I started years ago when my bank went online and started to offer online bill pay. No matter what I tried I could never save enough to give what I considered a decent amount or what was asked for in the phone calls or mailers.
I made the commitment to donate a little from every paycheck and to do it locally. I started small. I picked 3 non-profits in the area and set up automatic payments of $5 each every week. That was $15 a week or $30 paycheck. That was almost $250 a year for each organization that they wouldn't have received otherwise and no one has turned me down.
In the years that I get a cost-of-living increase (as an educator we don't always get those) I immediately up the donation by $1 for each organization. I don't miss it and I notice the deduction at the end of the year.
Once we discovered stockpiling food and HBA items purchased for little to nothing through the use of coupons and sales, our giving habits changed tremendously. Each month, we donate at least four to five bags of food and an equal amount of health and beauty items to our church's efforts to help those in our local community. Hopefully, we will be able to give even more this year since my "couponing" talents have improved with time.
I have noticed that the best way for our family to be regular givers is to budget the amount we want to contribute to various causes/church. We sponsor a child through Compassion Int'l. and that amount is deducted from our account monthly. Church offerings are budgeted at the beginning of each month.
With the recent disaster in Haiti, we made contributions to 2 separate charities that we feel will use the money wisely. We will also be making donations of material goods at our sons' school that will go straight to a Haitian orphanage.
I shop loss leaders/extreme coupon deals at the local grocery chain and donate all surplus to the food bank hosted at our church. During the summer months, much of our grocery budget goes to local farmers at the farmers' market. They are not a charity, but buying their produce means more green space is preserved in our area and the farmers are able to earn a sustainable income.
In all of these ways, giving has become a routine for our family and doesn't feel like sacrifice. Instead, we feel blessed to be able to help folks who need "a hand up." God loves a cheerful giver.
This is a wonderful list. It conveys that you cannot have a healthy life without happiness, and vise verse. They are intertwined, and that's beautiful and inspiring!
In the end, we all have a choice about how we design our lives. Health and happiness are good choices!
I have a line item in my monthly budget for charitable giving. Having charitable giving budgeted helps me plan for it every month.
But I'm the happiest when I can give my time. My dog is a certified therapy dog and we have visited nursing homes and children centers. I don't know who enjoys it more: the nursing home residents / kids, my dog, or myself! This past Thanksgiving was the 2nd time I helped feed the homeless and less fortunate in our community. It was a humbling experience and enjoy doing it every year.
Love these comments! I like Linden's idea of lowering her food bill and then donating the savings to charity. I also like Emily's idea to skip a treat for herself and take a friend out to lunch. A little bit can go a long way!
I work in a nonprofit CAM clinic for low-income women with cancer (www.charlottemaxwell.org), and I'm really big on the fact that anyone, regardless of income, can be a philanthropist. Not to plug my blog, but I have talked it about this extensively: http://saudadecrux.blogspot.com/search/label/philanthropy. The things I like to do and recommend to friends most often range from the free, like Goodsearch (web-surfing that generates revenue for nonprofits), to capitalizing on things you may buy anyway and feeding two birds with one crumb by being mindful and discriminating of where you buy your everyday goods and gifts. Need a gift? Buy from a place like Rwanda Baskets, an organization that helps Rwandan women become more self-sufficient. Dining Out For Life is also a really good national program where you can help to support AIDS service organizations by simply doing you would normally do and go out to eat.
Hey, I must say you've got the best patience I've ever came across, people keep asking the same questions and you keep answering them, cudos to you.
I scanned through 112 of the questions and got bored myself, but I couldn't find an answer to my question, or at least a direct answer.
Basically, I'm fermenting at the moment (day 2). I have all my ingredients (sugar, cornmeal, distilled water and bakers yeast(didn't know there was 2 types of yeast)) in a sealed bucket. On the lid I have an air lock to slowly let the gasses out.
This morning my brother took off the air lock to see what was inside, I cursed him out for it because I'm under the impression that he's ruined the whole batch.
