Photo: cbc.ca
Every year I try to account for every penny I spend, but of course, some of them just seem to…escape.
I should be writing an ode to the penny because Canada is going to stop producing its 1 cent coins on February 4. Retailers will round cash transactions to the nearest 5 cents. It’s the end of an era! It’s understandable, though, since pennies cost 1.6 cents each to make. All the existing pennies will continue to circulate, so they may not be scarce for a long time yet. However, I have closely inspected my penny jar and saved a few pennies with each of our family members’ birth years on them.
About once a week, I go through my wallet, remove all the coins under 25 cents, and throw them into the penny jar. So it’s actually a penny, nickel and dime jar. I used to let Link roll the coins and cash them in for bus fares, etc. This year, since Link has left home, I decided to let the coins accrue for a whole year and donate the total to charity.
At the end of April, my nephew was doing a penny drive fund raiser, so I gave him the balance up to that point, which was $23.50. I counted up the rest yesterday and it came out to $38.00, after I scammed a few cents from Rom and Link to finish up the rolls.
So a year’s worth of small change added up to $61.50.
Whenever I dump coins from my wallet, I record them as having gone to Misc: Cash. I have a discrepancy, though – I spent $91.41 in Misc: Cash this year. $61.50 went to the penny jar. So I was unable to account for another $29.91 over the course of the year.
One of these years I will account for every penny and the balance will be zero. Ha! Or maybe in 2013 I will be allowed to round it off 🙂
I am going to wash my hands now…
An Exacting Life 
what a lovely idea, and very easy to do. I am popping my silver into the sealed pot challenge again this year.
Gill
Great, there’s always something to buy or a project to be done with loose change. I draw the line at quarters, loonies and toonies, though – I just spend them!
Oh hunny – getting a perfect balance – I wish you luck! I used to be $20-$30 off on my weekly accounting – back when I was doing it. After the last week of spending, I’m feeling the need to return to tracking every sent. It’s been a spend-y week, and I’m not paid for another two days, and there’s NYE to get through yet!
I know I’ll never get a perfect balance for a whole year – it’s just something I aspire to. Have fun on New Year’s Eve!
It’s been a speedy month here, too. We are set to get back on track in January. At least we face it debt free and with savings. I couldn’t always say that.
Same here!
I hope the US government takes a hint from our northern neighbors and gets rid of the penny. Too much hassle for no real reason – you can’t buy anything with a penny, or even with ten or twenty of them. We can dump the nickel while we’re at it.
Ha ha! Yes, why not the nickels too, and round everything to tens!
Pingback: Penny-wise | livetolist