From Simonne

Do you have a dusty jar of coins sitting in the cupboard? One of my friends hates carrying around weighty change – anything smaller than 50p goes straight in her jar. For years she let one jar fill up, then another, and another. What stopped her from cashing in her growing collection? The hassle of sorting out mountains of coins into those little bags and carrying them to the bank. Little did she know her jars were hiding almost £125.

Technology came to the rescue in the form of an automatic coin sorter in the foyer of her local supermarket. It’s ridiculously quick and easy – you tip the coins into the machine’s hungry mouth and watch the counter whizz up. And who can help but play the ‘guess the final amount’ game while you’re waiting. When the machine has finished counting, out pops a voucher that you redeem for cash at the till – or you have the option of paying your money to charity.

Like making withdrawals from those ‘expensive’ cashpoints, be aware of the cost of the service – in this case 7.5 per cent of the value of your spare change. But that might not be such a big price to pay if it means the difference between paying off only the minimum on your credit card this month, and actually paying off a chunk of your post-Christmas debt.