. When I was much younger and making about the same money as I am now, I felt that I had so much $$ I didn't know what to do with it. Seriously. Of course I was saving a lot, but I also started donating $100 a week for a while to my favorite charities, rotating among wildlife organizations, the Nature Conservancy, Bat Conservation International and local animal shelters.
My job history has been somewhat erratic. I'm certainly not one of those people who works 20 years at one place. The jobs have come and the jobs have gone.
Now I'm back to making what for me is good money, though strangely, I don't feel that I'm swimming in money as I did in my 30s. And that's even without having the mortgage anymore. Maybe it's because I've experienced several layoffs and some very long periods of un- or under-employment that's served as kind of a warning that the money can go away very quickly. Also, I think I have more experience understanding how incredibly expensive even "simple" home repairs/maintenance/remodeling can be.
Still, I am wanting to give back in a way that is meaningful for me and I am very loyal to my town, even more so since 12/14/12. I noticed in the paper there was a writeup about how our brand new municipal animal shelter was looking for donations of food, towels and toys. I was surprised that a town-funded shelter would be in need of such things, so I called them just now and they told me the town takes care of the essentials, but they don't consider toys essential and they go through towels quickly.
So while I cannot adopt any more animals, I think I will adopt my local shelter. When I go to Wal Mart for cat food (which seems like something I'm doing constantly, regardless of how many cases I buy at one time), I'll start picking up an extra case for the shelter, and I know I have some extra old towels I can donate as well. It's a start.
Actually, this idea morphed in my head because while the new shelter was finished well over a year ago, i have yet to get down there and check it out, something I've been wanting to do. Having some donations to drop off give me the perfect excuse to show up!
I got an email from the organic farm where I was a CSA member last season. They were telling people they could sign up for next year (I won't) and invited feedback, so I wrote a fairly lengthy and detailed note about why I wouldn't be joining the CSA again but I also talked about the many wonderful things about it.
The main reason I'm not doing it again is becus we couldn't pick up the food until 1 pm Sunday afternoons. That left me with the very tail end of the weekend to decide what recipes to use (based on what I got) and then run out and get missing ingredients, and then try to cook up as much as possible on that one afternoon because I have neither the time nor energy to be doing much cooking during the work week.
I really did wrap my entire weekend plans around the Sunday afternoon farm pick-up.
I also mentioned being disappointed that after they said they hoped to provide a dozen eggs every other week, we wound up getting eggs just ONE time. Even worse, when I went to browse their little store, I saw they had eggs in there. I'm sure they just wound up with too few eggs and didn't have enough to go around for the CSA members, but in my mind, since CSA members are paying up front for an entire season, they should be given preferential treatment over those who just come in at will and buy from their store.
But I also said how incredible their produce was and how it really felt like Christmas morning each Sunday when I made my little trip to the farm, wondering what I'd be getting that week. And how they are one of the top 10 best things about my town.
The farmer's wife wrote back a very nice note. She said I gave her a lot to think about and was apologetic about the eggs. She said she wasn't going to promise any eggs this season, and then if people wound up getting some, it would just be a pleasant surprise. I wanted to explain to her that while that's fine, last summer what she should have done was offer some sort of explanation to customers (which they didn't) becus I'm sure there were others besides me who wondered about the eggs and then saw them in the store. It just made things a little worse. But I didn't want to press the point so I just decided to drop it.
Finding a charity I can call my own
January 7th, 2015 at 10:13 pm
January 7th, 2015 at 10:49 pm 1420670964
January 7th, 2015 at 10:54 pm 1420671296
We're excited that our new drop site is just three blocks from our house! Now that AS works from home, she'll be able to get it during the day.
January 7th, 2015 at 11:22 pm 1420672953
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January 8th, 2015 at 03:27 am 1420687639
January 8th, 2015 at 04:22 am 1420690950
January 8th, 2015 at 01:30 pm 1420723826
I've been doing a lot of shredding of old documents from the 90s and noticed quite a few donations we did for organizations...when we didn't have as much money. I didn't add them up, but it seemed like more than we do now as a percentage of income. I really do need to increase our giving. Thanks for mentioning it.
January 8th, 2015 at 03:49 pm 1420732185
They help women who were victims of wartime sexual violence re-build their lives and get skills that can help them support themselves and their children in the future.
Or it can be something local - for example, DH and I were walking back from an awesome bar in Philly on our weekend away, and saw a line of men in a freezing cold who waited to see if there is a bed for them in a mission. When we got back home, he looked up that mission's info and donated to it.
January 8th, 2015 at 07:49 pm 1420746589
We have a couple local things we support as well as one national organization. What irks me is some of the people I work with almost demand I give money to their organizations that they feel strongly about and then get snarky when I explain I have already budgeted money for the causes we support.