Basically I'm asking if I have to apologize to him, or if I'm right and I have to start my batch all over again.
A quick response would be greatly apreciated cause I have this stuff still sittin in my room over the heater...if it's useless I'd like to get a quick start on my next batch.
I used to buy extra and donate to our local food bank all the time and I never thought I would end up on the receiving end, but did when a family member without insurance or income was in the hospital.
Everyone I know is out of a job, including myself, due to store or branch closings. We help each other out as we can, but not able to give like we used to.
Most people in most states don't get to keep a home free and clear and wash away debts in bankruptcy. The details depends on what state you live in. Some states allow you to exempt an unlimited amount of home equity from bankruptcy. Other states offer ZERO protection of home equity. Over 30 states allow you to shelter some home equity of varying amounts less than $50,000 from exemption.
I decided to pay by cash in full to buy a loft condo in Chicago. I also am not using a real estate agent, because I had so many bad experiences with them in the past several years. Could you provide more details (step by step, if possible) on how you did it? I love the idea of "no paperwork" VERY VERY MUCH!!!!!! Any input from anyone will be very much appreciated!!!
I decided to pay by cash in full to buy a loft condo in Chicago. Could anyone provide any ideas on how much a discount in percentage I should negotiate with the home owner? I also am not using a real estate agent, because I had so many bad experiences with them in the past several years. Any input will be very much appreciated!!!
I try to give something to someone every day. I get back far more from it than I've ever given. With finances being extraordinarily tight right now, I often find myself visiting http://www.freerice.com/ and giving 100 grains of rice. No action is so small as to be entirely insignificant.
Because my son has many food allergies and can't eat things like hamburger helper, I have had to come up with some fairly quick, healthy and delicious alternatives. Even if you don't have allergies to gluten and dairy I think you will love this comfort food as much as our whole family does.
(To save time, plan ahead and precook ground beef and rice. Also, you can use more or less ground beef and rice.)
For 1 serving:
1 can of Amy's Organic Lentil Soup (14.5 oz.)
1/4 lb. browned hamburger
1/2 c. cooked rice (we prefer brown)
salt and pepper
Warm up on the stove in a saucepan.
That's it. It's so good!
We give 10% of our money to our church to be used for various purposes. Also, we have several opportunities to help that are presented to us through our church: things from bringing food to families who have recently experienced death or other life-changing events, sitting with church members in hospitals or their homes when they are home-bound, community clean-up projects, etc.
We have a big plastic tub at the end of our hall we fill with donation items all year long and donate to a local thrift store as it gets full.
I'm unemployed and looking hard for a job, but I have decided I can still donate my time to various local causes. I help out where needed, but I'm in the process of setting up something through a company (or two) on a more consistent basis.
We donate to back-to-school and food drives and purchase Girl Scout Cookies also. I occasionally donate to the college I attended.
And I look for opportunities to give to church members, friends, and neighbors as well. I have delivered cookies and birthday cards to 7 people in the past few days just to let them know someone was thinking of them.
One thing that helps me be able to give is to stock up on small items when they're on sale-- things that would be useful for back-to-school drives or birthday gifts, etc. I build the costs of those items into our budget (and I stock up on several food items when they're on sale so I'm not a slave to the grocery stores and their sometimes unpredictable pricing). Plus, I use coupons.
We have been using Magic Jack for a couple of years now. (we got rid of our old land line). Our experience with Magic Jack is great and I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone!
I also don't have thousands of dollars to give away but do love to contribute annually to several causes.
As far as the Haiti crisis, I started selling things in my Etsy shop and all proceeds are being donated to the UN World Food Program. It's something that I don't need to mail (It is a PDF file) and am offering it for almost half price. This way the buyer gets a good deal and the UN gets money to help Haiti. All I had to do was share the information! :)
To help locally, I buy weekly loss-leader items on sale in bulk at the grocery store and give part of it to the local food bank. I also make packages for the homeless with things like granola bars, juice packs and other items I get for free or cheap.
