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More service-relating things....
Since I moved into my apartment last June, I have been saving all of the coins I receive when making cash purchases (I had been saving before that, but it really isn't effective when you have to take the quarters out to do laundry). Now, I don't really like using cash, because I can't keep track of my purchases as well as if I use a credit or debit card, and sometimes I have need of change for a parking meter or a T token. So the saving has gone slowly, but I think it's at the point where it's over $50 (being the math nerd that I am, I occasionally count the "silver" coins, which are separate from the pennies).
Last year, after Hurricane Katrina, I decided I wanted to donate my change, when it reached a suitable amount, to the American Red Cross. The way I see it, since all it does is sit in a jar in my apartment, and it's hard to spend large amounts of coins, it's not really money for me, and so a charitable donation is the perfect thing to do with it. I'm a little lazy, though, and the idea of converting it to a usable form of currency (through a CoinStar machine, most likely, which takes 8.9 cents on the dollar), depositing that money, and then writing a check or donating online seemed like a lot of work. Plus it's not something I think about all the time, except when putting more money into the jar.
Today I noticed that the bottom of my purse had almost $5 in change on it, and I was reminded of this pledge I made to myself. So I believe this weekend I will put the plan into action and bring my change to a CoinStar machine. But now that I'm ready to do this, I've actually done some research, and it turns out that I can donate directly to the American Red Cross through the CoinStar machine - it's only one step! There's still a service fee (I will get a tax deductible receipt for the full amount, but I think CoinStar takes some sort of processing fee before giving it to the Red Cross) but it's lower than the 8.9%.
So there you go. This reminds me a little of my Initiate service project, where we had a penny drive for the MS Walk. Once I've donated all of my change for this one, I will start again. Maybe I can choose a different organization each time!
- Lizzardie, at 1:53 PM
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