Coinstar – Turning Spare Change Into Gift Cards & More!

BySia

This post may contain affiliate links and I may be compensated for this post. Please read our disclosure policy here.

Sharing is caring!

softcoin

If you are looking for a last minute gift idea, and want to make your money stretch, here is a fun idea. Trade in your coins and/or spare cash using Coinstar’s Coin to Cash or no fee eCertificate options as a way to add an additional boost to your holiday budget.

I love this option, as there is always spare change hanging around our house. My husband leaves it in his pants and coats pockets. I do the laundry and so am able to grab the change from his pockets and add it to a bowl that we collect change in.

We often use the quarters for things like bake sale at the kids school, the dollar store and more. As a result we mostly had pennies, dimes and nickels left. I was not too sure what all the really “small” change was going to add up to. Boy was I glad I took the time to find out. It all amounted to a nice $20 Starbucks Gift card!

If you look at our totals in the photos below you will see that came from mostly pennies, nickles and dimes. Imagine what your total will be if you have a nice change stash that includes quarters too.

20131221_154556

This holiday season we decided to take our bowl of change in to our local Coinstar and use it to “stretch our holiday budget further” by turning our change into gift cards to gift to others. Each person in our family keeps their own bowl that we save change in (my two youngest combine their change). The photo above is the change my 5 and 6 year old have been saving.

I was surprised at what that bowl of mostly pennies added up to (its the $7.48 total shown below)! As a bowl of change it probably was not going to do much but keep sitting around the house. BUT, when we took it to Coinstar, I added their bowl to the change we have been collecting for just a short while and we were able to get a $20.50 Starbucks Gift Card as a Christmas present. I thought it was pretty cool that all that loose change, added up to one great gift!

That was just a couple weeks of saving change for us. Coinstar reports that their average user gets a $56 gift card /eCertificate when they cash in their change. What a great way to make that change really work for your budget!

Coinstar

1) We started by selecting if we wanted cash, a gift card or to donate to Charity (we chose a gift card to help stretch our holiday budget, but I love the charity option too!).

2) Next we selected our gift card (we chose Starbucks)

3) Then we simply dumped our change into the machine (we did the kids first so they could see what their savings added up to, and then mom added her bowl).

4) Lastly, you select done and Coinstar provides you a printed eCertificate.

What we found is that they offer gift cards or eCertificates to many favorite retailers like iTunes, Toys R Us, Starbucks, Amazon, Gamestop and much more.

The gift cards and eCertificates are paper receipts with a unique code. They work just like physical gift cards. You simply use your code when you pay at the store or when you’re shopping online.

You can check out the selection of options at Coinstar here (cash out, no fee gift cards/eCertificates, donate to charity, or some kiosks allow you to add the money to your pay pal or prepaid card accounts)!

In addition to helping you save for the holidays, we have found it to be a great option to motivate our kids to save. They love seeing that change turn into a gift card to one of their favorite stores (and options like Gamestop keep my teen interested too)!

Be sure to also follow Coinstar on Facebook or Twitter @Coinstar too, to stay up to date on their latest offerings and promotions!

PLUS, Coinstar wants to get you excited about the gift card options for the holidays, by giving three Thrifty NW Mom readers a chance to win a gift card too! Enter to win one of (2) $50 cards to Toys “R” Us and (1) $50 gift card to Lowe’s right now!

227 Comments

  1. Wow! Great to know! I’d use a gift certificate towards lowes or fred Meyer to get going on that January organizing

  7. We often get cash back and gift cards from coin star! Love seeing how much our pennies add up to!

  23. I’m always on the hunt for more money to spend at amazon! This would be a great way to add to my budget!

  43. I would love the Toys R Us cert. I’m 6 months pregnant and would love to save on some baby stuff! I’m also a TNWM subscriber.

  45. I wish they had Safeway cards so I could put the cash towards my food purchases. Boring, but always needed. :)

  46. I “like” Coinstar. We actually use it quite a bit to cash in for gift certs. Especially when they have specials like: cash in $40 get an extra $10 for select merchants!

  63. I would trade in for a Toys R Us gift card for last minute holiday gifts and a birthday gift for my grand daughter!

  77. I would like to find a Lowe’s, Amazon, or Home depot. In the middle of redoing my kitchen and those cards would be the most use.

  79. I have liked the Coinstar page and would like to get another Amazon card but something for groceries would be good too. I’ve already used Coinstar this season. Thank you for this opportunity.

  101. I typically look for ones that give amazon or starbuck because then it’s something I know i’ll always use!

  115. Subscribed to your newsletter and also liked Coinstar on Twitter and Facebook, any of the gift cards would be fine with me and I would use it wisely, Merry Christmas!

  126. My son has a huge piggy bank that needs to be taken to a coinstar machine because he wants to donate his money to other children that need basic needs.

  135. I volunteer, donate & participate in Susan g. Komen events to aid in breast cancer awareness, awesome charity! Would definitely donate my change to them

  136. I usually choose the cash out option but the gift card options are great! I would probably pick either Starbucks or lowes

  144. Any gift card is a blessing.. I suppose I would choose Fred Meyer, Walmart or Lowe’s since those are local to us..

  145. I like the cash out option so kids can use money to go to SkyHigh and Jump n Party in Spokane or city pools in the summer. A bowl of change is easily an extra trip.

  151. Amazon cards are always used in this house….toys’r’us is another that would be used happily. Great concept for coinstar!

  205. I would love to win any of the gift cards! It would be a blessing for my upcoming birthday. I might even spend it on myself instead of my kids…ha ha!!

  206. The gift card I would get with all my change is Starbucks. It would be a nice treat for my husband.

  208. Would love to use coinstar for starbucks or amazon. Usually we roll coin anf take to the bank l.. i didnt know that yoy could use coinstar for gift cards!

  223. I’d love to get a Toys ‘r us giftcard. I could use that for one of the many birthdays coming up!

Comments are closed.