There are many stray cats in the city where I live as well as in the outskirts, so I give money to the independent animal shelters who get less funding than the larger ones.
Small contributions are very helpful, even just $1 towards a cause can mean so much to an organization. :D
I save my $5 bills and just give it away. I start over new every quarter. An opportunity usually presents itself to me to just give it to someone in need. Last qtr, I gave to a fundraiser for a friend of my sisters in NC that is battling a serious blood disease. All of the donations helped with the medical bills over and above what insurance covers. Not sure about this quarter as of yet, I usually like to wait to see what or who is in need. Possibly Haiti or a mission in Africa. It isn't much, but I feel more connected than giving it to an organization. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I do that too. Thanks, :)
More than likely the best price is going to be for the same items "second hand"!! I think Walmart is expensive for the quality of the goods it offers, and almost NEVER shop there! I can get better deals on good used items, and by shopping at dollar stores with some discretion! (not to mention yard sales and the like.)And I supplement my toiletries (bought on sale or generic) with the many samples I get on the net! There are loads of shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant and lotion out there as freebies. And since I live in S. Calif., I can take advantage of our local produce almost all year round.
My fiance and I are getting married in May, so we are on a super-tight budget this year. However, that doesn't stop us from giving. The way we are able to give is by foregoing some discretionary expense in our own lives. For instance, we gave $100 to Hope for Haiti this past weekend. That means we go out for dinner two fewer times in the next month. Haiti is a perfect example: When you see and read what is going on there, you can't help but feel guilty about going out for dinner when those people are starving to death.
Note that this can be done on a much smaller scale, say foregoing your daily Starbucks for a few days. I recommend it to anyone who thinks he/she doesn't have the money to give.
Thanks for the ability to write about such a great topic!
I've often found that the less I give the more stressed I feel about money. There's something freeing about not holding too tightly to money (in a responsible way). I usually try to think about what issues/causes are really important to me and choose a few charities that address those concerns. I prefer giving bigger donations to a few charities rather than spreading the money out too thinly.
Charity is hard on a tight budget - but because we buy almost all of our clothing and many other items, like used appliances, at charity thrift stores, we believe that we are benefiting by getting deals and at the same time we supporting the works of that particular charity! (Since we patronize many different thrift stores, we help support drug & job programs, the mentally ill, the disabled and other worthy causes.)
We also give what we can at church and we contributed to the Amer. Red Cross for Haiti. Now & then we have made contributions to environmental causes, when we could afford it.
We also have our own personal acts of charity. There is a elderly S. American immigrant lady across the hall, who ekes out a living. We have given her "loans" for medicine when she is short (which are rarely really repaid) - and also given her food, and bags of groceries from our church's foodbank. We also gave our cans & bottles for recycling to an elderly downstairs neighbor who was happy to recycle them for a bit of extra money. I gave an extra winter parka to the homeless lady who used to live on the block where our church is - and we would bring her food from our Sunday luncheons. We also give dollar bills to those out on the street asking for a handout who seem credible - so that they can buy a hamburger or a cup of coffee.
Years ago when I had more time than money - I volunteered for my old college as an alumnae rep - feeling that I was making my contribution that way.
Small gestures. But every little bit can ease the pain of someone's existence.
We give over 10% to our church, plus more as needs arises. We have been undeservedly blessed this year with a new job for my husband in a cheaper part of the country. I am wanting to increase our giving (possibly sponsor an orphan) as I feel that blessings come with responsibility. To whom much has been given, much more shall be required.
I buy food locally from the farmers. I also have a few charities that I find $50 for every few months because I feel that they do good things for the world. Sometimes I give to charities for someones birthday or Christmas gift.
I started years ago when my bank went online and started to offer online bill pay. No matter what I tried I could never save enough to give what I considered a decent amount or what was asked for in the phone calls or mailers.
