6 Ways to Give Back Without Monetary Expectations : The Saturday Weekend Review #134
ANYTHING TO SEE SOMEONE SMILE
One of the hardest things for people to do is give something away for free that they worked hard to pay for or their time.
We see it happen over and over how some people will cling to every last dollar they earn or possessions they have and other people who just give back.
Here’s the thing though, if you want to give back it doesn’t have to be monetary in nature. You don’t have to give up your favourite toys, clothes or furniture to give back.
So, yes you can do things to make other happy without digging into your bank account.If you can give back by donating stuff that’s great but it’s not necessarily the only way.
Give Back without hesitation
My wife used to be this way, but she is slowly changing where she comes up with ideas of ways to help others, mainly through donations. My wife had the one-track mindset of just working and saving money. It wasn’t about anyone else, but her.
This has changed over the years dramatically.
She doesn’t think twice about giving away things we no longer use for free instead of asking for money. She also enjoys volunteering her time to help others when needed. She doesn’t hesitate at all.
Once she put an ad on Kijiji selling 2 large boxes of baby boys clothes. Quite a few people responded with low-ball offers but one woman offered her full asking price. When the woman arrived my wife looked at her, smiled and told her to keep her money and enjoy the clothes.
It’s times like this where we realize how good it feels just to make someone’s day a bit brighter. My wife said the woman paid her with a smile which was worth it.
Although not everyone is in the position just to give away their belongings it’s not about selling what you own it’s also about finding ways to give back without thinking money is the answer.
I was on You Tube tonight and came across this video which inspired me to write this blog post tonight.
Barb and John Meyer who live on a farm near Elgin, Minnesota grow gladiolus every year among their crop of corn and soybeans. What started as their daughter’s birthday gift has turned into what John called an “obsession” of growing more and more flowers every year.
The Meyer’s could easily sell their gorgeous flowers but they don’t. They cut them and arrange them into beautiful bouquets and give them away at the local hospital for free. Most hospitals in Canada have a flower shop inside so I don’t know how well that would go over for business but where Barb and John live it’s welcomed.
They don’t want any money for their flowers because they enjoy the satisfaction of seeing people walk away smiling. They may never see where their flowers are headed BUT they hear about it and know that someone will be happy at the receiving end. They are a sign of life and love after all.
After watching the video I asked myself how Mrs. CBB and I could give back more and how I could inspire others to think about ways they can give back. You really have to sit back in a quiet place and ask yourself what you could do.
Giving back to the community
The other night we brought our son to a neighbourhood gathering which was put on free by the local school. It was a series of activities, conversation, clowns, music and lots of treats. In conversation with one of the other parents she was telling us about a local organic vegetable box program that she participates in.
The cost for a large box is cheaper than Mrs. CBB and I going to the grocery store so we considered signing up for the last shipments of the gardening season. I mentioned to the lady that every year we have tonnes of apples in our back yard and we typically give them away for free to whoever wants them.
She was thrilled to hear and gave us her phone number so that we could call her when the apples were ready so she could send someone to help pick them. There are always people looking for fruits and vegetables and if we can offer them free that’s our way of giving back to the community. We never ask for any form of monetary compensation to whoever comes to pick fruit.
This was one way we knew we could give back and it made us feel good but there has to be other ways we thought. The funny thing is many of us already are giving back but we don’t really take much notice to it because we love what we are doing.
Whether you volunteer in your community like we do or you start a blog like I have without monetary expectations you are giving back. When I started CBB I never set out to make money even though I do earn some cash BUT it all gets rolled back into making the blog a better place to visit.
We make a living by what we get but we make a life from what we give- Winston Churchill
I just recently moved the blog to a better hosting company which costs more money. I also have to pay for maintaining the blog and all other fees. So you see that bit of money that is earned goes towards it. I don’t take it and go on vacations nor do I want to quit my day job even though many personal finance bloggers do get to that point.
This was never my goal with Canadian Budget Binder when I first set sail in 2012. I wanted to make people aware and happy about getting a budget started so they could get back on track financially while documenting our journey.
Any time you do something out of the goodness of your heart because you want to help people, you give back. No, you don’t have to do everything for free to feel good but pick and choose so you find a balance in your life.
Feeling good about what you are doing with your life is a great accomplishment that not many people can achieve. The blog and our overabundance of garden fruits are not the only two ways we give back without monetary expectations.
