Have you come home with too many pesos or pounds in your pockets? It happens, especially since you're used to conserving change while traveling. You can keep the coins until your next trip; I did that with Mexican pesos, however, and lost $10 when the country changed its money and made new coins. Instead, find the top five ways to spend foreign change before you get home.
"You can't appreciate home till you've left it, money till it's spent..."
-- O. Henry
Buy a book at the airport if you've got that much foreign change left over -- when you get home, you can resell it to a book exchange that swaps used paperbacks. (Keep scrolling for the rest of the list...)
Use your leftover foreign coins to make one more phone call -- say goodbye to a new friend or call home to confirm that someone is indeed picking you up at the airport.
Spend those last few coins on a cab ride to the airport -- you'll arrive right in front of your airline's terminal; what a treat.
Grab one last goodie from a street stand before you hit the bus for the ride to the airport -- a savory crepe in Paris seemed like a splurge when you were watching the euros, but you've got some flash now.
Drop your foreign coins into Unicef envelopes available on board; flight attendants will collect them and Unicef will use the change to benefit children globally. A few euros add up fast: Unicef has raised more than $53 million through the Change for Good program since 1991.
