What Do You Do With Lose Change?

[Ritti]

I have a bad habit of never leaving the house with coins and return with whatever and put them in a large tin

What do you do with them????

Give them to charity....get it cashed at a bank (around the size of a full shoe box now with just 1 and 2 bahts coins)

Boring subject sorry

[mario299]

I think all the street vendors look for small change, we do this with our local noodle store. Can probably change coin for bills pretty easily if you look for those that need small stuff. Or give to someone that looks needy, or is truly needy. Up to you.

mario299

[zzaa09]

We keep a large glass jar for everyday loose change. Builds up quickly. In time......the collection usually ends up as a donation at the local wat.

[remiss]

Leave for the maid..

[lovelomsak]

I donot come home with lots of lose change. I get 20 baht bills 2000 baht at a time. Everytime i go out I make sure I grab a few hundred baht in 20 before i leave. Anytime I buy small items I pay with the small bills. Usually donot get change. If I do start to accumulate change I simply use it up at the first opportunity. The only thing I do save is the satangs. I want to have jewelery made from them for my sisters.

[Forethat]

Piggy Banks. Got a whole collection of them. I buy them of street hawkers. The biggest one is the size of a medicine ball, probably weighs in at 60 lbs. Don't ask me what to do with the Piggy Banks, though...

[guzzi850m2]

If I eat in a restaurant and the bill is say 195 bath, I give them 200 bath in notes and a small tip in coins so that way I get rid of most of my coins.

The wife got 3 jars filled with coins of which many comes from me before I started on above "trick".

[gregb]

I first sort the old cupronickel baht coins from the new steel clad baht coins and save those in a jar. I also keep any of the old brass 25 and 50 satang coins. The rest I do my best to get rid of as quickly as possible. 7-11 has no problem taking 20 loose coins for purchase.

[Thaddeus]

On laundry day, I put a 10 Baht coin in each of my socks, they swirl about a little bit more then and get properly clean, spin cycle can get a bit noisy though.

[Jingthing]

I use 1, 5, and 10 baht coins for baht buses and sometimes water machines. Anything under a baht, I usually leave on the counter when they are given, or if they make it home, throw in a jar. No intention to touch the coins in that jar, ever, but I can't bring myself to actually trash them either.

[cdnmatt]

That's one problem I've never had to worry about. It just simply disappears.

[PoorSucker]

Big jar, for wife's little brothers birthday.

[nidge]

I put mine in a piggy bank. Last time i smashed a pig i had over 13K inside, (including a few 20baht notes), and had a new bed made. It took a long time to fill that pig though.

[IanForbes]

I usually know what I'm going to spend each day. I can usually get rid of my coins at the local Tesco or 7-11 when I shop for small stuff. I only save the Satangs and leave them in jar for the room maid. In the evening I only bring cash notes and leave any change with the bar girls. It's actually worse in Canada where I purchase everything with my Visa card (I get travel miles). There are very few times in Canada that I need actual money.

[Familyonthemove]

I've heard (on this forum) that 7-11 want the change so it you sort them they will exchange for notes?

[nocturn]

Leave for the maid..

My daily loose change easily feeds my kid, and covers the small stuff.

In fact change on all bills easily provides my maid/nanny with running expenses. If electricity is 4200, i give 5000. , internet, the same

i am sure she is actually making money on the whole thing, but marginally, and for me it all works out in the end. shampoo , deodorant and all that stuff seems to replenish itself.

it all seems to work itself out

[Boo]

at the end of each day me & mr boo empty our pockets/purse for small change (10baht & down in Thailand, 10pence & down in UK) & the coins go in a tin. we use the larger coins for water delvieries or other tips for household deliveries but when the tin is full my son gets it for a new toy.

His last thai haul was over 2k baht.

During the day, any excess change in my purse gets exchanged at 7-11 for notes. they will always take change & it lightens up my handbag.

[IanForbes]

The OP asks what I do with lose change. If I lose it then I don't have it anymore and the problem is solved.

But, if loose change wears a hole in my pocket and I lose it then I just patch the pocket so it doesn't happen anymore. Quite simple.

[Baa_Mango]

use the 5's and 10's up for motorbikes and snacks (fruit) been using my 1 baht coins at the laundry mat to trade up to 10's for the machine.. also when i had a decent amount of 1's i took them to the online phone credit machine thing and bought like 300 baht of cred.. was an experiment and was middle of the night so i didnt feel too stupid standing there for 10 minutes.. ALSO if you want you can walk into seven and just dump them with the money. They will switch it up for you no probs'

[Forethat]

I've always wondered what they'd do at a a supermarket if you made a 10k purchase and emptied 30 lbs of change on the counter to pay for it....?

