Shopper shares little

A SHOPPER has revealed a clever way to condense all your coins into one lump sum just before Christmas.

She took to the Scrimping on a budget Facebook page to share how she'd combined her loose change using a Coinstar machine.

The machines can be found at most supermarkets including Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's.

Shoppers have to insert their coins into a slot and receive a voucher which can be redeemed for cash at the till.

The voucher can also be used to get money off your shopping in-store.

The shopper said: "Keep your change in a pot and every now and then go to the machines in the supermarket and whack it all in.

"Would’ve been more but I kept the £1s and 20ps out for the laundrette to dry clothes over winter and kept the 2ps out as going Butlin’s next week so can go in the 2p machines.

"I did it last year before Xmas and got about £120 so was handy."

The woman ended up getting a voucher worth £45.48 after changing up all her spare coins.

But she was soon reminded by other shoppers of a catch involved with using the machines.

They charge around an 11% coin processing fee, which means the voucher will be worth less than the total sum of your coins.

However, combining your pot can save you time rather than spending the coins individually, and you won't have to carry your loose change around.

You can find out where your nearest Coinstar machine is on its website by typing in your postcode.

Coinstar machines are useful because they can be found at most supermarkets.

But there are other ways to cash in your old loose change without being charged a fee.

Some banks now have coin machines where you can pay in your spare change without having to sort it.

Not all banks have these though, and even if they do, they might not be in your nearest branch.

If they don't, you can always take the coins to the counter to be sorted by a staff member.

They can then add the total value to one of your bank accounts.

If you do hand them over to a staff member they'll need to be sorted into separate bags.

In each bag you'll have to collect £1 in coppers, £5 in 5p or 10p coins, £10 in 20p or 50p coins and £20 in £1 or £2 coins.