I’m in a cheerful mood and perhaps it is due to the fact that it is the end of the workweek.  Anyway, I feel like sharing a personal story that can be beneficial to you or anyone for that matter.

 Last year toward the end of the summer, I felt I needed more privacy in my yard.  I decided I wanted to tear down the old four foot fence and replace it with a new six foot fence.  The cost of a new fence was $2200 and the fence contractor would be available within a couple of weeks.  My husband and I each agreed to pay one half of the cost of the fence.  I didn’t want to take from my savings account or charge it to a credit card or lessen a payment on a bill for my half.  Instead, I decided to open up the banks I had been saving my coins in. 

I had a red piggy bank for all of my pennies and a large plastic pickle jar that held all of the silver.  The piggy bank was stuffed and I had been putting pennies in another bank.  I had covered the pickle jar with duct tape (another glorious use of duct tape) so I couldn’t see how much money was in it.  Opening the jar was delightful because the coins were about two inches from the top.  The jar was extremely heavy, therefore, I had to roll it to a position where I could open it.  It would have taken hours for me to count all of the coins, so I filled the coins into sturdy bags and my husband and I headed for the bank. 

With excitement, I watched the cashier load the noisy coins into the counting machine.  When she finished she announced that the pennies totaled $50.26 and the silver coins totaled $978.10.  Ca ching!  I only had to add $71.62 to cover my half for the fence.  I was thrilled at my accomplishment.

It took me two years to save the money and it was relatively an easy thing to do.  By the end of every week, I noticed that my purse was overburdened with change.  As a result, I started placing all my change into my banks.  I have restarted saving my coins, but this time my goal is to fill my banks in less time than it took before.