Ways a Frugal Person Can Give to Charity
‘Tis the time to be giving. For a frugal person saving money is what it is all about and giving things seems harder if it cost money since they are so used to spening less. There are lots of things a frugal person or anyone for that matter can do for free or next to nothing. I like to use my frugal skills to get things for next to nothing and share that wealth with others in need. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about giving.
1. Donate freebies from drugstore buying– I have a closet stockpiled of things I got for free after rebate that I will never use all of it. So, I could take these things to a charity that could use them. See more about drugstore buying here. You can also check out Coupon Cravings for her $5 Charity Challenge.
2. Donate coupon saving items– I had a free coupon for a couple of canned items. I bought those around Thanksgiving and put them in the food box at Walmart for someone else to use to make their Thanksgiving dinner. I also got several coupons that made some cat and dog food free after coupon at Walmart that I need to take to the local animal shelter.
3. Donate your old stuff to a Thrift Store– I take donation all the time to my local Goodwill Store. The only things my goodwill store will not take are computers. Our church has an account with The Goodwill Store and that donation goes on an account for ‘Tis the time to be giving. For a frugal person saving money is what it is all about and giving things seems harder if it cost money since they are so used to spening less. There are lots of things a frugal person or anyone for that matter can do for free or next to nothing. I like to use my frugal skills to get things for next to nothing and share that wealth with others in need. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about giving.the church to use to help familes in need. The family takes a voucher and they can pick out things they need. You could also just let The Goodwill Store take the donation and then count it off of your income taxes.
4. Make a Freezer Meal for a family in need– As a frugal, I can double a meal pretty easily and low in cost and then freeze the other for later. Consider helping out a family with a new baby, someone sick, or just someone in need at the holidays. This always makes me feel better because I know how I felt after having a baby and it was not like cooking.
5. Donate stuff you are not using to an Organization needing it– There are many organization out there who collect stuff like old glasses, old cell phones, old computers, etc. The Lions Club is one oraniztion that collects a lot of stuff. Our local high school is collecting used coats to give to kids in need. I am going to take the kids old coats since we just bought some new ones that fit better.
6. Check out programs like Box Tops for Education and Labels For Education– This is a really easy one for me. You can find the box tops on lots of products you already use. Here’s a list of all the products that have box tops. I am sure you buy some of these products and I find a lot of them with coupons and a good sale. All I have to do is collect the box tops/labels before throwing the container away and then turn into my local school. Campbell’s soups also has coupons on them that you can collect to get new equiptment for your school. If you do any online shopping consider going through the Box Tops Marketplace. They have teamed up with lots companies to give a percentage of your sale back to your local school. I have bought several things from Walmart online and have been able to give back money to my school just by buying something I was already going to buy. You will need to sign up online to be able to go through the marketplace and when you sign up they give you some boxtops. Box tops also has a reading room. When you buy books there from Barnes and Noble you get 6% of your sale sent back to your school Box Top program. You can also save soup labels from Campbells and get equiptment for your school through the Labels for Education program.. I need to look more into this program.
7. Give old books and videos to your local library– Here’s another chance to donate something you are not using. Many libraries will accept old books and videos. They then sale them and use the money made to provide money for the library. I have seen many people have the library count what they take in there and take the donation off on there income tax. My library puts these on a shelf and sales the paperbacks for $.10 and the hardabacks for $.25. It’s a great way for me to get inexpensive books. Some people also donate magazines and they give those away. I was lucky enough to get in there after someone donated some and got them all for free! I have also heard of other libraries who have a big book sale once a year to make money for the library and they take these donations all year long.
8. Buy Clearance Toys throughout the year– I bought several toys at Walmart after Christmas last year for real cheap and I kept some of them to give to Toys for Tots or you could give to another organization who collects toys for kids at Christmas time. I also like to do an Operation Christmas Child. I made a shoebox this year for $5.00 for a child in need and a local church collected them. I got a lot of stuff for free from my drugstore shopping to put in it and I used some clearance Halloween Candy to put in the box. The $5.00 was spent on a toy for the child.  Next year, we are going to work on them all year long and each child is going to do a box.
So as you can see there are lots of ways to give if you are on a tight budget or just frugal with your money, and you can still make a difference and help someone this holiday season.
What’s one thing you can do that won’t cost you much to help make someone else’s Holiday a little merrier?
