money machine

There's a neat little green machine at the A&P store on the Queensway. You dump in your coins and they take 9.5 cents on the dollar from your total...for the sorting.

My granddaughter and I had a grocery bag about 1/3 full of mixed coins...from the cars and the cups and the desktops and the pockets and the sofa cushions. Collected them all and took them in.

The machine grinds away, sorting all the coins. And then you push "DONE" and it spits out a slip of paper. You take that to the cashier and she gives you the equivalent in paper money. That was a neat activity!

So all those pennies in piggybanks and pockets and drawers you have....turn them into useable cash! We ended up with about $17.85!

Sorry but I don't agree with teaching kids to throw away 9.5% of their money when you could sit down and roll it. Will you teach them to go to a cheque cashing center next?

I agree -- that is throwing money away.

if you had $100.00 in your pocket would you throw $9.50 on the ground? I think not. All money is usable and doesn't have to go through a green machine before you can spend it or become "usable"

Hey, Retired2: "THE CHURCHES SEND ALL THEIR COLLECTED CHIPS TO A NEARBY FRANCISCAN MONASTERY FOR SORTING AND THEN THE CHIPS ARE TAKEN TO THE CASINOS OF ORIGIN AND CASHED IN."

I wonder if they pay the monks 9.5 cents on the dollar???

No one in my space will EVER sit down and roll all those pennies and various nickels and etc. They will sit forever in a cup or jar on the desk or in a drawer. So if people have time to roll coins, that's good. But there must be others like myself who think it's a good idea...otherwise, it wouldn't be there, would it?

How about people who put thousands of dollars into gaming machines/"the slots" at the casino? And get NOTHING in return?? Week after week. Month after month.

I personally have never been to a casino nor do I buy lottery tickets ... so if I waste 9.5 cents on a dollar once in my life, let it be. It cost us $1.62! Big deal!

redrider wrote:

Sorry but I don't agree with teaching kids to throw away 9.5% of their money when you could sit down and roll it. Will you teach them to go to a cheque cashing center next?

How much is your time worth? I'm serious about that ... Go ahead and put an actual dollar value on what you feel you are worth by the hour.

Now, after you've done that, ask yourself if it is literally worth your time to roll coins ... or should you be doing something more productive that reflects what you're worth. This is what I taught my kids.

It can take hours to roll $100 worth of coins (depending on if you have tools to aid in the process). Let's say it takes 9 hours. Is your time only worth $1/hour? I hope not. The people who use the machine, understand this. The people who waste a day of their life rolling coins ... don't.

This is not a serious enough issue to get into a fuss about..but don't you have to pay for those little plastic or paper rolling tubes?

Do they actually roll the coins for you? I have so many coins and I do roll most of them but when it comes to the pennies I can say that I rarely do so I have a big big container of them. This sounds great to me but I might need a forklift to get the pennies to the store..

Cking ..

for someone who preaches & teaches about spending time with their children/grandchildren I would have thought you would use this opportunity to teach about counting to fill those useless tubes (which cost minimal at the dollar store).

Perfect opportunity don't you think?

good grief, what did they do in the olden days, before the big green machines in grocery stores?

I would imagine that one would have to count out the coins to know how much they are getting before lugging them to the grocery store - why not take a wee bit extra bit of time to put them in tubes?

Besides, this all fits in very nicely with another thread that extolls the virtues of patience with old people.

What's the rush?

Is there a limit on how many pennies it takes?

That would save my daughter a ton of time in counting and rolling all her pennies that she picks up from friends that save them for her.

I didn't see mention of a limit. I think you can stand there all day. However, if it reached some limit, I expect it would just terminate your tally and give you the updated slip to that point.

And no, I don't know if it wraps and rolls them. Probably just stacks them down in the machine somewhere. And someone must come occasionally to clean out the machine.

As far as the paper coin rollers go, ask at your bank. Our bank always supplied them for free, no need to spend anything on them at the dollar store or anywhere else. Now, it has been a few years since I've done this, so haven't asked in awhile, I would assume they are still free.