Free Charity

I often encourage people to donate freebies they won't use. One of the hard adjustments for me was not being able to donate to as many charities when our income drastically reduced; the other part that really hurt was letting go of my spa services . . . I'm very human.

• Samples of shampoo or food, etc. are great for food shelves. If you entered a contest hoping to win the corvette & winning a 1st place prize (a Hershey's hat - yes, this happened to me), consider donating the item you won by accident - it will eliminate the tax impact & go to someone who'll use it.
• Recently, I got an e-mail from another dear friend who found a place to help in a hands-on way; this one is also available for kids to get involved. This group already raised the funds to send food to starving children in Haiti, and needs hands to get it together and sent. It's a great way to support charities when cash is tight. http://www.kidsagainsthunger.org/
• If you're into survey sites or any reward program, many of them will offer a donation option. Many of those also offer the donation option at a lower point value than you'd have to get to for other things.
• Of course, if you have cash to donate, great!!! Find something you believe in and do it. However, I'm all about making my time and money go as far as possible, so I'm focusing on being cheap here. If I weren't, I would have picked another name for the Blog . . .

Have fun and show love to someone you may never even meet!!