I made the commitment to donate a little from every paycheck and to do it locally. I started small. I picked 3 non-profits in the area and set up automatic payments of $5 each every week. That was $15 a week or $30 paycheck. That was almost $250 a year for each organization that they wouldn't have received otherwise and no one has turned me down.
In the years that I get a cost-of-living increase (as an educator we don't always get those) I immediately up the donation by $1 for each organization. I don't miss it and I notice the deduction at the end of the year.
Once we discovered stockpiling food and HBA items purchased for little to nothing through the use of coupons and sales, our giving habits changed tremendously. Each month, we donate at least four to five bags of food and an equal amount of health and beauty items to our church's efforts to help those in our local community. Hopefully, we will be able to give even more this year since my "couponing" talents have improved with time.
I have noticed that the best way for our family to be regular givers is to budget the amount we want to contribute to various causes/church. We sponsor a child through Compassion Int'l. and that amount is deducted from our account monthly. Church offerings are budgeted at the beginning of each month.
With the recent disaster in Haiti, we made contributions to 2 separate charities that we feel will use the money wisely. We will also be making donations of material goods at our sons' school that will go straight to a Haitian orphanage.
I shop loss leaders/extreme coupon deals at the local grocery chain and donate all surplus to the food bank hosted at our church. During the summer months, much of our grocery budget goes to local farmers at the farmers' market. They are not a charity, but buying their produce means more green space is preserved in our area and the farmers are able to earn a sustainable income.
In all of these ways, giving has become a routine for our family and doesn't feel like sacrifice. Instead, we feel blessed to be able to help folks who need "a hand up." God loves a cheerful giver.
This is a wonderful list. It conveys that you cannot have a healthy life without happiness, and vise verse. They are intertwined, and that's beautiful and inspiring!
In the end, we all have a choice about how we design our lives. Health and happiness are good choices!
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers!
Matt
I have a line item in my monthly budget for charitable giving. Having charitable giving budgeted helps me plan for it every month.
But I'm the happiest when I can give my time. My dog is a certified therapy dog and we have visited nursing homes and children centers. I don't know who enjoys it more: the nursing home residents / kids, my dog, or myself! This past Thanksgiving was the 2nd time I helped feed the homeless and less fortunate in our community. It was a humbling experience and enjoy doing it every year.
Love these comments! I like Linden's idea of lowering her food bill and then donating the savings to charity. I also like Emily's idea to skip a treat for herself and take a friend out to lunch. A little bit can go a long way!
I work in a nonprofit CAM clinic for low-income women with cancer (www.charlottemaxwell.org), and I'm really big on the fact that anyone, regardless of income, can be a philanthropist. Not to plug my blog, but I have talked it about this extensively: http://saudadecrux.blogspot.com/search/label/philanthropy. The things I like to do and recommend to friends most often range from the free, like Goodsearch (web-surfing that generates revenue for nonprofits), to capitalizing on things you may buy anyway and feeding two birds with one crumb by being mindful and discriminating of where you buy your everyday goods and gifts. Need a gift? Buy from a place like Rwanda Baskets, an organization that helps Rwandan women become more self-sufficient. Dining Out For Life is also a really good national program where you can help to support AIDS service organizations by simply doing you would normally do and go out to eat.
Hey, I must say you've got the best patience I've ever came across, people keep asking the same questions and you keep answering them, cudos to you.
I scanned through 112 of the questions and got bored myself, but I couldn't find an answer to my question, or at least a direct answer.
Basically, I'm fermenting at the moment (day 2). I have all my ingredients (sugar, cornmeal, distilled water and bakers yeast(didn't know there was 2 types of yeast)) in a sealed bucket. On the lid I have an air lock to slowly let the gasses out.
This morning my brother took off the air lock to see what was inside, I cursed him out for it because I'm under the impression that he's ruined the whole batch.
Basically I'm asking if I have to apologize to him, or if I'm right and I have to start my batch all over again.
