Christmas 2008
My participation in the annual rush of gross consumerism disguised as a religious celebration has officially come to a close. All purchases have been made, wrapped, and prepared for transport. I’ll take some packages to the post office today and carry a couple to Missouri for Christmas morning.
My Christmas shopping budget was pretty recession resistant. Luckily, I’m pretty secure in my employment and I’ve been able to build up a healthy discretionary income reserve over the last three or four months. I chalk it up to a small pay raise and some changes to my spending habits. I have a friend who calls me cheap. I argue that I’m frugal.
I didn’t shop for as many people this year as I have in the past. There will be people whose faces I won’t enjoy seeing as they unwrap presents. Life goes on and we move on. Shopping for a smaller group however, didn’t reduce the funds expended. It just modified the distribution.
Every year I participate in a modest philanthropic donation. The last couple of years I donated to Heifer International. Their mission is poverty reduction and providing family and village oriented support by helping to establish sustainable animal husbandry operations. A neat thing they do is allow donors to buy a specific animal: water buffalo, camel, goat, sheep, chicken, duck, llama, etc... I’ve bought hives of bees and flocks of ducks in the past. You can also buy the animal in a friend or loved one’s name; I’ve done this. I can only imagine the look on my niece’s face one Christmas when she opened the envelope and discovered I had bought a flock of ducks in her name for a family in Africa. Heifer does good work all over the world. Lately however, they’ve been doing a lot of bricks and mortar expansion so I wanted to switch.
This year I donated to the Arkansas Rice Depot. Their mission is to feed hungry people right here in Arkansas. We hear on the news every day that major companies are laying people off or firing them outright. We hear weekly that state and national unemployment rates are climbing. With this news in mind, I think it’s important to keep our giving close to home.
Give what you can without busting the budget. If you wind up in trouble yourself, you really haven’t helped anybody. A little pocket change in the Salvation Army’s red bucket will help. Also, give to a group who provides comparatively more service to their client base than they provide for staff and bricks and mortar. There are several on-line sources to compare them. Try Charity Navigator.
Or, if donating money isn’t realistic for you, try donating time. Roll up your sleeves and pitch in.
It’s never too late to give, and a very merry Christmas to you and yours.
My Christmas shopping budget was pretty recession resistant. Luckily, I’m pretty secure in my employment and I’ve been able to build up a healthy discretionary income reserve over the last three or four months. I chalk it up to a small pay raise and some changes to my spending habits. I have a friend who calls me cheap. I argue that I’m frugal.
I didn’t shop for as many people this year as I have in the past. There will be people whose faces I won’t enjoy seeing as they unwrap presents. Life goes on and we move on. Shopping for a smaller group however, didn’t reduce the funds expended. It just modified the distribution.
Every year I participate in a modest philanthropic donation. The last couple of years I donated to Heifer International. Their mission is poverty reduction and providing family and village oriented support by helping to establish sustainable animal husbandry operations. A neat thing they do is allow donors to buy a specific animal: water buffalo, camel, goat, sheep, chicken, duck, llama, etc... I’ve bought hives of bees and flocks of ducks in the past. You can also buy the animal in a friend or loved one’s name; I’ve done this. I can only imagine the look on my niece’s face one Christmas when she opened the envelope and discovered I had bought a flock of ducks in her name for a family in Africa. Heifer does good work all over the world. Lately however, they’ve been doing a lot of bricks and mortar expansion so I wanted to switch.
This year I donated to the Arkansas Rice Depot. Their mission is to feed hungry people right here in Arkansas. We hear on the news every day that major companies are laying people off or firing them outright. We hear weekly that state and national unemployment rates are climbing. With this news in mind, I think it’s important to keep our giving close to home.
Give what you can without busting the budget. If you wind up in trouble yourself, you really haven’t helped anybody. A little pocket change in the Salvation Army’s red bucket will help. Also, give to a group who provides comparatively more service to their client base than they provide for staff and bricks and mortar. There are several on-line sources to compare them. Try Charity Navigator.
Or, if donating money isn’t realistic for you, try donating time. Roll up your sleeves and pitch in.
It’s never too late to give, and a very merry Christmas to you and yours.
posted by steve | 8:30 PM
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