The Water Jug

[Tnerb]

It is just a bottle.

 

I don't get a large tax return. I earn $2.83 an hour and only have myself to claim. As many reading this, I have already received my return. I used it for bills. Last year I spent a ridicules amount on comics (not a complaint) compared to what I saved. This year started off slowly, purchasing a lot less in January but threw off all restraint in February, yet I still kept within my collecting guidelines.

 

A little less than six years ago I decided to save using a calculated experiment, on June 5th, 2006 my life started over. I had yet to start collecting CGC graded comic books and my expenses were a lot higher. I tried saving but always had a new bill or some unforeseen circumstance swallow my savings.

 

I decided to change my way of thinking. A previous customer of mine once told me that $10,000 in quarters fit in a five gallon water jug. I decided to find out if that was true dubbing it my quarter experiment. I started putting in a quarter a day, if you calculate that over a year it comes out to $91.25 (leap year with standing). That wasn't enough for me, nor fast enough. I added an additional four quarters every Sunday. This brought my annual total to $143.25. This still wasn't fast enough, so on the 5th of the every month (the date I moved in) I added another $5 and on January 1st I added $20.

 

My total for a full year became $223.25. For that first year I dropped a quarter every day, $1's worth every Sunday, $5 worth for every 5thof the month, and $20 for the year. When the year was over I counted what was in there. My calculation was correct, what I had added on paper was what was in the bottle. The bottom of the jug was barely covered. I wasn't filling it fast enough. After the first year I added 2X the amount; after my second year I added 3X the amount and continued to progress this way after each consecutive year. I even started to use dollar coins.

 

After my 4th year, the water jug stated to look like I saved something substantial. I was also getting tempted to just bring it to the bank. I stopped adding coins on a daily basis and calculated the allotted amount every month. I am three months shy of doing this for a full six years and I just added enough coins into the jar to cover the calculations up to June 5th, the beginning of my 7th year. I would have slowly added over the next 3 months but I am going on vacation in early April and I would rather not leave all that money lying around.

 

I might not have gotten a hefty return but after this water jug experiment I'll have a nice amount to put away in savings, some for my trip, and maybe even a comic book or two. As for as a water jug holding $10,000 in quarters, it's a fallacy; it's more like ten thousand quarters. After six full years of adding coins, both quarters and dollars I came nowhere near $10,000. I calculated how much is in there but will let you know the exact amount after I take it to the bank.

 

Thanks for Reading

 

Tnerb

[surfer99]

That is a cool idea and story. Nice job disciplining yourself to save that amount over that length of time and reach your goal of filling the bottle. I'm sure it makes you really think before spending it now, but it sounds like you have a good plan. Enjoy your trip!

[Clouded9]

I think the jug weighs... 120 lbs.

[Buzzetta]

I think that you did some serious damage to the floor. A friend of mine did that with all of his change. When he finally filled it and wanted to try and bring it to the bank he found out he cracked the floorboard.

[Dr. Balls]

I'm interested to hear the final amount...

[Rossfilms]

So, i guess by what you stated in your journal, a water jug like that would actually hold about $10,000 in DOLLAR COINS vs quarters -- The fallacy lies in that your customer told you the wrong denomination of coin to put in!

 

Good luck lifting that puppy!

 

[Tnerb]

I live on a ground floor leaving my floors unscathed. As far as the weight is concerned... I knew I should have weighed it. The amount will be revealed in a future journal. I wish I could have also recorded the looks on the peoples faces when I rolled in a few buckets worth of change.

[comicstock]

I filled one of the jugs to the TOP! I took me 20 years of loose change. Every day I came home from work, I'd empty my pockets and added the pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters with a VERY rare half or modern-day silver (?) dollar. My credit union was the only place that'd turn them into actual dollars - deposited everything into my savings account. I had to bring in a few Tupperware containers at a time when it wasn't busy and they'd run them thru the machine. Anywhere else and they'd want 'their cut'. Me, my wife and 2 kids wrote down our estimates beforehand. The final tally was barely shy of $2000. Good luck and let us know how it turns out! - jim (comicstock)

[excelsior1986]

If you kept increasing the amount times the number of years you put quarters into that jar, you should be around 6200. If that's the case that's not a bad number for saving quarters. Have fun spending your well earned quarters.

 

 

[Tnerb]

The amount was about $4742.25