When you are feeling a little cash-poor, sometimes it’s just a matter of looking around your home to find some quick cash. A few times a year, I take an hour or so to do all three of these easy tasks:
1.) Collect Loose Change: Whether it’s a bowl or jar sitting around full of coins or a scavenger hunt through the couch cushions, my kids and I track down all the loose change in the house. Roll them and take them to the bank or use a Coinstar machine to redeem your coins for cash. It always surprises me how much money we end up with when we cash in our jar of change.
2.) Organize Store Returns: If you have shopping bags sitting around waiting to be returned? Get them together, find the receipts, and move them to the car. Set a date and time to run those errands and make the returns . You’ll end up with more cash in your pocket, or atleast credit back on your credit card. Make sure you check your receipts for the return policy (for most stores, it’s 90 days). Wait longer than that, and you are throwing your money away.
3.) Track down Gift Cards: If you have a habit of losing or ignoring gift cards, designate a place for them and use it from now on. Make a plan to spend each or decide if you are not going to use them at all. If you don’t want them, you can either re-gift them or sell your gift cards at GiftCardRescue for cash. You may want to check your state’s law on gift card; some can be redeemed for cash right away. For example. in California, you can for any gift card with a balance less than $10, so instead of getting your cash back, you can just ask for the change.
By keeping up with these habits throughout the year, I keep cash in my wallet instead of spread out around my house. Now, go get to work!
