Giving Back

Since I started couponing on April 4, 2010, my stockpile has grown like crazy! I have been able to pick up lots of food and personal care items for cheap or in some cases free! So far, I have enough room to store it.

A few weeks ago, our neighborhood had a food drive. They brought paper bags around to each house to fill up. I was super excited to fill the bag with some of my stockpile. Since then, I have acquired more stockpile items to donate.

Couponing is a great way to save money for your family and give back to the community. Anytime I see a free or cheap deal, I grab it. If we don't use it, I keep it to donate.

Giving back Works for Me!

-Robin

Freezer Meals

I was so excited when I heard that our church was looking for cooks to help fill our church freezer with meals. I love cooking and real enjoy making meals in bulk from my Fix, Freeze, and Feast cookbook. The purpose of the church freezer is to store meals so that when a family is in need of a meal, we can provide them one quickly. Mostly, the freezer is used if someone has an illness in the family or a death in the family. I love this idea and am excited to help out with it. I recently made mashed potatoes and pork roasts for the freezer. If we get a call that someone is in need for food, I have labeled my dishes so that someone will be able to take them from the freezer, warm them, and take a hot meal to a family.
Freezer meals are a great idea for any church. Many people are willing to help fill the freezer with premade meals for a help a family in need. Making freezer meals Works for Me.

-Robin

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The objective of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is to spotlight childhood cancer and survivorship issues related to childhood cancer nationally. I would like to take this time to remember and say a prayer for all of the children and families that deal with cancer every day.

Any money donated to help a family in need is a wonderful gift. Let’s remember these special children and their families this month and every month of the year.

-Robin

Serving Others

I am so excited to be participating in Gratituesday this week! There are so many things that I am grateful for. Today, I am thinking about how grateful I am that the Lord opens doors for my family to serve.

We have had many serving opportunities through our church. One of my favorite serving opportunities was when our church went to an underprivileged community and put on a “day of fun” for the children and residents. This was the 3rd year for this event for our church, but the first time that my family was able to participate. Our whole family went to the event including our two toddlers. The little ones were there to make friends and play with all the kids. It was a great opportunity for our kids to learn at an early age to serve others.

The preparation began weeks in advance. The church members were asked to donate stuffed animals and books for the children. Each child at the event received one of each. We brought with us games and inflatable bounce houses. My job was to make snow cones and popcorn. Others served hot dogs and lemonade. Manicures were available for the teenage girls. This year, we had a wonderful turn out. In two hours, we served 400 snow cones and at least that many hotdogs. It was awesome to see the smiling faces of so many children having fun!

I am so grateful for opportunities to serve.

-Robin

Enter our Easy Daysies giveaway here!

Please join us on Thursday for Thrifty Thursday! Link your thrifty ideas here and share with everyone!

Give A Little Extra

A few Sundays ago at church, our minister gave a sermon about giving more than our tithing to help someone else out. He asked everyone to think about what they could give up to help someone. Some of the examples given were: give up a round of golf and give the money to someone else or skip going through the drive thru for a cup of coffee and use that money to buy something for somebody in need. These examples were just to get you thinking about how you can give up one of your own “wants” to help meet the “needs” of others. Of course, these are luxuries that a lot of us take for granted.

A week or two went by and the message stayed on my mind. I don’t play golf and I rarely go through the drive thru for an expensive cup of coffee. I wondered… who would I help? There have been many times in my life that I have had a friend or family member in need, but at this point in my life nobody came to mind. Then, I heard about a little boy that was recently diagnosed with cancer. The family is going through a rough time right now because the father was laid off from work during this economic downturn and the mother had to take a family medical leave of absence to care for her son. As a mother, my heart went out to this mother and her family. After learning their story, my husband and I gave a donation. Honestly, we didn’t give up anything specifically, but we did give extra this month.

I would like to challenge and encourage all mothers to think about other mothers who are going through a particularly difficult time, for whatever reason. Can you give money, a dish of food, or simply your time to go above your normal gift and give a little extra to those in need?


-Robin

Donating to Locks Of Love

A few months ago, my daughter decided that she had tired of her long hair. She had worked for about a year to grow out her bangs and if she made a shoulder-length cut, her bangs would finally blend in. When she mentioned this, I saw an opportunity to teach her more about giving and sacrifice and mentioned the Locks Of Love program. She quickly agreed and even talked a friend into participating with her!

Neither girl was at the 10" donation point when they decided upon the idea. They were going to have to wait several more months, but decided that the time would be worthwhile. As luck would have it, a few months later, we saw a call for local donations for our area children's hospital. Locks Of Love had paired up with Great Clips and they were accepting 8" donations. Both girls were at that point, so we took them in. Great Clips provided a free cut and style for the girls, bagged the hair and gave them a certificate for their donation.

The pride that these two girls wore on their faces that day was worth all of the months of combing tangles and pulling up ponytails. They are very happy that they took the time to take care of their hair and to make the sacrifice to go a bit shorter than they had originally intended so that a local girl could have something that would make her feel proud as well. Because they each had such thick hair, they both donated four braids of almost identical color. Their fantasy now has their hair combined to make another little girl smile.

If you know someone who is looking to donate, please consider Locks Of Love and their fantastic program.

-Julie