Do You Collect Money Or Give It Away?

[JuniorExPat]

I prefer the sweets that a couple of our neighbourhood shops give out instead of satang coins - it reminds me of Italy when the Lira was notes, coins, sweets and buttons.

We seem to have collected several jars and tins of these 25 and 50 satang bits. What do you do with yours?

The only suggestion I've been given so far is that the supermarkets need them as there is a shortage, seems a shame to do something so dry with small change that has pretty much been written off.

Are there any worthy causes actively seeking them out?

JxP

[neverdie]

I use to put them in my ear but a couple of them have disappeared into my cranium & they rattle around a bit in there, so ive stopped that now.

How did you end up with a jar of the buggers?

[dantilley]

Pay them into a bank if you have enough of them. I spend them every day anyway - the songthaew down to the BTS station costs 5 Baht 50 Satang...

[samtam]

i collect them in an envelope and periodically drop them into those charity boxes at the BTS.....not sure who gets those, but at least they're not my problem anymore.

[JuniorExPat]

I use to put them in my ear but a couple of them have disappeared into my cranium & they rattle around a bit in there, so ive stopped that now.

How did you end up with a jar of the buggers?

Upgrade to 5 baht coins and you'll not only keep the insects out your ears, you'll have change for the phone and you'll be able to hear the little satang coins rattling around a whole lot better.

At the end of the day all silver and two metal coins get left by my wallet to be picked up the next day and all the little satangs go into a pot, family have followed suit, over time they seem to breed (the coins as well as the family).

JxP

[JuniorExPat]

Pay them into a bank if you have enough of them. I spend them every day anyway - the songthaew down to the BTS station costs 5 Baht 50 Satang...

I'm looking to make a little merit plus the whole counting and weighing malarky doesn't inspire a trip to the bank.

It would take me many years to use these coins up on your daily songtheaw trip . . . mind you I could probably use all of them up in one go to get my nearest BTS station.

JxP

Edited February 6, 2009 by JuniorExPat

[JuniorExPat]

i collect them in an envelope and periodically drop them into those charity boxes at the BTS.....not sure who gets those, but at least they're not my problem anymore.

Now this is more like it, thank you samtam - nice to see that someone has solved their version of this problem. I'm kind of hoping that I can avoid the trip to a BTS station - a bizarrely popular suggestion so far considering I posted this in the Chiang Mai forum.

To clarify - does anyone know of any good causes in Chiang Mai specifically collecting the little satang coins? I'm sure I can find a suitable collecting box, just wondered if there were any local suggestions.

JxP

[Nienke]

On the bar of tuskers there are two collection boxes. You can take your pick.

[JuniorExPat]

On the bar of tuskers there are two collection boxes. You can take your pick.

Thanks Nienke, I will remember that next time I visit . . . how big are the boxes?

More to the point, why are you being coy? I get this feeling that you know the names of both charities, I can't think of any reason (even a ThaiVisa Forum rule!! ) that should stop you telling forum friends about a good cause. Or if you prefer, just tell your favourite.

Thanks,

JxP

[Cuban]

Drop them in small piles, a nice discovery for a child going to school.

Toss the lot, broadcast style into a school playground over night.

Give them to someone fishing around in the bins, they know the value of 25 Satang.

Exchange them at 7-11, Big C etc.

[samuibeachcomber]

Drop them in small piles, a nice discovery for a child going to school.

Toss the lot, broadcast style into a school playground over night.

Give them to someone fishing around in the bins, they know the value of 25 Satang.

Exchange them at 7-11, Big C etc.

being a cheap charlie i take them when i shop at tesco or big C.i personally would n't give them to poor thais fishing around in bins,kind of an insult cos there's no where to spend them accept maybe 711,i would give them the silver stuff.

[NancyL]

You can spend the satangs at 7/11, Tops and Rim Ping -- probably a few other places. That's how we end up with them, as change from shopping in those places.