So, how can you give without monetary expectations? Well we created a little list although the more we talked about it the more we realized that anyone could do this BUT it takes a special person to keep it going.
You don’t just do it once but you do it over and over again until the end of time because that is how you spread the word of kindness. It becomes an understanding that we can forego making money with our time when it comes to volunteering or giving stuff away for free.
No one has ever become poor from giving- Anne Frank
- Volunteer is tops on the list
- Minimize your belongings and give them away for free
- Donate your skills for free
- Grow something and give it away
- Participate in bringing communities together for free
- Organize free events and source out people to work for free
I can honestly tell you that the best feeling for Mrs. CBB and I is knowing that we are helping our fans to understand or at least think about their finances. You have to continue to look after yourselves if you want to get ahead of the financial rat race because no one else will look after you.
Feeling good about yourself and your life begins with the person you see in the mirror every day. If you know that you can make a difference then don’t hesitate to do so. There are so many people out there that would gladly accept your help or even an ear to listen.
That in itself is priceless.
As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and one for helping others- Audrey Hepburn
In what ways do you give back without monetary expectations.
CBB Week At A Glance
Hi Everyone!
If you are a regular reader of Canadian Budget Binder you might have noticed that the blog was down yesterday just after 10 am. I took matters into my own hands once and for all and upgraded to a better hosting company who has been absolutely amazing so far.
The blog is running faster too! Thank you all who supported the blog while we were migrating it yesterday. The job is now complete and we are up and running as normal… just at faster speeds.
At home I didn’t get too much done this week in terms of renovations because of the blog migration and spending time with my family. I have 2 weeks vacation starting Monday so I’d like to hit the road and travel around Ontario. I’ll do my best to pop online when I can to chat with everyone. This will be our first family vacation alone.
After this I will get back to the bathroom renovations. I sourced the heated flooring which I will pick up in this week, hopefully. My plans always seem to get crushed these days with the new addition to the family. He’s in charge you know.
Oh, we did pick up a couple of bits from Kijiji for our son which were dead cheap such as trucks that make noises. I also picked up a lot of free toys for him which included more toys that make noises and Lego. 🙂
The basil in the garden is ready to cut so I can start to make my basil cubes again this year. I’ve already harvested our salad greens twice, they seem to grow like weeds. That’s OK, more money we save.
That’s all that happened in our week, how about yours?
Published This Week
Just in case you’ve missed any of my blog posts this week I will share them all below.
If you have a question that you would like to ask Mr.CBB fill out the Contact Mr.CBB form on the Home Page and send in your questions.
If you want to share a story via a Fan Question only please ensure that there is minimum 500-1000 words and details… we love details!
Right now CBB is posting Tuesday (Grocery Game Challenge) , Thursday (Personal Finance Post), Saturday (Personal Finance and Weekly Wrap-Up and a recipe on Sunday!
- Why you shouldn’t feel guilty about saving money: Our July 2015 Net Worth Update (+2.29%)
- 10 Food Products worth buying to save time in the kitchen
- Dundurn Castle: The best shortbread cookie recipe ever!
Budget Brags
Submit your Deal or Brag:
Saving money while grocery shopping is essential in the CBB family and that’s why we share our grocery shops every week in The Grocery Game Challenge 2015.
What I love the most is when my fans share their amazing shops with me whether it be groceries or other deals they find at a garage sale, online or freebies!!!
If you have a brag that you want me to share email me at canadianbudgetbinder@yahoo.(ca) < remove brackets) or fill out my contact form by Friday each week to have your brag considered for the Saturday post.
This week Dee shares some deals she has picked up to save money in the Budget!
Hi Mr.CBB,
I picked up these items from a Facebook groups called Buy, Sell, Trade Anything & Everything K-W Kitchener Waterloo for $10.00.
The slow cooker was picked up for $5.00 and the jars were $5.00/dozen and I picked up 2 dozen. There are 5 small “baby”, 6 wide mouth, 13 standard mouth jars.
Awesome savings Dee and thanks for sharing them with everyone. You saved yourself some cash for sure!
Making A Difference (MAD)
Note: If you are a personal finance blogger (anywhere around the world) and would like your blog to be MAD featured simply drop me an email and I’ll explain the process to you.