A quick response would be greatly apreciated cause I have this stuff still sittin in my room over the heater...if it's useless I'd like to get a quick start on my next batch.
Much obliged, thank u very much for the help
I used to buy extra and donate to our local food bank all the time and I never thought I would end up on the receiving end, but did when a family member without insurance or income was in the hospital.
Everyone I know is out of a job, including myself, due to store or branch closings. We help each other out as we can, but not able to give like we used to.
"...if you own your home, who cares?"
Most people in most states don't get to keep a home free and clear and wash away debts in bankruptcy. The details depends on what state you live in. Some states allow you to exempt an unlimited amount of home equity from bankruptcy. Other states offer ZERO protection of home equity. Over 30 states allow you to shelter some home equity of varying amounts less than $50,000 from exemption.
Dear Jane,
I decided to pay by cash in full to buy a loft condo in Chicago. I also am not using a real estate agent, because I had so many bad experiences with them in the past several years. Could you provide more details (step by step, if possible) on how you did it? I love the idea of "no paperwork" VERY VERY MUCH!!!!!! Any input from anyone will be very much appreciated!!!
I decided to pay by cash in full to buy a loft condo in Chicago. Could anyone provide any ideas on how much a discount in percentage I should negotiate with the home owner? I also am not using a real estate agent, because I had so many bad experiences with them in the past several years. Any input will be very much appreciated!!!
I try to give something to someone every day. I get back far more from it than I've ever given. With finances being extraordinarily tight right now, I often find myself visiting http://www.freerice.com/ and giving 100 grains of rice. No action is so small as to be entirely insignificant.
Because my son has many food allergies and can't eat things like hamburger helper, I have had to come up with some fairly quick, healthy and delicious alternatives. Even if you don't have allergies to gluten and dairy I think you will love this comfort food as much as our whole family does.
(To save time, plan ahead and precook ground beef and rice. Also, you can use more or less ground beef and rice.)
For 1 serving:
1 can of Amy's Organic Lentil Soup (14.5 oz.)
1/4 lb. browned hamburger
1/2 c. cooked rice (we prefer brown)
salt and pepper
Warm up on the stove in a saucepan.
That's it. It's so good!
We give 10% of our money to our church to be used for various purposes. Also, we have several opportunities to help that are presented to us through our church: things from bringing food to families who have recently experienced death or other life-changing events, sitting with church members in hospitals or their homes when they are home-bound, community clean-up projects, etc.
We have a big plastic tub at the end of our hall we fill with donation items all year long and donate to a local thrift store as it gets full.
I'm unemployed and looking hard for a job, but I have decided I can still donate my time to various local causes. I help out where needed, but I'm in the process of setting up something through a company (or two) on a more consistent basis.
We donate to back-to-school and food drives and purchase Girl Scout Cookies also. I occasionally donate to the college I attended.
And I look for opportunities to give to church members, friends, and neighbors as well. I have delivered cookies and birthday cards to 7 people in the past few days just to let them know someone was thinking of them.
One thing that helps me be able to give is to stock up on small items when they're on sale-- things that would be useful for back-to-school drives or birthday gifts, etc. I build the costs of those items into our budget (and I stock up on several food items when they're on sale so I'm not a slave to the grocery stores and their sometimes unpredictable pricing). Plus, I use coupons.
We have been using Magic Jack for a couple of years now. (we got rid of our old land line). Our experience with Magic Jack is great and I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone!
I also don't have thousands of dollars to give away but do love to contribute annually to several causes.
As far as the Haiti crisis, I started selling things in my Etsy shop and all proceeds are being donated to the UN World Food Program. It's something that I don't need to mail (It is a PDF file) and am offering it for almost half price. This way the buyer gets a good deal and the UN gets money to help Haiti. All I had to do was share the information! :)
To help locally, I buy weekly loss-leader items on sale in bulk at the grocery store and give part of it to the local food bank. I also make packages for the homeless with things like granola bars, juice packs and other items I get for free or cheap.
