credits, $176.87 in cash, $120 in credit card rewards (blue sticky note), and $30 in Target gift cards. That's $526.87, leaving me $73.13 short from my goal. No biggie! I'm actually quite pleased with the results, and will definitely do this jar next year. May not be a big money-pot, but it's fun to see how little amounts can come together. Now to figure out how to cash in these coins. I've heard about banks that have free counting machines, but I don't have an account with them and need to check if they'd take my coins anyway. No way I'm doing CoinStar! 

Tomorrow, I will detail what my Christmas shopping will look like... or is looking like. Happy Friday eve! 

17 comments:

  1. Good job on the Christmas Savings!

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  2. That is awesome! I need to bust mine open and start counting!

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  3. Isn't money pretty? :) Great job on the savings!! If you do coinstar I think if you pick a store that you would shop at you can exchange it for their gift card for no fee? or a least they used to have those in some stores last time I used it.

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    1. I'll have to ask next time I'm at the store. One of them has Coinstar, but I hadnt heard they'd make them into a store card. Great idea!

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  4. I cannot wait to open my sealed pot. My piggy will be opened December fourth, I never thought about Credit Card rewards but I know I have them!

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  5. Fortunes from Chinese cookies are just like Chinese food....you read them and an hour later you can't remember your fortune. lol

    Great job on the squirreling away the monies!

    If you go the CoinStar route I'd wait a bit since they usually do a promotion around the Holidays where you either get a bonus gift card for using them, an additional cash bonus back or a lower % taken on your coins.

    Rolling them yourself isn't so bad....that's what I do. But I do them as I go through the year, not all at once. I find it very soothing and therapeutic and something mindless you can do while watching tv or listening to music.

    At any rate, you are very well set for your Bacchanalia of Holiday Spending!

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    1. I've never rolled money, so I'm trying to avoid that route. My coworker told me there's a bank that has a free counting machine, even if you dont have an account (though they'll hard-sell you one!). Still undecided, so we'll see.

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  6. Nice!! You are very close to your goal!

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  7. Very nice! That's quite impressive. I should really do that next year :)

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  8. How does your jar work? You throw in extra money as available? Congrats on your Christmas fund!

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    1. Yup, I just threw in random amounts of money. And what I got was a lot, considering I dont deal with cash that much!

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  9. I've never done a Christmas jar before but it does sound like a cool idea. Maybe I'll do a "new dirtbike" jar haha. Do you just throw any change that you have in your pockets in there? Extra money made?

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    1. It's up to you. I just did it randomly. Because I dont deal with cash often, I ended up emptying my wallet every other time. Or if I had to get cash (for tolls, for example), I'd put a portion there. Could be solely for extra money made, but my money often ended up mixed in my bank account!

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  10. That was so fun to read, congrats! Since I never give exact change I had massive amounts of coins in my 5 lb coofee tin. I also don't spend $5 bills so I stuff those in also. It had to be opened in August because it was full. I ended up putting the fives in another sealed pot. They added up to almost $500 (not using credit/debit this year helped) and the coins went to the Coinstar. I got an Amazon gift card (no fee to Coinstar heehee) that will be used for Christmas gifts when the Amazon lightning deals begin. That was another $250 so I am happy!

    This was the first year of a sealed pot challenge for me. I'll open again before Black Friday for a year end total. I love reading other people's sealed pot reveals so thanks for yours! Karen

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    1. Wow! I really wish I could do the $5 deal, but most of the time, I withdraw $10-$20 in cash at a time, so after one use, it's possible I'd be losing $10-$15 in $5's to the tin! Maybe I should try that next year... nothing like opening a jar with over $200 in cash!

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