Ben Franklin once said "A penny saved is a penny earned".

In today's world, a penny accumulated here and there doesn't sound like much, especially with the cost of living continuously rising. Yet surprisingly enough you can save money by holding onto that loose change. The key to using a money box or piggy bank to increase your savings is to do something with it once you raise significant dollar amounts.

There are many ways you can save money with loose change. Here are a few tips to get you started on fattening up that piggy's tummy:

*Do a clean up

Try doing a periodic sweep to collect the coins lying around in your home, car, coat pockets and handbags. Once you begin to keep track of the loose change you collect, you'll be astonished how many coins accumulate monthly around your living spaces; money you probably never even noticed.

*Bring home the change from shopping excursions

How many of us bother to count all the change we're handed after buying some odds and ends at the local mart? All this change adds up!

If you make a concentrated effort to consciously remember to empty your pockets and place any change received from shopping directly into piggy instead of forgetting about it, this can increase savings (plus it beats fishing it out of the bottom of your washing machine).

*'Found money'

Have you ever emptied change out your pocketbook, coat, or wallet and discover a few dollar bills (or if you're lucky - more!) stashed in one of the compartments or pockets? You didn't really miss the money in the first place, so why not just deposit it to your bank and give a good boost to your growing collection of coins?

*Make coin collecting a family affair

Ask your family to deposit their change into the savings box too. My kids and I began diligently tossing all of our coins into our "jar" and before we knew it, we'd collectively saved over $200 to use towards a planned vacation.

The key to successful saving with loose change is to make a pact with yourself to leave it alone. Once the money goes in, don't take it out for any reason, pretend as if the money box isn't there. Borrowing from your stash defeats the purpose of trying to save, so make yourself a firm promise to yourself to leave it alone until enough accumulates to spend on that special purchase or to deposit into a bank account.

Depositing change into your money box can prove lucrative over the course of time, this practice won't necessarily make you rich, but before you know it you're likely to find your piggy bank having a healthy expansion. The best part is this happened without impacting any money you needed to meet monthly expenses.

Saving change is a neat way to find money for the "extras" you normally wouldn't spend money on. A good rule of thumb is to tally your treasure every so often and then go deposit it into an interest earning account to maximize your savings if you weren't waiting to buy something specific. Once the savings deposits funds grow you can find better ways to invest or add to other investments you may have.

Plus it's fun to realize you accomplished saving money with little effort. If you have kids, collecting change and feeding the piggy bank teaches them the value of a dollar. It also shows them how saving and not splurging every time they have extra money yields some nice benefits.

Learn more about this author, Leigh Goessl.
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