A Small Food Pantry Donation - Every Little Bit Helps!

I organized and cleaned out my cabinets yet again. I guess a part of me is trying to get away from the packaged food - like Rice a Roni and whatnot. I have a bunch of it. So I gave some away. I also have a ton of soup - and I know being summer, it's still all going to be in my cabinets come the fall. I'm sure the expiration date isn't for a long while, but it skeeves me out to know soup has just been sitting in my cabinets for a long time. So I parted with some. It's not a lot - but better than nothing.

Freecycle Today!

I didn't do anything exceptionally nice today. I did give away some curtains on Freecycle. They weren't this fancy. In fact, they were pretty ghetto looking, but they were just sitting in my attic and I know for a fact that I will never hang them again. My trash = Someone's treasure!

Food Pantry Donation!

I'm going to a food pantry event tonight. I just gave them some food so I thought it would be a good idea to go through my health & beauty stash and find things I don't really need. Here they are:

I honestly don't even know if they'll take the cosmetics. I mean, they aren't opened or expired. I'll try it. Worse case is they say "no" and I'll take my pink eye shadows home with me. I think they'll take everything else for sure though.

If you want to donate stuff - show CVS Saver what you got with her monthly charity challenge! Click HERE!

Gave a Coupon Away...It Counts As A Nice Thing!

After I swung by the library today to donate my 12 books, I went to the mall. I had a BOGO Free coupon for a coffee at a coffee shop. But since I haven't caffeinated up my 2 rugrats yet - it was just me ordering. Now believe me, I could EASILY down 2 cups of coffee in record time, but I'm not that weird in public.

So I looked at my coupon and shoved it back into my wallet. As the coffee dude made my cappuccino, a lady and her teen daughter came up behind me. So I thought - I'm not going to ever use this coupon and it's just going to take up space in my wallet. So I grab my coupon, turn and say, "Here you go. I'm not going to use this. It's a buy one, get one free coupon." The lady seemed delighted and I think the teen rolled her eyes at me. What would have ended up trash in my barrel turned into an extra $3 in some lady's wallet. That's nice. Not much, but still nice. An example how it didn't cost me a single dime to be nice to someone. If my husband was with me, he would have called me a freak or weirdo.

CVS Saver Does a Monthly Challenge!

Yey! One more resource to help me donate to charity! CVS Saver! CVS Saver started a challenge to donate monthly to charity. I mean, if you're like me at CVS or your local grocery store, you probably have a HUGE stockpile of junk. I don't need most of it - or it will all go skanky by the time I get to use it. So give it away. If I combine the two $5 Challenge and CVS Saver's challenge, then I should be good to go monthly.

I actually am going to take my kids to a local Food Pantry event tomorrow night. I'm excited for it. I'll take a picture of my donations. Only to show people what I have laying around my house that I really don't need. I hope there are lots of old people there. I like old people. And I think they like me too.

Today's nice thing I'm going to do? I found about 12 books in my bookcase that I don't need. I'm going to drop them off at my library this A.M. Most libraries take used books to sell at their booksales. It helps them generate money. We go to the library a lot - so it's a good way to support the community - and that way I'm not such a freeloader!

Joining the $5 CVS Challenge For Charity?

I'll admit - I'm not overly God-ly. I don't even go to church right now. I want to, but I have to scout out churches in our new area first before I drop the little chitlins off into strangers care. I grew up in a church. Went to Sunday School, did the VBS thing (VBS = Vacation Bible School), did the youth group thing, Pioneer Girls, and even went to a Christian camp in the summers from age 5-15. So why am I such a heathen now? I don't know. I guess I'm kind of scared of going to church - which is probably the stupidest thing I've ever typed in my life.

Do I believe in God? Of course! Do I believe he died for our sins so that we can have eternal life? You betcha! Do I pray? Heck yeah! Do I like to worship and spread the message of God to others? Ahhh...not so much. If I had to be a missionary, it would be safe to say I'd be the saddest missionary out there: "God is great, you should read the bible - but really, you just have to believe in what you want to believe in and I'm okay with that." Missions is so not my thing.

Well a friend of mine told me about the blog "Keeping the Kingdom First" - at first I thought "Are you trying to tell me something? Like GO TO CHURCH now!" - but no. That was not her intention. It was a great weekly $5 CVS challenge that goes on there that she mentioned it to me. I admit - I am a coupon freak. I plot out my weekly grocery trips with coupons and sale flyers in hand. I get a ton of stuff at CVS for next to nothing. Which leads me to my next "do-gooder" idea: What if I take that $5 or less every week and give that to charity?

I'm currently sitting on $12 ECBs. I have more toothbrushes, toothpaste, pain meds and razors than I know what to do with. Among other things as well. Besides diapers, I REALLY DO NOT NEED ANYTHING at CVS for a LONG TIME. So can I take this $5 challenge and run with it - for charity?

Most people don't know this, but food pantries take toiletries too. I'll see if I can do this!

I Gave Blood & Got Some Cookies

Today I gave blood. I haven't given blood since 2005. Why? I don't know. Laziness is really my only good excuse. You can give blood every 56 days (8 weeks). So that means I'm good to go again on June 15th. Free, fun way to help out.

