Collect a Commuter Tax

Save money when you drive by creating your own "commuter tax," according to the editors of Shameless Shortcuts, a book produced by the editors of Yankee Magazine.

Here's how the commuter tax works:

1) With each car ride, deposit 25 cents into a little container under your seat.

2) On a monthly basis, transfer your coin collection into an interest-paying bank account.

Believe it or not, the interest will add up and within a year you could have about $200 or more. That's enough for a spa treat, a short weekend getaway or an extra debt payment.

Or let the funds accumulate. For instance, if you collected $208 dollars a year in coins, and invested that same amount each year for 10 years, you would save/earn a total of $2,616, according to Hugh Chou's calculators . (Those figures are based on 5 percent annual return.)

(Shameless Shortcuts--$16.95 Rodale Inc./Yankee Publishing ISBN: 10899093914-- was edited by Fern Marshall Bradley)