Giving Without Spending...Much: Holiday Helper

Each year, Mothering (http://www.mothering.com/) has a Holiday Helper program where you can help families in need. Many of the requested items can be used. I'm sure we all have clothes or other things collecting dust that are in great condtion. With that said, please take a moment to check out the list of families that need help. After reading their stories, you will realize just how blessed you are. Even if you only send one item, every little bit helps. Let's help these families have a good Christmas.

Giving Without Spending: Donate your breast milk

If you have an abundance of breast milk with no end in sight, consider donating it. The La Leche League website has a great page about breast milk donation here. Also included on this page, are a list of milk banks in the U.S. and other countries. If you go this route to donate, you may have to pay for shipping and packaging if you don't live near a bank.

There is another option for donation with The International Breastmilk Project. The milk they receive is sent to Africa for children who have been orphaned due to poverty and disease like HIV/AIDS. If you qualify for the program, they send you a cooler and cover the cost of shipping. Therefore, you pay nothing with this program.

Makes me want to start lactating! I really wish I would have known about this when I was breastfeeding my youngest.

Giving Without Spending: A hairy proposition!

Are you contmeplating chopping off your really long hair? Along with making yourself feel good, how about making someone else feel good too? There are many women and children that have lost their hair due to medical reasons and treatments. Please consider donating your hair to help boost their self-esteem and give them a sense of feeling normal again.

Programs:

Locks of Love

Beautiful Lengths

Wigs for Kids

If you know of any more, please feel free to leave a comment with the info. :)

Giving Without Spending: Calling all labor doulas

From the site:

Operation Special Delivery provides trained volunteer doulas for pregnant women whose husbands or partners have been severely injured or who have lost their lives due to the current war on terror, or who will be deployed at the time that they are due to give birth.

If you're not a labor doula but know someone who is, tell them about Operation Special Delivery. This is a great service. I couldn't imagine going through labor without my husband!

Giving Without Spending...Much: Toys for Tots

It's that time of year again. I've been seeing the Toys for Tots boxes at my local wally world for a few weeks now. As I was perusing the toy section, I saw some really cute ones for $5. The hubby and I wound up getting one that was $10 to donate. It's up to you what you get but you don't have to spend a lot to give a needy child a great Christmas. Next time you're in a store that has a Toys for Tots box, give up something and use that $5 and purchase a toy to donate.

Giving Without Spending: FreeRice.com

(Originally posted on my blog The Adventures of Frugal Girl )

I love this! You will not only help donate rice to the hungry, but learn vocabulary as well! For each word you get right, they will donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. Click here to get smarter and help others.

Giving Without Spending: The Bible Site

(Originally posted on my blog The Adventures of Frugal Girl )

This site is similar to the Hunger Site in that all you have to do is make a click to make a difference. The Bible Site donates Bibles and books of the Bible to persecuted Christians in other countries. Click here to visit the site and click now. Make sure to bookmark the page and click daily!

Giving Without Spending...Much: Make a child smile

(Originally posted on my blog The Adventures of Frugal Girl )

Make a Child Smile is such a sweet, wonderful program. Each month, 3 children who are suffering from chronic or life-threatening diseases, are featured on the site. A mailing address and biography is provided so that you may send these children a card and/or a small gift to brighten their day. What a blessing for these kids who should not have to be going through what they are. With stores like the Dollar Tree, you can send a card to all 3 children for less than $5. Or if you have the time, you can handmake your own cards. I'm sure no matter what, anything would be very much appreciated.

Giving Without Spending: Send a postcard to a soldier overseas

(Originally posted on my blog The Adventures of Frugal Girl )

This cool program called "Lets say thanks" is sponsored by Xerox. Simply pick out which postcard design you want. Then choose a message from a list of pre-written notes or write your own. Click submit and you're done. It's really that simple and easy and it will be very much appreciated by the soldier that receives it.

Click here to send a card.

Giving Without Spending: Ronald McDonald pop tab collection program

(Originally posted on my blog The Adventures of Frugal Girl )

The Ronald McDonald House is a "home away from home" for many sick children and their families each year. They are asked to make a $5-20 donation each day of their stay, but if they can't, their stay is free. What an awesome program!

You can help these families continue to have free or majorly discounted stays by saving the tabs on your soda cans, vegetable and soup cans, and pet food cans. Drop-off sites for pop tabs range in location, from the House to McDonald's restaurants, local banks and grocery stores.

Here's a picture of our collection so far. It's amazing how many aluminum cans have went into this small pile! We started doing this at the beginning of August when I was told about it from a friend.

Click here to visit the Ronald McDonald House website.

Giving Without Spending: The Hungersite

(Originally posted on my blog The Adventures of Frugal Girl )


Frugal folks are some of the most generous people around. They may not have a lot, but they're willing to give what little they do have to help someone in need.

When most people think about donating to charities, they think the only way is by donating money. And since they don't have much money to spare, they feel like they are unable to help. This is far from the truth. You can donate things like your time, special services (computer, landscaping), and stuff you have stored up or laying around your house that isn't being used.

Each week I'm going to post a way to give to charity or your fellow man, without spending a dime in the process. The rewards in giving are priceless!

The first charity I'm covering this week is a website that contains several sites that you can visit and click daily to help feed a starving child, feed a starving animal, fund a mammogram, fund healthcare for a child, save the rainforest, and provide books for needy kids. Just go to http://www.thehungersite.com/ daily and click the "Help Feed the Hungry" button pictured below. After you have done that, visit each of the other sites by clicking on their tab at the top of the page which can also be seen in the picture.

One way to remember to visit everyday is to set it as your homepage. Remember, one click doesn't provide a free mammogram, a cup of food, etc. It takes many clicks to reach just one goal of each site so visit daily and click away. It's easy and free!

Giving Without Spending: Old glasses for new owners

(Originally posted on my blog The Adventures of Frugal Girl )


This week's featured opportunity is the Lions Club. They collect used eyeglasses which are cleaned then sorted by prescription. The glasses are then distributed to those in need in developing countries.

So do you have an old pair lying around or know someone who does? Instead of letting them collect dust, let the Lions Club put them to good use. You will greatly improve the quality of someone's life. To find out where to donate in your area, go the Lions Club website at http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/content/vision_eyeglass_recycling.shtml and click on "Club Locator" located on the left portion of the page. You will be given contact information for your local chapter.

Giving Without Spending...Much: Movies for the disabled

(Originally posted on my blog The Adventures of Frugal Girl )

Moviesforfree.org (http://www.moviesforfree.org/) is a program that sends out movies to people that are disabled and on a limited income. They accept donations of gently used VHS and DVDs to distribute to those eligible for the program. If you have a few movies you've only watched once or twice and have no plans to watch again, think about sending them to moviesforfree.org. You will have to pay for shipping but the cost shouldn't be much using media mail.

Giving Without Spending: IM'ing for a cause

(Originally posted on my blog The Adventures of Frugal Girl )

This has got to be the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Yes, I live a sheltered life! I received an email from MSN Messenger stating you can now IM for a cause. From the site:

i’m is a new initiative from Windows Live Messenger™. Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with some of the world's most effective organizations dedicated to social causes. We've set no cap on the amount we'll donate to each organization.
The sky's the limit. So any time you have an i’m™ conversation using Windows Live Messenger, you help address the issues you feel most passionate about, including poverty, child protection, disease, environmental degradation and animal protection. It's simple. All you have to do is join and start an instant messaging conversation. We'll handle the donation.

Click here to get started.

I am IM'ing for the Red Cross.