LOOK after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves... All very well.

But what do you do with the pennies?

Many of us ditch our loose change at the end of the day – ours goes into an old whisky bottle – to save wear and tear on trouser pockets or bulging fasteners on purses. But once the piggy bank/whisky bottle/ jam jar/bowl on the dressing table is full, you then have to change those coins into more convenient cash.

It used to be easy. Many years ago I used to save my pennies until I had 100 of them and then go and buy a single premium bond. One of those premium bonds won £100, so it was probably quite a good investment – even after 20 years.

Now, of course, the minimum purchase of premium bonds is a shocking £100, which is an awful lot of pennies and so puts paid to that plan.

Also, I was very lucky that my friendly local post office would accept £1 in pennies. Although we occasionally see pictures of people rolling up to pay their council tax of court fines with bags and bags of small change, there is actually a legal limit above which people don’t have to accept your coins if they don’t want to. Many do, of course, but they don’t have to.

The limits up to which coins are legal tender and which shops have to accept are: 20p for 1p and 2p coins.

£5 for 5p and 10p coins £10 for 10p and 20p coins There is no limit for £1 or £2 coins.

You can also take your change along to one of those noisy machines in the supermarket. They will magically and instantly sort out your carrier bag full of coins and then give you a voucher which you swap at the supermarket services desk. Quick and easy – but it will cost you. Those machines charge 7.9 per cent, which means that if you put £10 of loose change in, you’ll get a voucher for £9.21. That’s about to go up to 8.9 per cent, or 89p in every £10 to use the machine.

The best bet is to take the money along to the bank, but there are a few simple rules to follow.

Get the proper bags from the bank and sort the coins correctly as it says on the bags £10 of 20ps, £5 of 5ps, £1 of pennies or tuppences. They won’t thank you for a carrier bag of mixed change and will probably refuse to take it.

Choose a quiet time at the bank – if only for the sake of the people behind you in the queue. In any case, some banks might refuse to deal with your piggy bank savings if they’re very busy.

Pay the money into your account.

If you just ask for it to be changed they might refuse to do it or charge you for the service.

Saving the pennies is worth it though. We empty our whisky jar for holiday treats and usually have about £100 – which is a good few drinks with money we haven’t even missed.