Do you have a Coinstar machine at your local grocery store? You take in your bucket ‘o coins and get paper money in exchange. Trouble is, there’s a service fee for getting cash. BUT, if you choose a gift card or an e-certificate, there is no service charge. So you can go in with coins and come out with a gift card for Starbucks or an e-certificate for iTunes. Pretty sweet deal.
With our new bedroom remodel, I wanted to get rid of the money bear. It’s a 18 inch high plastic bear that once upon a very long time ago held 3 pounds of Animal Crackers (how long ago? college). I’ve thrown my extra coins in there every so often, usually when I couldn’t zip my wallet closed. It was about 1/3 full and I was sick of trying to fill it. So today I took it to the nearest Coinstar and dumped it all in. Went for an Eddie Bauer e-certificate; I’m in desperate need of a pair of jeans without holes in the knees. I thought, hey, if I got $20 towards a pair of jeans I’d be happy. Jeans are on sale at the online store, with shipping it shouldn’t be too bad.
Right.
Guess, just guess, how much the money bear coughed up for me.
One hundred and thirty bucks.
In random, didn’t even miss ’em coins.
So, this evening, I’m sitting down and perusing a catalog and placing a nice order. Some jeans, a couple of tops. With sales and good planning, I’ll be looking sharp this summer.
Now, if only losing weight was this easy…