Giving Back: Unshopping
Each month this year, I plan to give myself some sort of challenge, to try to improve how I'm doing in that particular area. In January, I did the Clean Out the Cupboards Challenge to use up the excess food in my pantry and spend as little as possible at the stores. Last month, I did the Drugstore Bootstrap Challenge to build up my Extra Care Bucks from CVS and my Register Rewards from Walgreens. In March and April, I'm planning to Give Back...One Coupon at a Time.
This week, I did what Jenny over at Southern Savers calls "unshopping." I went through my stockpile of food bought cheaply - or gotten for free! - with coupons, and gave away anything I didn't need, or that I thought I had too much of.
I was able to donate many cans of soup, and many boxes of pasta, rice mix, and gelatin. I also gave away a 20-lb bag of white rice I had bought when my husband was laid off from his job and I started panicking - what if he didn't get a job for months? What would we eat? (Due to lots of job hunting prior to the layoff, and a little luck, he landed another job within a month of the layoff - so the panic turned out to be unnecessary.) I donated these items to my synagogue, which is holding a food drive right now.
By the way, you've probably seen the gigantic stockpiles on "Extreme Couponing." Tomorrow, I'll share my not-so-extreme couponing stockpile, along with some tips on building a stockpile without letting it take over your house and your life.
How have you helped others with coupons or other frugal practices recently? Leave a comment below!
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2 comments:
Looking forward to seeing your stockpile! I'm totally with you on the concept of "unshopping". The last couple of weeks, I've really not been feeling up to going to the store but I go anyway, so that I can share my weekly saving.
This week, I'll be joining with the ladies in my church to make a donation to a women's shelter. We're each supposed to be donating a purse filled with some girly make up stuff. I have a full box of nail polish, tons of make up, shampoo and other personal care items just accumulated over time from drugstore shopping. I hope we'll be able to bless the ladies at the shelter with this and I'm really excited for the opportunity. I love being able to give the stuff I've bought for pennies on the dollar knowing that it will be very useful to someone else.
@Debi - I'll tell you now, it's not all that much! Not compared to the "Extreme Couponers," anyway. I also occasionally feel like I should shop just so I can cover the deals in the blog. Maybe we need Frugal Bloggers Anonymous?
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