Mom Saved $16,500 by Stuffing $1 Bills Into a Water Jug, but Investing Could Have Grown It Much More

Leslie DeVries has spent about 10 years dropping spare $1 bills into a five-gallon water jug at the back of her wardrobe. The habit has built a cash pile of roughly $16,500 (about £12,200), earmarked for the family holiday she is planning. Left in the jug, that money earned nothing.

Had she funnelled the same singles into a low-cost stock index fund over the same period, she could have had several thousand dollars more.

DeVries, 56, is a hairstylist in Lakewood, California, a suburb near Long Beach. She has run her own chair in a small barbershop for 15 years, part of roughly three decades in the trade. She does not consider herself a natural saver and admits she likes to spend online. Single dollar bills are her exception.

In a February TikTok video, she said, 'I collect $1', explaining that any change she receives in singles never gets spent.

The method is simple. A client gave her the idea, and DeVries, who likes games, took it on as a challenge. When she gets home with spare singles, she crumples each note, pushes it into the jug, and forgets about it. About a year in, she felt notes gathering at the bottom and was surprised by how fast they had piled up. She tipped the jug out, counted around $1,500 (about £1,100), banked it, opened a savings account for her dollar money, and started from scratch.

What Investing Might Have Added

Cash sitting in a jug does not grow. It also loses ground to inflation, so money stashed a decade ago buys less today than it did when the first notes went in. The jug works as a way to save, but the money in it earns nothing.

The comparison that follows is hypothetical. It assumes DeVries had set aside the same total in equal monthly amounts across the decade and invested it in a broad stock-market fund rather than leaving it as cash.

At an average annual return of 7%, compounded monthly, that stream of singles would have grown to about $23,800 (roughly £17,600) over 10 years. That is around $7,300 (about £5,400) more than the jug holds now. Using the US stock market's long-run historical average of roughly 10% a year, the same contributions would be worth closer to $28,200 (about £20,900).

Returns are never guaranteed, and a real portfolio would have risen and fallen along the way. Even a plain savings account paying interest would have edged ahead of cash left untouched. Cash kept at home also carries risks a bank account does not, because notes that are lost, damaged, or stolen are not protected. The figures show the gap between cash left alone and money invested.

Why She Sticks With the Jug

Keeping cash physically separate from everyday spending, a method widely shared online as cash stuffing, has grown popular in recent years. Advocates say money you can see and handle is harder to spend.

The jug also removes the temptation to spend. DeVries has built rules around it. If she is caught short and has to pull a note or two out, she penalises herself by putting five back. Some clients, in on the habit, now pay her entirely in singles to feed the collection.

The pace has slowed. Since the pandemic pushed shoppers towards cards and contactless, fewer physical dollars pass through her hands, so the jug fills more gradually than it once did.

Even so, her most recent count came to about $16,500 (roughly £12,200).

DeVries has a plan for the money. She wants to treat her four daughters and two of their spouses to an all-inclusive tropical holiday. She reckons the trip is about a year and a half away, a target that keeps moving as more weddings add more guests to the bill.

She intends to cover the lot. 'I'm just gonna lay by the pool and drink,' she told People.