So have you ever donated blood? It's not that bad. I did it a lot when I was younger. Then I stopped. They take about a pint. You probably have 10-12 pints in you so it's not a big deal. They poke you with a needle and it takes about 10 minutes for the little blood bag to fill up. Then you get juice and cookies. Everytime you donate, it helps 3 people.

It was pretty cool. I was there for about 1 1/2 hours total. I talked to some really cool old dudes. It was at a Knights of Columbus hall or something like that. The cool thing is that they have a blood drive every 8 weeks on the spot! So that's good because I won't remember the whole 8th week mark on my own. Now I have a fancy sticker to put on my calendar. This is cool - Every 8th Monday, I can take my not-so-lazy butt down the road and instantly lose a pound. That's pretty cool (I asked the blood lady how much a pint of blood weighs. She said a pound. I'll take her word for it.)

Read THIS for more information.

Donating To Walks & Runs

I recently threw a friend a 20 spot for a walk she's doing. Not much, I know. But more than nothing. I have this "thing" I do. A couple friends walk and run and some stuff like that for charity. I've done a couple Komen 5Ks and other charity runs before. I'm not good at fundraising because I feel tacky and weird doing it. I'm just not one of those people who are good asking others to give me money - even if it is for something good like helping to find a cure for cancer or helping to feed the homeless.

How do I get the money to do this? I sell old junk on Ebay and keep a PayPal account. I use these funds to support friends ambitious efforts to do good. Things I've sold? Dresses I've worn to weddings, DVDs, books and other miscellaneous crap I have around the house that I don't need.

Donating To My Local Food Pantry

I cleaned out my cabinets and found 8 bags of groceries that would get better use at the food pantry than in my own pantry. Sometimes I'll throw a bag together if the kids' school is doing a can collection or something. But I had a lot of junk I knew I wouldn't eat. I've never been to my local food pantry. So I looked it up on the internet and couldn't really find drop off times. I called to ask when I could drop off my donation. The kind man said that he'd be there until noon that day and to come by anytime. So I packed up my stuff in my car and headed over. How do I do this? I'm a coupon freak. There are a lot of great blogs out there that show you how to save so much money - and pay practically nothing for some great food. I'm hoping to make at least 2 trips a month. Maybe I'll start taking pictures of what I find lurking in my cabinets. It's sometimes scary in there though.

School Supplies

Recently, the Huggies company had all these crazy $5 off coupons listed on coupons.com. I printed off a bunch and my family printed some off for me. I ended up scoring a lot of wipes for virtually free. They were on sale at Target for $5.49 for a big pack. So $5 off is .49 cents for 187 wipes or something. I took my kids up to school and I know wipes are part of the things they request donations for. So I gave them some. They were so happy that "I thought of them" I told the lady it was no big deal but you could tell she was very happy that we thought of her. A part of me was thinking "Lady! Each of these bags was .49 cents. It's NOT A BIG DEAL!" But I just told her I was happy to do it and keep the cheap secret to myself.

Hunger Walk

I had every intention to participate in a Hunger Walk today. The entry fee was $20 or 20 cans of food. I was going to go with my 20 cans of food. It was raining. I did not want to truck the little ones through the cold rain. I didn't go. I feel bad. I hope to hit it up next year. See if there are events like this in your town! It's a great way to help out - even though I didn't even do it.

Freecycle

I don't do a lot now. I'm honest. The biggest thing I'm probably part of is Freecycle. This is grassroots movement that uses Yahoo Groups to post things that you'd probably throw away but have more life to them. I've been a part of this group for a long time. I just feel like as Americans, we throw away a lot. Don't believe me? Look at all the mounds of garbage out on the curb in your neighborhood on trash day. It's crazy.

Things I've Freecycled? A kitchen table, old countertop, baby clothes, my wedding cake topper, books, lamps, etc.

Things I've been fortunate enough to receive through Freecycle? A brand new bathroom vanity, kid toys, lamps, books.

What goes around, comes around. And always remember, your trash is someone else's treasure!

Why I'm Here:

So yeah. I need to do more in life. Like nice things. Here's the deal. I'm about to be 30. I have a spouse and 2 kids. We're probably pretty average. Well I'm kind of weird, but besides that, our little family is pretty average. I like to think of myself as a "nice" person - but most people who know me probably wouldn't use that adjective to describe me. And quite honestly, I don't want to be known as some "nice" person. I like being a little hard.

Well anyways, I want to do nice things for people. Like above the average. I guess I woke up one day and though "Gee, if God is really good to me, I'll live another 50-60 years. When I die, it's not going to matter what kind of furniture I have, if I lived in the greatest neighborhood, or if I wore fancy clothes." I don't want to be old someday and think that I should have done more with my life - or should have helped out and been nicer in my days. So thus begins my mission.

I wish I were rich. But I'm not. Our income last year (as reported on our taxes) was a measly $55K. That's not a lot - especially where we live. But I think we got by just fine. We've learned to live within our means. But we don't do much charity work or give money to a church or whatnot. We should - but honestly, sometimes we do have to scrimp and save because again, our income doesn't stretch too far at times.

So I've decided that I'm going to try to do good things. I can't tell my friends, family or acquaintences, because again, it would ruin my hard image. That would just be wrong. I'm hoping to document little ways to help out.