Count your pennies

If you're like me you probably have a million and one pennies in the bottom of your bag with no idea how to use them up without looking like a fool in public, handing £10 worth of pennies to the cashier. ( although that's an option to be taken) Here are my tips on what to do with the bronze-y disks of metal that can stack into something quite valuable.

1. Save- This is the most obvious one, yet most of us toss our 1p's to the ground like they mean nothing. I kid you not I have a cousin who saved her pennies for years and when she got it cashed into one of the coin machines it totalled around £56 which is a lot of money for something we would have otherwise thrown out! So keep a piggy bank perhaps with an aim of what to save up for, and in a years time cash the coins and treat yourself.
2. Give- Giving to charities is another selfless act that we can adopt if we're looking to loosen our pockets of the pennies. Every dime and dollar means a lots to the charities so next time you toss that coin think about who you could save with that money.
3. Blast from the past- Penny sweets are still around for our amusement. Head over to a sweetie shop and they have an array of nostalgic gum sweets to spend the pennies on.
4. Get arty- If we're going down the arts and crafts route then why not create a cool feature made of the bronze-y metal disks. Arrange them in a frame in the shape of your initials or a heart and make use out of the spare change. To be more cooler why not get a world map and use the coins to pin point the counties you've been to rather than purchasing tacks and expensive cute push pins.
5. Markets- Head over to market stalls and fairs where owners are dying for a customer that comes bearing a wad of change. They usually don't have card machines or a wide amount of change to provide to people hoping to use large amounts of cash, so don't be embarrassed to pay £5 worth of pennies because believe me they'll be grateful.
6. Collect?- I'm just putting it out there... Why not collect coins?  I've definitely seen a wide range of different coins popping up over the past year with the Olympics and royal wedding etc. In a few years time they might become rare collectibles.

So that was the lowdown on the penny pinching tips on how to use up pennies. Hope you had an insightful look into the topic of pennies. I know right now I'm trying to think of other ways to say pennies because the word count usage of that word has been blown!