The Found Change Challenge Total for 2024 Was . . .
by Katy on January 14, 2025 · 19 comments
The new year is upon us, which means it’s time add up my found change for the previous year. I’ve been doing this Found Change Challenge since 2011, a year that filled my jar with an extra $23.77. Sadly, times have changed. (Yes, pun intended.) People carry less cash with every passing year, plus there’s the issue of shopping less at brick and mortar stores, which all results is fewer coins falling to the ground.
My jar for 2024 added up to . . . $15.48, which was comprised of a single dollar bill plus $14.48 in random change. Not as much as 2014 when I found $37.90, but much better than last year when I found a measly $5.19. Either way, it’s free money and that’s never unwelcome.
Here are my totals from previous years:
• 2023 $5.19
• 2022 — $7.71
• 2021 — $11.91
• 2020 — $9.41
• 2019 — $11.80
• 2018 — $19.65
• 2017 — $15.17
• 2016 — $56.54
• 2015 — $23.73
• 2014 — $37.90
• 2013 — $35.60
• 2012 — $28.50
• 2011 — $23.77
The grand total for all found money is $286.88, which is kind of an impressive number. Not enough to illegally sway an election, but it might get you a weekend at the Oregon coast. Free money, it’s worth the effort.
Have you been saving your found change?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Many years ago, I got into the habit of giving any coins I found to Zoe, because at the time she was pretty young and could appreciate the odd penny or dime.
She’s almost 19 now, and I still leave found coins on her desk, just for the heck of it. 🙂
Hip hip hooray, we finally have the Found Change Challenge post!!
My found change total for 2024 was $31.87. But it would have been only $11.87 if I hadn’t found that $20 bill back in August or thereabouts.
My NY State deposit bottle/can total, however, was a new personal best of $465.50. A few clarifications for those who may be wondering:
(1) No, this does not include the deposits on soda and beer cans I buy for myself; these are all found objects.
(2) And, yes, I do reach into recycling for containers. (I should note that this year’s total will probably stand as the all-time high, since my city has recently introduced 96-gallon wheeled recycling carts that are damnably difficult for a short person with short arms to negotiate. Which is probably one reason these carts were introduced. Oh, well, I’ve had fun while it lasted; I consider this my form of “extreme sport.”)
Your can collection is mighty impressive A. Marie! I hope the new barrels are not a barrier to your side gig…I do consider over $400 a year a side gig…and you continue to have a good outcome.
Holy Smokes, A. Marie!!! $465.50 is astonishing. I bow before your accomplishment.
That can refund is impressive.
Thank you all. And, Lindsey, I have just dedicated a Sumo orange to you. I bought some on your recommendation last week, and they’re every bit as good as you say they are.
A.Marie, you are a champ!
When you said you reached in to recycling bins, I’m reminded of a neighbor in Volusia County, Florida, where I lived for a few years. He made a major effort of getting others’ recyclables.
The county and its cities had people separate their recycling; and put glass, paper and metal cans into flat boxes/bins to be left at the curb. Those are the heavy plastic boxes issued by Waste Management and/or the municipal solid waste people. Residents were not paid for their recyclables; they just did it to be good citizens, help the environment, etc.
Anyway, this fellow had an adult-sized tricycle fitted with a little red wagon as a trailer on the trike’s back. He had built up the wagon’s sides with wooden boards so that they were fairly tall, and he lined the wagon bed with old carpeting. Late at night on the night before garbage pickup, he’d make the rounds. He’d stealthily go from one recycling bin to another and empty them of tin and aluminum cans.
The Tricycle Man would take all the metal he could get, pedal back home, and come back for more. He did this several times and I guess he went to many neighborhoods; I’d see him when I came home from the night shift and walked my dogs. He didn’t make a sound other than the occasional clink of some cans going into his little makeshift wagon/trailer; the carpet lining muffled the sounds really well. I imagine he was collecting in order to take the cans to the recycling business for cash. Like I said, you were not paid for the recyclables you left at the curb, so no one complained about their can bin being a lot emptier the next morning, assuming they even noticed. So I think he made a pretty good living this way.
Oh, and one other funny tidbit: Volusia County’s landfill is located on Down In The Dumps Road.
My found change for 2024 was $2.34. That is the lowest total for me in the 10 years I have tracked my annual totals. But, it’s still found money….. 🙂
My grand total was $7.41. However…it would have been $27.41 had DH put the twenty dollar bill he found into the found change jar. Instead he spent it. Oh DH! I don’t believe he will do that again as I jokingly remind him of his folly now and again.
Katy, I love how you kept track of your found change through the years. $286.88 is not a small number. Good for you!
My total found change for this year was $2.29. My husband also found a $10 bill while bagging leaves out front. Most of mine were quarters left in Aldi shopping carts.
Free money. That’s awesome. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of lost money around here but I’m still keeping my eyes out.
We don’t count our found change until the quart Mason jar is full (and we fail to track how long it takes to fill up!) But we’ve long had a family tradition of guessing how much is in the jar. Whoever’s guess is the closest decides on how and where we’ll spend it as a family. The jar is almost full and our 40 year old soon will soon be visiting from abroad so he’ll be able to participate in the guessing game. It’s sort of our version of a day of adventures.
What a great idea! I hope you have fun on your day of adventure, whatever and wherever it may be.
I like the “guessing game” idea too. Sounds like a lot of family fun.
Way to go on the found change, Katy. And how awesome is A. Marie’s can return money?
It’s a shame my state does not have a can/bottle return law be because the trash cans were always overflowing when I worked at the university. And the student laundry room, which I nicely swept every morning, was a treasure trove of change. I made at least 35 cents for a few minutes of sweeping every day.
Ruby, I can well imagine that laundry rooms would be treasure troves.
And I’m reminded of a recent post where Katy described finding things under a set of bleachers. My first BFF (she’s exactly 12 days younger than I am, and we were next-door neighbors from birth to age 12) and I used to go submarining under the bleachers at a local Bible college’s basketball games. Dropped change, pencils, other odds and ends…wonderful fun! (BTW, I recently reconnected with this BFF, and it’s great to be back in contact with someone else who remembers things as far back as we do.)
2024 was a huge found change year for me (because I found some bills)!
I also keep track of the cans I find. Mainly so I can give myself a pat on the back, but also because BottleDrop loses a bag every once in a while.
(Like Katy, I live in Oregon, where we get 10 cents per can!)
I started a jar when we got back Stateside end of October. I think I have over a dollar so far.
Are you the Katy that used to be in Africa and used the handle of “Katy in Africa”? I used to enjoy reading your comment and five frugal things.