Life hack - coin conversion for free

For today's' post, I want to share a little life hack that I discovered by accident.  I normally collect copper coins and then take them to the Coinstar machine at Sainsbury's (or wherever) to convert them to more practical and less heavy denominations. 

The banks aren't keen on changing coppers, so, even though the Coinstar charges something like 10p per £1 (I think), it at least provides a useful service.

But it turns out you can convert your coins for free by sneakily using the supermarket self-service checkouts.  I was being a bit dim one day - I tried to pay for some groceries with change, but I didn't have enough so I pressed the cancel button.  And - joy - it returned my money not as a load of change, but in pound coins! 

I tend to do this when the self-services till are quiet, so I'm not holding anybody up whilst I convert my coins.  But it allows me to get those annoying coppers processed without paying for it.  Result.

Charity shop mini haul - Coca Cola glasses

Day 2, Post 2 - I'd seen these little Coca Cola glasses before in a charity shop, but when I went back for them, they'd gone.  This was part of my policy of walking away and thinking about a purchase before buying - yes, even from charity shops.  But somebody else nabbed them whilst I was thinking, so I ended up saving my money on that occasion.  So when I spotted these two, a week or two ago, I snapped them up.  (They came from the Mind shop, which is a mental illness charity.) They're lovely to use, they feel nice and weighty in the hand, and I like the retro look.

They were each a different price - apparently, the purple colour is more sought after. Fair enough.  I see it as £3 for two, which is bargain enough for me!

Downsizing (my bin)

My normal sized wheelie bin started leaking a while ago through the lid.  It stays outside all the time, and was starting to crack.  (3.5 kilos of cat landing on it on an almost daily basis probably didn't help much...)  So I had a look at the options on the Council website.  A new standard sized bin (240 litres) was going to cost £33! 

But I was very pleased indeed when I spotted that there was another option, of downsizing to a small bin of 140 litres - for free!  As I can easily go for a month between collections, this was a great (and free!) option.  So I filled in the form, and now I have a super-dinky slender little bin. 

It's a really good incentive to produce less household waste, and I'm thinking of downsizing my recycling bin too.  The new bin is pretty much the same height as the old one, so the cat has not been inconvenienced too much when she uses it to jump down from the garden wall....

(In a bid to kick-start my blog, this is the first of 7 small posts in 7 days - after that, I want to post a bit more regularly.  Fingers crossed....)