One of the things that I decided to do in January was to start a “change jar.”  Since we use cash only, we end up with a lot of change.  In the past, I would just carry it around in my purse and put it toward purchases, but I decided I was going to start keeping it all in a jar.

Originally, my intent was to use that money for our Christmas savings, but by mid June, the jar was full and we had a family vacation coming up.  We had set aside some money for the vacation, but we had decided to add an extra day to our trip and we wanted to make sure that we could have fun and that we weren’t counting every dollar, so we decided to cash in the change jar.

I asked my husband how much he thought we had accumulated over the past five months and his guess was $30.  My guess was $60.  We were both surprised to find out that just by throwing our change in the jar over a five month period, we had accrued $98!  We ended up coming home from that trip with $100 in cash, and we ended up getting our hotel stay for free after I contacted the corporate office about a number of issues that we encountered during our stay, so we ended up having some extra money for another little getaway, which we took last weekend.

We have since started filling the jar again and it’s now about 1/4 full.  I think after that experience, we are more motivated than ever.  The moral of the story is that every penny (and nickel, dime, and quarter) really does count and add up!

What are you doing to save for a cash Christmas this year?  Check out some of my other ideas for saving toward a cash Christmas here.

Do you have another Thrifty Thursday tip to share?  Feel free to link up below!

For more Thrifty Thursday ideas, check out Coupon Teacher, Madame Deals, and Life as a Mom.

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