This is my way of giving back to the personal finance community through networking and sharing knowledge with my fans.
Today I’d like to welcome my blogger friends from Our Next Life!
Hello CBB readers,
We’re delighted to be featured here on Canadian Budget Binder – thanks, Mr. CBB! We’re the married couple behind Our Next Life, an early retirement blog chronicling our quest to retire at the end of 2017, at the ages of 38 and 41, and our adventures that follow.
We’re both consultants who travel a lot for work, and we can’t wait to turn that travel into travel that we’d choose – exploring this incredible continent, and our big beautiful world.
A few years ago, we moved from a big, expensive city to a small mountain town, to get closer to the nature we love. We spend as much time as we can exploring the mountains, but it’s tough to find the time right now, while we’re still working. Only a few years until we can change that…
Like a lot of early retirement bloggers, we’re focused on building up our taxable index funds, paying off our house and maintaining a rental property to support our early retirement vision. But that’s not primarily what we write about. Instead, we focus on the other side of early retirement – the thought processes, the tough questions, the shifts in mindset that we’ll need to make.
For example, we question whether there are things we’ll miss about working that we hadn’t considered, or how we can continue to spend according to our values once we’re on a tighter retirement budget. And we often tackle how we balance our desire to make the most environmentally responsible decisions while also being frugal – not always easy!
We invite our readers to think about the questions beyond the numbers, and to dream along with us, and it’s a lively conversation. We hope you’ll join in!
Top Recipe
Food and grocery shopping is a BIG part of CBB because food is a large part of the budget which people struggle the most with.
If you are someone who would rather buy convenience meals or products consider cooking homemade meals or baking from scratch.
Not only will you save money but you will be proud of what you accomplished and you’ll see that from the smiles on those you feed.
If you don’t already know I have a second Facebook page called The Free Recipe Depot where I share recipes from other Food Bloggers from around the world.
I created this second Facebook page because I love food so much and I wanted to showcase only food 24/7 and this is where I do it. I also share recipes on CBB once a week on Sundays either made by me or my in-house home blog cook Nicola Don!
This week our Top Recipe Pick goes to Sara over at Mom Endeavors who put together A+ School Lunches (Ideas for a month). What a brilliant idea and I hope you enjoy it.
Editor’s Pick
Every week I will pick a blog post of the week from around the web that I found interesting and want to share with you and an Editor’s top blog post pick.
Editor’s pick (That’s me Mr.CBB) this week goes to Vic over at Dad is Cheap with this interesting post “Our Starter Home is Our Forever Home”. I was intrigued right away because we bought this house for one reason he mentions. He doesn’t want to have a mortgage forever and would rather be debt free.
Well Vic, it is possible and we are living that dream right now. We do plan to move in the future BUT we will pay cash to move to a bigger house or relocate where we won’t be paying more. Great read.
Is your starter home your forever home?
How people find CBB
Every week I get thousands of people visit Canadian Budget Binder because they did a search online and found my blog. Keep in mind any spelling errors below are because I share with you the exact way they typed their search engine query to land on my blog.
- Is it true that if a product doesn’t have a price tag on it in the supermarket they have to give it to you free?: Think about what you are asking for a second, please! Could you imagine the chaos! No, but I think what you are referring to is The Scanning Code of Practice. Have a read.
- Reason why food is so expensive: There are many reasons but inflation is one of them. Cost of paying employees, theft, costs of importing and exporting products, manufacturing processes. The list can go on and on. Budget and budget for life!
- If you forgot to pay for something at the grocery store what do you have to do: ( I don’t make this stuff up really this is what people search): Think about the obvious here IF you want to do the right thing if not enjoy your freebie!
- Husband makes $100,000 a year will I receive OSAP?– Um, probably not but you should be able to score a nice bank loan depending on your debt ratio.
Thanks for dropping by and reading!
Don’t forget to subscribe to my daily blog post by entering your email address on the home page and verifying the subscription email once it is sent to you.
-Mr.CBB
Related Articles:
- The Saturday Weekend Review #130: College Student Blows $90,000 College Fund
- The Saturday Weekend Review #131 : 5 Tell-Tale Signs It’s Time To Sell Your House
- The Saturday Weekend Review #132: Mom Dresses Child in Designer Clothes to show Wealth
- The Saturday Weekend Review #133: Property Seller Removes house listing after many frustrations
