2022 Frugal Living Challenge

London_1

Popped to the local church coffee and cake do yesterday after lunch and for a donation to their current charity came away with a box of different cakes which I will take to my youngest DDs today for the boys to scoff. My donation came from my 'coffee' fund account which is one that I transfer odd amounts to at various times during the month when rounding up amounts. I usually have around £15-20 in there which will pay for the odd coffee or CS mooch around, or as yesterday a box of cakes for my DGS who seem to have hollow legs when it comes to cake.

Saved me baking yesterday afternoon at least and only cost me a few pounds which yesterday's charity went towards the voluntary blood deliverly guys who are on call 7.p.m.-7.00a.m. overnight seven days a week, and whizz up to London from Kent to pick up supplies for Kent hospitals and hospices. They are all volunteers and the service is vital for many hospitals ,especially when the bloods are of rarer blood groups. The church usually have around four of these coffee and cake do's a year for the tiny charities that rely on the public for donations just to keep afloat. So I'm always happy to help with a donation 

I know the boys will enjoy their cake this afternoon 

JackieO xx

Primrose

JackiO.  You are right about the very small charities really needing more support.  The bigger ones seem to have more of their own momentum.  We support a small village charity which does good work but all the fund raising has to be locally so supporters like you are particularly valued. 

cw18

When every I shop from Amaz0n I go into the site by starting it as 'smile.amaz0n'.   By doing so a very small amount of what I spend (0.5%) gets donated to whichever charity I've nominated - and the greyhond rescue centre I volunteer at as a dog walker (when I'm not at work) have signed up to it, so I now have them as my charity of choice.

When my Mum needed a new fridge/freezer a few months back (ended up as a fridge and a freezer due to footprint and height limitatons where the old appliance had been), the quickest - and cheapest - way of getting what she needed was via Amaz0n.   Just before I hit 'confirm order' I realised the order wasn't being placed through the 'smile' version of the site - so I backed it out, signed her up for the 'smile', nominated my greyhounds, and then placed the order.   No real effort required from us, and £17.30 donated at no extra charge to my Mum

When I first started using it I nominated RBL, and my OH currently has RSPCA on his.

florianatwobob

Smile Amaz0n now works in their app too. I have our local hospice nominated. I try and avoid using Amaz0n but if I have to then I can salve my conscience a little bit. 

chanie

I use easyfundraising for online purchases and money goes to my childrens school.

Primrose

It's great you folks are using these online fundraising methods.  It's surprising how all these small amounts  add up. With the ever rising cost of gas, electricity and ingredients I suspect a lot of volunteer fund raising cake and pastry makers  will have to be cutting back on their efforts.

Debsnewbudget

I am a trustee and treasurer of a small charity for people with Parkinsons and we regularly receive around £150 every quarter from Smile and its very much appreciated.

linz

I use Amazon Smile too on the occasions I shop on there, my charity is my local RSPCA branch. I'll be ditching Amazon tho when my subscription is up for renewal next month and have set up a monthly DD to them instead.

I would imagine charity shops are seeing more people coming in and more money in their tills these days. I've certainly started shopping in them more over the last year or so. I started to try and get away from fast fashion and would much rather go for a mooch round the charity shops when i'm in town than high street clothes shops.

cw18

I so rarely shop for clothes (other than fitness gear that I spend too much on - even though I get a lot in sales, or second hand through a Faceb00k group specific to the make I like) that I don't often browse clothing in charity stores anymore.    But I used to visit them regularly when I had kids and/or an office job, and picked up some fantastic bargains over the years.

When I'm off work and in the vicinity of 1 (or 6!) I'll pop in to check out what offerings they have in the way of DVDs, BluRays and CDs.     I even filled a cupboard at the property we visit several times a year with box games which were almost all from charity shops (to get the Monop0ly set a member of staff and myself set about assembling one complete set from two that were incomplete and would otherwise have been binned).   The property is only used by friends and family of the owner, and when I was a child there was a good selection there - but over the years it had dwindled to 1 very easy jigsaw, 2 or 3 jigsaws for adults, Scr@bble and M@stermind.   We can no longer get everything into the cupboard unless we treat is as a puzzle game in its' own right

gill5blue

Hi All,
I have reintroduced stricter frugal living at home.
I am mortgage neutral but have withdrawn savings to pay off mortgage completely--final date is 1st October 2022. I will be better off in the end.

Having reintroduced frugal living I have realised how lapse I had become, so I am trying to rethink as if I am on holiday in a tent ie don't waste water, gas or electricity.

I am also ploughing my way through Martin Lewis budget planner.
gill5blue