[geronimo]

What do I do with lose change? Nothing as it is lost, is it not?

[anotheruser]

Give it local friends if they want it which normally they do. I am not talking about only really small stuff like satangs so most Thai or even Lao people I know on the border will take 20 baht notes or loose coins. If I am not around anybody I know then I give it to beggars or just throw it on the ground if I am on my way out of Thailand.

If I have some I find upon getting back to where ever in Farangland I may be going then I just throw them away.

[bunta71]

My daughter brings the change that we do not lose to Makro. There she turns it over to their customer service and while we shop they convert to paper......

[GreenSnapper]

What do I do with lose change? Nothing as it is lost, is it not?

Your pockets must have a whole!

[edwinchester]

Mine goes into a piggy bank. When there's a reasonable amount there wifey takes it shopping at the local market.

[geriatrickid]

The Big One clerks are delighted to take my change.

[dumball]

'IanForbes' timestamp='1304379241' post='4397317']

The OP asks what I do with lose change. If I lose it then I don't have it anymore and the problem is solved.

But, if loose change wears a hole in my pocket and I lose it then I just patch the pocket so it doesn't happen anymore. Quite simple.

Oh my , that was the first thought that flashed through my mind on reading the header , what is that old adage " Great minds think alike ' or do you prefer ' Birds of a feather' , perhaps ' There is no fool like an old fool ' 555

[Tod Daniels]

I throw it all into empty plastic water bottles I’ve got and then when they’re full I give them to a ‘select-group’ of beggars who are based in my neighborhood. They live together in a small apartment and pool money to buy food, necessities, etc. I’ve known ‘em for the last 5 years and most of the same people are still in the ‘group’.

They’re ALL Thai nationals, not the foreign beggars with their ‘rent-a-child’ which normally hang around the touristy areas.

OFF TOPIC (but marginally interesting)

While I'm about as far from an emotional person as one can imagine I will relate this story that STILL to this day tugs at my heart;

I first met this group of Thai beggars when I made friends with an elderly Thai woman who had half of her left foot missing, her right leg gone from the knee down, and had NO fingers on either hand, just thumbs. FWIW; she was the most polite and courteous Thai national I’ve EVER met in almost 6 years of living here. She never begged for money from me, always said hello, asked how I was, where I was coming from, etc. One nite she introduced me to her ‘group’, and that’s how I started to know them and understand how they operated collectively. AND NO before the know it alls weigh in; they’re NOT controlled by the beggar mafia, or any other nonsense, (although the Thedsagit did make them pay every month to beg in the area).

Over time I became ‘friends’ of all of ‘em. The old lady especially, she’d help me with my Thai when ever I wanted to sit and chat with her at her spot on the crossover near my house.

Anyway, after about a year and a half of seeing her, I told her I’d give her 500 baht ONCE a month on a specific day when I’d pass by going to read my paper. I did this faithfully for over a year, never missed doing it even a single time.

Then one morning I was busy (or thought I was), I didn’t have 500 baht in my pocket (and didn’t bother to go break a 1000baht note). I told her I’d be back in the afternoon and give her the money for sure. When I came back, she wasn’t there. Later that night another beggar in her group came up to me and said; she had gone back to the apartment because she wasn’t feeling well. While she was there she ended up slipping ‘n falling in the shower and died from a skull fracture, brain hemorrhage.

To this day I wonder, if I’da just taken the frickin’ 5 minutes outta my day to break a 1000baht bill down and give her the 500baht, would she still have life or not? FWIW: I did attend her cremation and even took all the beggars in her group there and back in a taxi.

Honestly, it STILL almost brings me to tears writing this and it's be a couple years ago at least.

Anyway, that’s what I do with my spare change

[IanForbes]

Good story, Tod. There are more of us crazy people than you think. I help those that don't ask for help... but need it, but seldom those that to.

[Loz]

I collect it near the door, as I empty my pockets when I come home. When it looks like quite a pile I stack them in the little plastic sleeves my DVD's come in. I put 100bht in each bag then when I have little things to buy, I take them with me. Also I have changed them at 7/11 and family mart 100bht is a good figure though because its multiple dtac top ups, its a full tank of 91ron for the motorbike, its a litre of grapefruit juice. So it helps me plan my shopping trip.

Its also theraputic, the counting process I mean.

One time I put them all in a long sock though, and went looking for the noisy dog to break them over its head. About 400bht makes an effective lump hammer. Just so you know...