A penny saved...

Last night I was at a family Christmas party, and now that I am “in my 20s”, I was shunned from the “kids” group and was told by the youngest that “I wasn’t a teenager anymore”, I was “a woman.” Once I got over the hilarity of that statement, I accepted the fact that I was officially a new member at “the adult table,” and as such, missed the whole process of the under-20 crowd getting riled up about the approaching present-giving.

When I finally realized that the chaos in the living room was related to opening gifts, I calmly, albeit excitedly, walked over to the living room to receive my gift from Santa. The ever-so-practical Santa had deemed it appropriate this year to bestow upon me the gift of… an electronic coin counter. While my brother wasn’t too thrilled by his technologically advanced piggy bank (the other boys got iPod gift certificates and fishing poles), I was absolutely delighted!

I’m sure you, like me, have hundreds of random coins lying around the house, car, inside the cracks of the couch, etc. But now, with my new handy-dandy coin counter, not only will I have a place to keep all my extra change, it will count it for me too! What a perfect way to have a visibly growing travel fund… every time I see a coin, I will run to pick it up and put it in my jar, envisioning all the places I might go once it is full (or rather, has been filled and emptied multiple times).

As soon as I ripped open the gift wrapping paper, I knew that I would be decorating my jar with all the places I want to go. I’m going to print off pictures from the internet, paste on old plane ticket stubs, and wait for my coffers to fill. Every little coin I see now gives me so much joy because I know exactly where it’s going: into my travel fund! Being able to see exactly where my extra money is going keeps me on the straight path of saving. If, instead of spending the little extra change I have, I put it right into my jar, it will gradually grow and assist me in my trekking endeavors! After all, a penny saved is a penny that can be spent on a plane ticket!

If you need a last minute Christmas gift, or just want one for yourself, you can find a coin counting jar at Kohls or order it offline at http://www.amazon.com/Summit-ZMJ01-NI-Electronic-Money-Jar/dp/B0001CU1QA. Make sure to decorate it with the places you want to go… it makes your travel dreams that much more real!