There are many stray cats in the city where I live as well as in the outskirts, so I give money to the independent animal shelters who get less funding than the larger ones.
Small contributions are very helpful, even just $1 towards a cause can mean so much to an organization. :D
I guess i'm a random giver. If i see a sign or someone needing some money and i have some extra cash i give it.
I save my $5 bills and just give it away. I start over new every quarter. An opportunity usually presents itself to me to just give it to someone in need. Last qtr, I gave to a fundraiser for a friend of my sisters in NC that is battling a serious blood disease. All of the donations helped with the medical bills over and above what insurance covers. Not sure about this quarter as of yet, I usually like to wait to see what or who is in need. Possibly Haiti or a mission in Africa. It isn't much, but I feel more connected than giving it to an organization. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I do that too. Thanks, :)
More than likely the best price is going to be for the same items "second hand"!! I think Walmart is expensive for the quality of the goods it offers, and almost NEVER shop there! I can get better deals on good used items, and by shopping at dollar stores with some discretion! (not to mention yard sales and the like.)And I supplement my toiletries (bought on sale or generic) with the many samples I get on the net! There are loads of shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant and lotion out there as freebies. And since I live in S. Calif., I can take advantage of our local produce almost all year round.
My fiance and I are getting married in May, so we are on a super-tight budget this year. However, that doesn't stop us from giving. The way we are able to give is by foregoing some discretionary expense in our own lives. For instance, we gave $100 to Hope for Haiti this past weekend. That means we go out for dinner two fewer times in the next month. Haiti is a perfect example: When you see and read what is going on there, you can't help but feel guilty about going out for dinner when those people are starving to death.
Note that this can be done on a much smaller scale, say foregoing your daily Starbucks for a few days. I recommend it to anyone who thinks he/she doesn't have the money to give.
Thanks for the ability to write about such a great topic!
We put the amount we plan to contribute into our monthly budget.
I've often found that the less I give the more stressed I feel about money. There's something freeing about not holding too tightly to money (in a responsible way). I usually try to think about what issues/causes are really important to me and choose a few charities that address those concerns. I prefer giving bigger donations to a few charities rather than spreading the money out too thinly.
Charity is hard on a tight budget - but because we buy almost all of our clothing and many other items, like used appliances, at charity thrift stores, we believe that we are benefiting by getting deals and at the same time we supporting the works of that particular charity! (Since we patronize many different thrift stores, we help support drug & job programs, the mentally ill, the disabled and other worthy causes.)
We also give what we can at church and we contributed to the Amer. Red Cross for Haiti. Now & then we have made contributions to environmental causes, when we could afford it.
We also have our own personal acts of charity. There is a elderly S. American immigrant lady across the hall, who ekes out a living. We have given her "loans" for medicine when she is short (which are rarely really repaid) - and also given her food, and bags of groceries from our church's foodbank. We also gave our cans & bottles for recycling to an elderly downstairs neighbor who was happy to recycle them for a bit of extra money. I gave an extra winter parka to the homeless lady who used to live on the block where our church is - and we would bring her food from our Sunday luncheons. We also give dollar bills to those out on the street asking for a handout who seem credible - so that they can buy a hamburger or a cup of coffee.
Years ago when I had more time than money - I volunteered for my old college as an alumnae rep - feeling that I was making my contribution that way.
Small gestures. But every little bit can ease the pain of someone's existence.
We give over 10% to our church, plus more as needs arises. We have been undeservedly blessed this year with a new job for my husband in a cheaper part of the country. I am wanting to increase our giving (possibly sponsor an orphan) as I feel that blessings come with responsibility. To whom much has been given, much more shall be required.
I buy food locally from the farmers. I also have a few charities that I find $50 for every few months because I feel that they do good things for the world. Sometimes I give to charities for someones birthday or Christmas gift.