I'd been procrastinating this because I refused to have CoinStar charge me a 9% commission for this service. Did you know that the UFCU in Austin has a coin counting machine (at least the south location) and do this service for free? I assume it's free as long as you have an account with them, which I do. (Incidentally, if you have an account with a credit union, never ever let those go. Our current experience with Chase has been disappointing to say the least, while UFCU always felt on my side. Glad I'm still keeping the account.)
In any case, I refused to succumb to CoinStar's services. It's a travesty, I tell you!
Of course, with that logic, we'd been sitting with accumulating coins since we moved to Brooklyn 3 years ago. Yes, stubbornness can be a powerful emotion, and it can turn you in to a hoarder. What finally did it was that I'm attempting to baby-proof our apartment. Not in an anal-retentive way, but rather just trying to eliminate small choking-sized and/or breakable items from the bottom living room shelves. And a big pile of coins is definitely a choking hazard. I figure LP will dictate whether she needs everything up to three feet padded or if she's fine with just a few adjustments. So in the meantime, we'll just make a few adjustments that don't cramp our style too much.
Besides, LP and I need excuses to go out. We have our mom-group gatherings, but those don't happen every day, so we end up trying to run errands to fill out the week. (In fact, we make it a point to go outside everyday. Unless it's under 30 degrees and/or storming, lets not go crazy here.) So cashing in our coins just seemed like a great excuse to walk all the way to the Key Food on 5th Av. It's about a 15 minute walk, so it's just right to go there and back in a whole nap cycle.
Man, I wish I'd done this sooner. We ended up counting our coins in two separate sessions, and our net gains were $46 and $34. Even if they ended up keeping about $7 in service fees, that's still $80 that we didn't have before. I'm so excited about the extra spending money, it's just enough to buy a cup of coffee here and there. So here I am, a supporter of CoinStar. What's next, supporting Wal-Mart? Nah, not there yet.
Whatever, we got our coins done eventually. That's what counts, right?
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