A Time to Give: Giving Resolutions

Welcome back to A Time to Give, my weekly feature where we share ways to give, ways to share, ways to be generous. If this is your first time stopping by, welcome! You can read the original A Time to Give post HERE. In a nutshell, I started this feature as a way for us to inspire each other to be even more generous. I tend to get wrapped up in finding great deals, and I don't want to lose sight of one of the reasons we live frugally... to be able to give more. Each week I'll share a giving idea of mine, and you share a giving idea of yours.

With the new year almost upon us, many of us are making some pretty serious New Year's resolutions. Do you want to take steps to improve your health in 2010? Do you want to stop smoking? Do you want to get out of debt?

Do you want to give like never before???

That's one of my resolutions. I'm going to continue to bargain shop and save my family a ton of money this year. But, in the process, I'm going to stock up like crazy on things that I can give. As I was packing up some gift baskets full of personal care and household items this Christmas, I realized that I could have made up baskets for a few other people I had in mind. I just ran out of items to put in the baskets. So, while I was glad to help the people I helped, I'd like to be more prepared for giving next year.

One way that I'm going to do this is to shop more often. There were many weeks this fall when I just skipped shopping altogether. I saw that our family stockpile was sufficient, so I didn't go out. I'm going to watch more closely this year and head out if I see items that I know will be useful for giving. I probably won't make a special trip, but I may swing by CVS or Rite Aid on my lunch hour. I'm not going to blow our family budget on these items. Instead, I'll use my Extra Care Bucks at CVS or choose items that generate rebates from Rite Aid. With some careful shopping, I should be able to create a giving stockpile in addition to our family stockpile.

I guess it all comes down to being intentional. And that's my giving plan for 2010.

Now it's your turn to share your ideas for sharing, giving, and being generous. Note: If you are reading this post via an email subscription or a blog reader, you'll need to click the title of the post in order to see the links left by others.

You can participate in a couple of ways. If you're a blogger, write a post about a way that you've been able to give. It can be something simple or something out-of-the-ordinary that you did. It can be something from this week or from last year. Don't think of it as bragging... It's a way to encourage others to take action and be more generous! A few guidelines for bloggers:

• Please add a link to Saving and Giving so that your readers can find everyone's ideas all in one place.


• Make sure the link that you add here takes people directly to your A Time to Give post, not the main page of your blog. To do that, publish your post, view your blog, right click on the title, and copy the shortcut. Then paste that shortcut in as your URL here.


• Bloggers who link to other posts or their main pages will have their links removed. This eliminates confusion for others who are looking for ideas on how to give.


• Please do not link to giveaways, contests, or ads.


• Feel free to use the image above in your post. It's not mandatory, but you're welcome to it!

If you're not a blogger, you can participate too! Simply click the comments link below this post, and leave your ideas there. I would love to hear from you!

If you have any questions about A Time to Give, please feel free to contact me at savingandgiving@gmail.com. I look forward to being inspired by your ideas on giving! And stop back each Thursday for a new edition of A Time to Give.