Christmas Budgeting Tip: How To Skip Coinstar Fees

When you're working with a tight budget for the holidays, every penny helps.  

So the last thing you want to do with your pennies is pay a fee at a change-counting machine like Coinstar.

Coinstar charges a whopping 9.8 percent of your change as a fee if you take your earnings in cash.  



But you can get a gift card to a variety of stores for free, including JCPenney, Outback, Starbucks, and even Amazon!

So trade in your loose change for a gift card, then use it to shop for folks on your holiday gift list.

For example, this small, half-full quart bag of change netted me nearly $30 on a Starbucks gift card when I cashed in my piggy bank this afternoon:

Now, all I have to do is wait and see what kind of Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers will be available once my neighborhood Starbucks does their holiday setup.

They usually have gifts available in the $10 to $15 range, so I should be able to get two or three small but nice gifts for co-workers, or stocking stuffers, this way.

What other ways do you use your loose change -- do you roll your own coin, take it into your bank, or another creative way to use pennies and nickels?  I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments section below.

Check out more Christmas 2012 deals here.

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