Hubby and I have a daily ritual where he turns over all the "big baht" coins in his pockets to me to spend and I give him all my "baby baht" -- 1 baht coins and satangs. He pockets them and gives them away to street beggers. He prefers a couple of "regulars" in our neighborhood and they give him a broad smile and nice wai whenever they see him.

He's a more of a soft touch than I am. We started this practice soon after moving here when I realized he was giving street beggars whatever change he had in his pockets, including 10 baht coins. I pointed out that 10 baht is real money here, not like giving a beggar a few dimes or nickles in the U.S. So we struck a deal where we do the baht coin exchange daily and he can indulge in his practice of making merit by giving money to street beggars.

[Nienke]

On the bar of tuskers there are two collection boxes. You can take your pick.

Thanks Nienke, I will remember that next time I visit . . . how big are the boxes?

More to the point, why are you being coy? I get this feeling that you know the names of both charities, I can't think of any reason (even a ThaiVisa Forum rule!! ) that should stop you telling forum friends about a good cause. Or if you prefer, just tell your favourite.

Thanks,

JxP

Huh? Not coy at all. Just didn't think further than that are two donation boxes at Tuskers, and I know that you go there sometimes.

One box is for Wat Pa Pao and one for Care for Dogs, if I remember well.

How big? Dunno. About 20 by 20 cm?

You can also drop it in one of the many donation boxes at the Makro or at Aden, or give it to the Toy ride people?

No favorites for me, all good causes.

[tigerbeer]

go buy some furniture

[ThaiPauly]

go buy some furniture

For those that know you TB...thats a classic

[magenta]

There is a small wooden temple next to the big chedi where Thais buy a bowl of 25-satangs for 20 baht and then drop one in each of the 100 or so alms bowls to make merit. (Same happens at the temple of the large reclining Buddha in Bangkok.) I collect satangs and take them there once in a while, they are happy to get them. The 1-baht coins I use to pay for the drinking water delivery every week (the money goes in a plastic bag and gets hung on the fence, I don't have to face the delivery guy and see him making faces).

[realthaideal]

I save mine n then every year go down to the local Wat n donate it with another bit of baht to make it sweeter. It's just a nice thing to do. Go meet the head monk. Say hi. Talk about Thailand and learn the history of your local wat. It's fun. My old local one was 550 yrs old or something. Felt privileged to be sitting there and learning about it and helping pay for the electricity n upkeep bill. After that I dropped a little bit more over at the school side of things for kids' textbooks. A nice 45 mins out of my usual routine and feeling good about it on several levels. I look fwd every yr to the satang bowl filling up.

[idrankwhat]

I make a nuisance out of myself with them every time I go to Carfour, Lotus, Rimping, etc. that is to say I give them back after a bit of digging but I have never collected more than 75 stang and I guess I did the same in the states with pennies. I found out a long time ago as a poor universtiy student if I kept all of my change in my pocket and never let it accumulate higher than the lowest domination of paper money not only did my paper money go further but I seemed to have more money (because I wasn't throwing it in a jar).

[neverdie]

I save mine n then every year go down to the local Wat n donate it with another bit of baht to make it sweeter. It's just a nice thing to do. Go meet the head monk. Say hi. Talk about Thailand and learn the history of your local wat. It's fun. My old local one was 550 yrs old or something. Felt privileged to be sitting there and learning about it and helping pay for the electricity n upkeep bill. After that I dropped a little bit more over at the school side of things for kids' textbooks. A nice 45 mins out of my usual routine and feeling good about it on several levels. I look fwd every yr to the satang bowl filling up.

I had to laugh at this....go meet the head monk say hi and give him 25 satang ...sure to impress! No offence rtd, im just taking the piiissss!

I also hope realthaideal that you have more too look forward to than just the satang bowl filling up

Edited February 7, 2009 by neverdie

[ozsamurai]

Anything under 5 baht is thrown in a jar, and then ratted through for water money, shopping at the fruit and veg in Khlong Toei, bundle the 1's into 10 with cellotape, a satang saved is a satang earned... Temple cats is another place I take my coins to for donation.

Oz