Good morning, savvy savers! For this weeks Savings To Go With A Cup Of Joe post, I want to discuss ways to save money with spare change. Recently, my local Credit Union installed a Coinstar machine in their lobby. I thought this was such a strange occurance, as these machines tend to be in grocery stores.

My branch manager explained to me, that more than 30,000 banks across the country will be installing a newer version of the machines, which will no longer change a counting and sorting fee, and allow users to deposit their change, via the coinstar slips, directly into their account, saving the tellers time in counting and weighing the coinage. She also informed me that these machines will give users the ability to place some coins in an account, and load other amounts onto pre-paid gift cards usage at local grocery and retail stores; I was able to use the card at my local Winn-Dixie! In addition, there will be an option to donate coins to local schools or redeem coins for Amazon.com gift card codes, which can be printed as a slip or your email address associated with your account can be entered, and the gift card copde sent directly to your amount balance; the Amazon cards would be wonderful to stock-up on Subscribe & Save purchases, or put back for holiday shopping later this year!

Adding to this the new data from the National Banking Association, which states that in 2013, the average bank user deposited $124.00 worth of change into their checking accounts, and just imagine adding the other coinage sitting around out homes, collecting in jars, l and laying hidden under the couch cushions! Be sure to check with your local branch and see if they have a coinstar machines as well!

Here’s to saving!