How to Make Your Donation Money Go Further ~ Sharing thru Saving

One of the big reasons we try to earn and save extra money is so we can share with others.  Over the years we have found that by shopping weekly sales with coupons and cash back opportunities we have not only saved on our own household budget, but we have been able to stretch our donation dollars.

We have donated to many different places including:

• Orphanages -- here and abroad
• Homeless Shelters
• Battered Women Shelter
• Local charity that helps with addictions and job training
• School Supply Drives
• Children in Foster Care Collections
• Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes
• Community Food Banks
• Pregnancy Resource Centers
• Homeless Children Overseas
• Armed Forces Members

Some of the items we have donated:

• Food
• Over the Counter Medicines
• Toys
• School Supplies
• Cleaning Supplies
• Beauty items
• Health items
• Clothing

We often do donate monetarily, but if we can, we donate purchased items because we can give so much more.  Several years ago I shared for a couple of months on our other blog, Simply CVS, a $5.00 weekly Charity Challenge to show others how we stretched a $5.00 donation at CVS to buy much, much more than the Charity could if we had given the $5.00 cash as a donation.  Below are a couple examples and you can see all of our shopping trips by clicking the image above.

Click to see full post.

Click to see full post.

Obviously CVS is an expensive place to shop, but even discount or dollar stores would cost more than we paid by using the CVS deals combined with coupons.

We also shop deals year round to fill shoeboxes for kids in need around the world.  We donate them thru Operation Christmas Child.  We report each week on our other blog, Simply Shoeboxes, our shopping for the week in our Shoebox Stockpile Saturday posts.  Below is a recent example.

Part of one week's deal shopping post.

To get started Sharing thru Saving:

• Find local charities and ask them for a list of items that can be donated.
• Set a spending limit.
• Monthly limits are best as you may find a great deal the first week of the month and can spend it all.
• If you don't have extra in your budget, you may want to start by saving up all of your loose change until you have enough to get started.  Any small amount can help another in their crisis situation.  
• Look over the sale ads from stores you normally shop at.  
• Match those with weekly coupon insert coupons or check the four major printable coupon sites to see if there are any current coupons.
• Check coupons for items sold at Dollar Tree -- you can often get free or nearly free items.
• Keep an eye out on clearance at all the stores you shop at.

We try to collect for a month to six weeks and take in all the donations at once.  Most charity donations are tax deductible, too, if you itemize.  So ask if they have receipts--the more you save on the taxes, the more you will have to give.

We can't help all, but we can help someone.

Click this link to check out the complete Simply Give Series at Simply Earn and Save.