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The Coinstar Plan
Somewhere during my internet travels in the last week, I stumbled across an idea that got my eyes glowing. I learned that Coinstar, which has coin counting machines scattered all over creation, is offering a holiday bonus gift of $10 if you plug at least $40 of coins into their machines. Even better, I could get Amazon e-certificates for whatever amount of change I fed their machine. (They also offer e-certificates/gift cards for places like Circuit City, Borders, iTunes, Lowes, Eddie Bauer, Starbucks, and a couple of others.)
Well, I thought, change is kind of like found money. No earmarks on it. Until now, anyway.
I took a tour through the house and emptied out the various bowls and baskets of change that I’ve accumulated. I turned over chair and sofa cushions and found more. I scooped up the pile of coins next to the washing machine. Then I went through all my jacket and coat pockets from last winter to see what they might turn up—one slightly worse for wear ten dollar bill and several quarters and dimes. Whoo!
I sat down on the floor to count it all out. My total stash came to $32.16
And I thought...well, it’s a sure bet I’ll be spending at least another $10 at Amazon in the next couple of weeks, so I’ll just withdraw $10 and turn that along with the other ten dollar bill into rolls of quarters. That’ll put me just a little over the $40 requirement for the $10 Coinstar bonus.
And that’s what I did.
The nearest Coinstar machine is at my grocery store. I’ve not used it before, so I went through the little tutorial offered on screen. It was pretty easy. I selected the Amazon e-certificate option and poured all the coins into the counting tray. I wondered if it would be accurate—it was. It spit out a receipt and e-certificate in the amount of $42.16 along with a form to send to Coinstar to get my bonus. This deal lasts through December 7th.
Last evening I entered the e-certificate redemption code on my account at Amazon and 5 seconds later I was good to shop.
Ahh, sudden guilt-free riches.
In the past, I could have blown through $42 in a hurry at Amazon. But since I’ve acquired my Kindle e-reader, I’ve found a large selection of older books and classics that cost less than a dollar—like 25 cents. I often wonder just how tolerant the credit card company will be after a constant string of 25 cent charges. No one has said anything yet, but I think an e-certificate is probably a better plan.
Anyway. I downloaded three new books for a total $4.80. I think my e-certificate funds might last me a while.
My current winter reading list, including my three new purchases, includes:
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Reading Like a Writer - by Francine Prose
The Works (150+) of Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne’s House of Dreams, Anne of Ingleside, Rainbow Valley, Rilla of Ingleside, etc.)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (because I didn’t get it read over the summer and I haven’t been quite in the mood yet for death and destruction.)
And, because I can never leave well enough alone, I ordered a skin for my Kindle a couple of days ago. Did I mention that I also named her Esmeralda? Yeah well, I did. But the skin thing...I saw this image on one of the Kindle boards a few days ago and I knew then and there that I Had To Have It.
I appreciate that skinning Esmeralda more or less violates the entire premise of a bland case surrounding the reading screen. The idea is that the Kindle case recedes into the background so that it’s almost like tumbling into the pages of a book when reading. Ah well. I can do that quite as well with a pretty Kindle, too. Can’t wait ‘til it arrives!
Winter = Amelia, no? 
I’d never heard of this outfit, but it turns out (using their machine search tool) there’s a credit union at the bottom of my hill which has one of their machines. I’ll be darned.
I’ve got a big (46 oz) pickle jar full, but it’s all pennies. Do the machines count pennies?
I’ve tried, but I just can’t find the allure of Hemingway. Mostly I can’t stand his characters, but his sparse style seems too academic, like eating a thin gruel when you really want a steak. Lemme know if I’m missing something.
I read the Francine Prose book a month or so ago and really liked it. Makes me stop and pay better attention to what I read.
wooo hooo...thanks for the coinstar heads up. we will go over in a few hours and cash in! will be good to get these coins out of the study, cars, and jars!
The machines take pennies, Linkmeister. I fed quite a few to the one I used and it chomped them right down. Amelia is on the mid-winter list. 
Pablo, I think Hemingway might be an acquired taste. It took me a lot of practice. ;) Even so, I *still* have never been able to enjoy or even like The Sun Also Rises. Every time I try to read it, all I can think is “A few more commas and a lot more periods would have at least made this less annoying!” I feel like I’m lacking something because it’s supposed to be such an elegant and gripping work. You might like A Moveable Feast, though. It felt to me as if it was his favorite and that he had enormous fun writing it. It’s about his time in Paris and it is obvious that he was utterly passionate about and happy in Paris. It’s a book that I can and have...and look forward to...reading again and again. His sentence structure is quite toothsome and well...sublime. To be able to say so much with such economy and power and beauty is remarkable. (He also employed a lot more commas and periods.)
Yay, Sky. Have fun! I have to say that now that I’ve discovered Coinstar and their e-certificate options, cashing in my spare change is no longer a chore to be put off. I can’t wait to accumulate more change.