Last week, I went to a local bank to deposit a Ziploc bag full of coins that I saved for a while. There were many pennies, dimes, nickels, and some quarters in the bag. I did not know the exact amount, and predicted it to be somewhere within the $20-30 range. I work at a radio station in a rural community of 5,000 as an on-air personality and production specialist. We have a vending machine full of sodas and waters in the workplace that takes only 50 cents, so I save up some quarters to buy a couple bottles of water to help me record news and weathers clearly.

I walked into the bank and was greeted by one of the tellers. I gave her the heavy Ziploc full of coins and she goes to a coin machine to determine how much exactly was in it. I must've waited around for about ten minutes, thinking that the machine was either calculating slowly of the total dollar amount of the coins, or there was more in that bag than I thought. In the meantime, a friend of mine walked in with a bag full of coins herself. One of the staff members stated she was the fourth person with a bag full of coins that day, and it was still morning.

After standing for ten minutes and chatting with my friend, the teller comes back with a paper receipt of the total amount.

I said, "Don't tell me how much yet, but I'm going to guess it amounted to $27."

The teller smiled and replied, "It's lower than that."

Befuddled, I quickly thought of a random lower number in my head, "If you say it's lower than 27, how about 24?"

She was still smiling and said, "It's lower than 24."

I was perplexed, so I admitted to giving up in solving the amount.

She looked down at the receipt and said, "The dollar amount of the coins amounted to $68.17."

I looked up at her and said, "What?"

"The total dollar amount of the coins amounted to $68.17."

I shouted, "$68.17?!"

At that point, the other tellers and manager stopped what they were doing and looked at me with smiles on their faces. I was shocked with disbelief. The disbelief was not directed toward the teller, but the total itself. All this time, I predicted less than half of the total amount, yet was very pleased with the outcome.

Sixty-eight dollars is a good chunk of change and it would help me greatly. My Xbox 360 controller was starting to not cooperate when I played Grand Theft Auto V and other games. Thus, it was time for a new one. I bought a Rock Candy controller, and it has been working great so far with no interruptions.

The pennies, dimes, nickels, and quarters you save can help in ways you don't expect. It all adds up. I've already started saving more coins.