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I've accumulated a lot of coins over the years, and the least useful coins (typically pennies) have piled up and become unmanageable. Then, Natalie told me about a feature of the Coinstar coin redemption (hallelujah!) machines found in many grocery stores where no fee is exacted if the coin value is put towards a gift card with a major retailer, including Amazon.com, Starbucks, and others.

So, with Christmas rapidly approaching, we decided to cash in the container of coins sitting in the back-seat of my car in exchange for an Amazon.com gift card for purchasing gifts. Until now, it had been providing me with occasional parking-meter funds and worked as a reward for someone determined enough to break into my car. We didn't expect to get much out of it, perhaps $60-$75.

Drum roll, please.... No, we cashed in $171.82 in change! Here's the break-down:

• Dollars: 1


• Quarters: 225


• Dimes: 522


• Nickels: 544


• Pennies: 3517

This is a great deal for anyone who enjoys buying from Amazon.com, as is the case with Natalie & I. However, it really sucks for people who resort to Coinstar as a means of subsistence. Redeeming coins for cash results in a nearly 9% service fee, which is just ridiculous. It's like a worse form of check-cashing. I don't think it's a coincidence that we needed to travel to a sketchy part of Oakland to use the Coinstar system at FoodMaxx.

In any case, we're excited about the fact that we can buy a good amount of gifts without dipping into our savings. On a related note, it looks like America is getting ready for another killer year of holiday shopping with "an increase of 5 percent in sales to $457 billion during the holidays."