Giving With Coupons

I coupon as much as I can to help supplement our income and make up for a portion of what I am no longer bringing home.  We have also extended this to our giving.

Sharing the Coupons with Family and Friends:   We have several older family members, as well as a few disabled ones that are on a fixed income.  My older family members find it difficult to use a computer, making it difficult to experience the full benefits of coupons.  When I am couponing for my family, I keep an eye out for anything that I know they will use.  If I am not sure I call and ask.  Anything I find I clip and mail out.  We do not limit our couponing to helping those on a fixed income.  We use it to help any family member or friend that is open to coupons.  Right now this one of the big ways that we are able to give back to those that have invested so much in us.

Using Coupons to Buy Things for Those in Need: Each year we try to have our children pick out a toy for Toys for Tots that is for a child around their age.  By using coupons we are able to stretch that money even further and either get something a little nicer or get a little more.  We also try to use coupons when buying gifts for others to get them nicer things or make the gift a little larger.

Sending Expired Coupons to Families Overseas:  We first heard about this idea on Extreme Couponers.  However, the show made it sound like the coupons could go to any military family.  Because we have a family member in the military we found out otherwise.  Through Pinterest we found this great website http://www.coupsfortroops.com/ that gives the addresses where you can mail the expired coupons.  They then send them to the families overseas.
How do you use coupons to give??  

Check out our Pinterest Board Giving on a Budget.  Do you have any great pins that encourage giving on creatively or on a budget?  Share them with us.

Next week we will talk about Giving with Donations.

Missed the Beginning of the Series?  Find it Here:
3 Ways We Were Throwing Away Giving Opportunities
Giving on a Limited Budget

3 Ways We Were Throwing Away Giving Opportunities

When I was trying to figure out ways to increase our giving, I started by looking in our home.  I was kind of surprised to find that we were actually throwing away ways to give.  These 3 ways were all found right in my kitchen!









Box Tops

While these little squares found on many groceries aren't much, each little bit makes a difference.  It isn't about how much you have to give, but making the most of what you have.  There are so many schools out there that collect these.  We chose to donate ours to a school that made a huge difference in my life.  Head Start had told my family I needed counseling because I didn't like all the fighting that went on around me.  My grandmother heard about this school and they provided me with scholarships, so she pulled me out of Head Start.  This particular school brought back my smile and gave me such a passion for learning that I decided I wanted to be a teacher.  Their website also offers coupons and other promotions.  Visit their website at

                                                Campbells Soup Labels


Similar to box tops, but in our experience not as many schools collect these.  There are still plenty out there that do.  We send these to the same school as our box tops. I am fairly new to this website so I can't give you the details of all it has to offer.  Find out for yourself at http://lfestage.familytime.com/

Feeding America
Many boxes and canned goods have coeds on them where various websites will donate so many meals to local food banks.  These usually include a place to enter your zipcode to have the meals donated to the food bank in your area.  (I apologize for not having a picture of this one.  We apparently used up everything that had a code on it before I could get a picture.) 

Giving on a Limited Budget

One of the first basic principles in Your Money Map is increasing your giving.  As the holidays approach, I thought it would be a good idea to take a break from how we've pinched our pennies to do a series on how we give on a limited budget.
Giving means a lot to the Colonel and I.  We have been blessed with a lot through the giving of others and we think that it's important to us to pass that on.  It is also extremely important that our children grow up knowing how to give from the heart.  When we read the chapter on giving it was discouraging.  Trying to decrease our debt and take care of our children leaves very, very little for giving.  Then there is the issue of where to give.  There are so many places and ways to give.  With the economy the way it is there are even more in need.  Here is a little diagram of our giving philosophy:

 

We start with our family members, doing for them what we can.  Especially those that are disabled or on a fixed income.  Next we try to give back to the people and organizations that have significantly blessed or positively changed our lives in some way.  Next is giving to the needy in our own state, then our own country and finally to the other countries of the world.  Everyone's heart is pulled in a different direction when it comes to giving and it is important to give in the direction your heart leads.  

Finally, came the dilemma of how to give.  Fortunately I love a challenge.  I prayed, kept my eyes and heart open, and walked through the doors as they opened.  Shortly after we would walk through one door, another would open.  We would go through that one and another would open and so on and so forth.  Through all of this we have learned that where there is a will , there is a way.  If your heart is truly in it for the right reason - to bless someone else and meet their need, not to draw attention to yourself or get any kind of personal gain.  On that note giving for the right reason we have found that giving does leave a real sense of joy in our hearts.  We have also found that if you are willing to chance it and take that first step, then giving on a budget is actually quite easy.

In our next post we will talk about 3 ways to give we were actually throwing away.