John Pickering Personal finance blog. Home Contact JANUARY 20, 2020 ADMINBUDGETING How To Be Kind Without Spending Lots Of Money Sometimes it feels that we cannot be truly kind without spending money. We might see various charity appeals and feel that we cannot help unless we donate, for example. Or we might see our children needing things they cannot afford and want to give them money so they can have what they need. However, the cost of doing this is something that not everyone can afford and we all have our limits with regards to how much we can afford, even if we are well off enough to afford to give some financial help. The good news is that there are things that we can do which do not involve spending vast amounts of money which will still allow us to be kind and support those that need help. Volunteer If you cannot afford to give to a cause, then you might be able to help them by volunteering instead. Obviously, this will depend on how close you live to somewhere where you are able to help out. You time may also be limited. There might be all sorts of ways that you can help though and there might even be things that you can do from home. It can be good to contact the charity and let them know about your situation and they might be able to suggest some things that you will be able to do to help them out. Promote causes and charities Another way is to promote the causes and charities that you care about. You can do this in different ways. You might be able to put information around at work, for example or you could share information on social media. You may just choose to tell friends and family about it. Organise a fundraiser You could organise a fundraiser for that charity. You could either do a big event such as a fair, coffee morning or sale or you could set up some sort of online collection of money, perhaps through social media. There are lots of ways that you could do this. Some people do it for their birthday and ask people to donate to the charity rather than give them presents which could be another alternative. Share your wisdom If it is people closer to home that you want to help then you could share wisdom rather than money. For example, if your children or other family members are struggling financially then offer to talk to them about what is going on and see whether you can help them that way. It might not be a financial problem that they have, but you might still be able to help with your wisdom rather than with your money. Do a job that gives back There are other ways of being kind and one of them is to do a job that gives back to society. There are many jobs that help out in all sorts of ways. Working in the public sector as a civil servant will give you the opportunity to give back to society whether you work in a hospital, police station, school or office you will be serving the public and giving back that way. There are other jobs to such as working for a charity or in an industry sector that helps people or in a role that helps people. If you think about your current role you might actually be helping others anyway, most jobs actually do provide a service or good that helps others. Always smile It is amazing what a difference it can make to people if you smile at them. Imagine walking down the street and smiling at everyone you see. That smile could very well be infectious and cause those who see you to smile back. Someone else might see them smiling and smile themselves and it could lead to a big chain of smiles. You may also find that person you smiled at was feeling lonely or sad and that smile just made feel a little bit better. Just the smallest bit of kindness can lead to big things. We may have an idea of what it means to be kind, but hopefully reading this will change your mind a bit. There is really no need to have money to be kind. It can help some charities and causes but there are so many ways that we can be kind to others and lots of them take no money at all. So never feel as if you cannot be kind as there is always something that you can do that will help others, even the smallest thing which costs nothing can mean a lot to someone. You can take things further by greeting people, saying thank you, wishing them a good day and all sorts of things which will be even kinder. Acts of kindness also make us feel happier so you will be being kind to yourself as well as being kind to others. JANUARY 20, 2020 ADMINADVICE How To Give Great Gifts Which Do Not Cost Much It can be really difficult if we are struggling financially but want to give people nice gifts. We might like to spoil others and give them gifts or we may feel pressure to do so because we want to reciprocate the gifts that they give to us. Either way, they can be expensive and if you do not have loads of money, then giving a gift can be difficult and you may even have to contemplate borrowing the money to pay for it. However, there are ways that you can still give gifts but you do not have to spend lots of money. Sales/discounts Buying gifts in a sale or when they are discounted means that you will still be able to get an item of the value that you wish to spend without actually spending as much money – or turning to short term lending for help. It is often the case that when it is close to the time that you need a gift, you may not be able to find a discounted item. This is where it pays to be organised and to think ahead. If you can buy things when you see them reduced in advance of when you need to give them, then you will be able to spend less. Just make sure that you remember what you bought and where you stored it so that you do not buy something else as well and hence spend more money rather than less. Cheaper shops It could be worth hunting for items in cheaper shops. Sometimes you might be able to find exactly what you need in a shop that you do not normally look in, at a fraction of the price you pay in the shop you regularly shop in. You may not think that will be the case or you might think that you will not be able to find such nice things, but it is worth a look as you never know what you might come across. Second hand Some people feel that buying second hand is just not acceptable for gifts, but this may not be the case at all. Firstly, you may find that some of the items in second hand shops have actually been donated and never used, so that are still brand new. Some might be antiquarian and more valuable as well. It is therefore worth having a look to see what is available. You might be surprised at how little you will be able to pay for things which are new or almost new and can make really suitable gifts. Regifting Regifting things is a great way to pass on items that you have received and will not use. Make sure that you leave items unopened and you will be able to pass them onto someone else and they will never know that you did not pay for them. Items like toiletries, bottles of wine, even boxes of chocolates can be perfect for doing this with. Home made Making a gift yourself might be cheaper if you have the materials you need already in your home. There are lots of things you could potentially make form cakes, biscuits and sweets to knitted or embroidered items. Whether you can make a clay pot, paint a picture or engrave some glass, you probably have some sort of skill that you could potentially use in order to make someone a gift. Often people will value home made more because of the effort that has gone in to it. Give services instead of gifts It could be acceptable to give a service instead of a gift. This could be anything from walking their dog, doing some gardening or cleaning for them to driving them to the airport when they go on holiday. It can be good to think about whether there are things that they might benefit from that you will be able to help them with. There are lots of ideas here and hopefully you will be able to find something that will help you out. It can be really hard to find nice gifts on a budget and not giving gifts at all or having a no present pact can resolve the issue but it is not something that everyone would like to do. It is always worth thinking about no present pacts though and discussing them with friends and family as you may find that there are others that really struggle to afford gifts as well and they might be relieved to learn that you want to stop gifting too. It might be that you could disguise it as being due to a concern about the environment and that too many items are causing damage to the planet, but may prefer to be completely honest and explain that the cost is getting too much but you do not want to stop giving gifts if they are still giving gifts to you. Developed by Think Up Themes Ltd. Powered by WordPress.