Give it Away, Give it Away, Give it Away Now

Making Room In Your Life, So That You Can Have One

Tithing isn't the only way to give stuff away. When you have come to that point where you can say enough, then there are many ways to get rid of stuff. If you need tips on how to declutter your house, check out Flylady.net.
Here are some great outlets for your unloved, or unused goodies:

1. Return It! If it is still new, take it back to the store. Some stores are even relaxing their return policy so that you can return things without a receipt. And store credit to buy something you really want is better than hanging onto something you don't.

2. Regift it. It's really not that ugly of a word. If you know someone who really would like it, then it is not tacky. It seems silly to spend $20 at a store, when the perfect gift is in your declutter pile.

3. Sell it on EBay. This takes more time, and you have to decide if it is worth it. Items have to be in good working condition, and valued at more than a couple dollars. You could end up spending more time and money on fees and maintenance than the item is actually worth. But they have just relaxed their selling costs, so it may be worth a try.

4. Check out Etsy.com This is for antique or handmade items only. Supplies to hand make items also qualify. But listings last longer so the value for your time may be increased.

5. List it on Craigslist This is especially good for large, hard to ship items. It is similar to an online want ad.

6. Consignment Stores A great outlet for kids toys and clothes. Many times they will give you cash on the spot for items that you bring in.

7. Freecycle.org If you just want to get rid of the stuff, people will come to your house and pick it up. The catch is it has to be free, and it is strange people coming to your house, and you have to choose one person out of the many emails to deem worthy of your junk.

8. Goodwill, Salvation Army, NuWay, Etc. Feel good about helping others out with your donated items. You can also claim fair market value on your taxes.

9. Trade your items on Zwaggle or Swaptree Get points for things you give away and then use the points to acquire other items form the site. The big catch is that you have to wait for someone to want your stuff before you can get rid of it.

10. Give it to your extended family There's a good chance that's where most of it came from in the first place

11. Contact your local shelters Women's shelters are often looking for household items or women's clothes. Animal shelters use blankets and towels.

12. Have a yard sale This is usually only worth it if you have a lot of stuff, or you really need the money. trying getting together with friends or neighbors to share the work.

13. Curb it We have had success just putting things out on the curb with a free sign. We have also sold things (cars, table saws, dressers, tomatoes) by placing them in our driveway with a for sale sign. Just be prepared for someone to take it without paying, if you aren't there.

14. Throw it away If it is truly trash, don't try to pawn it off on someone else. recycle what you can, and send the rest on its way!

Spend time each day getting a little bit more room in your house. You will be surprised how much stuff you won't miss. The catch with many of these places: thrift stores, consignment shops, eBay, etc. YOU CAN"T BUY MORE STUFF! Cause other wise, you just have more stuff.

I am hoping my kids see that we don't need to just collect and collect things. I want them to learn that with money, and with things, we are a generous family that can give out of the richness of our hearts.

Do you have other outlets for passing stuff on, leave me a comment. Thank you to Jen for compiling this list.

Feeling Rich #10 Giving Tithe

Technically speaking, tithing is giving 10 percent of earnings.

Whether you believe you were created, or think that you out smarted your past monkey relatives, it is impossible to believe that you could have done it on your own.

Tithing demonstrates an acceptance of life. By only using 90% of what you earn, your are signaling that you are happy with what you have, and therefore do not need to scrounge for every last penny.

Tithing Creates a feeling of thankfulness Giving away a regular percent of your income, makes you appreciate the things that you already have.

Tithing Makes You Generous If you can give away money that you have earned, how much more freely could you give away things that are extra in your life.

Tithing opens Awareness When you are purposefully giving 10% of your income, you are more likely to be mindful of the other 90% of your paycheck.

Tithing makes you Rich If you are willing to voluntarily give up 10% of your income, you have moved from living hand to mouth, to living wealthy. Regardless of what you earn.

Tithing Makes you Feel Better People who give have a more positive outlook in life. A positive outlook will encourage smiling, which is good for your health.

These are all things that I want my kids to learn about money, what about you?

Things I love Thursday - Feeling Rich

Notice I said feeling rich, which is a lot different than being rich. Better. Much better.

We just returned from a picnic in the park. This has become our Thursday routine - meeting Daddy for lunch at a park. Even though we have lunch with him at home nearly every day, eating lunch out just makes it more special some how. Plus, Daddy loves an excuse to ride his motorcycle.

Besides loving my family, I also reflected on how rich I feel. So for this things I love Thursday, I want to share with you my top ten.

Top Ten Ways I can feel Rich without Actually Being Rich

1. We actually have a budget that we can live within
2. We live debt free
3. We have extremely generous families
4. We live in a small house in a small town that is paid for
5. We have the best neighbors ever
6. We are easy to entertain. Is it no wonder that many classic American games were invented during the Great Depression?
7. We have cheap friends.
8. We buy museum passes. And we go all the time (did I mention we were easy to entertain?)
9. We only need one car. The only out of home wage earner walks to work ( I mentioned small town already didn't I?)
10. We give Tithe. Something about giving away stuff that makes you feel like you have more than you need.

What does this teach my kids about money?
Being rich is a state of mind. They are so busy doing fun things, that they do not have the time to stop and wish for more. These kids would feel poor, if they thought that they were missing out, but since we feel rich, they feel rich. So I want my kids to learn that you don't need money to feel rich.

What makes you feel rich?

For more Things I Love Thursday fun, hop over to thediaperdiaries.net.

Book of the Week - If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

This book is a follow up to yesterday's port Rich People will Always have cooler Stuff.









If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff






Quick Synopsis



A little boy offers a cookie to a mouse which starts a cause and effect adventure all through the house. The mouse asks for one thing after another until finally coming full circle back to the cookie



How to Teach Money to Kids with this Book



Some people like this little mouse will never be satisfied. If you get them one thing, they are going to want something else to go with it. I thought this was a great book to start the discussion about why sometimes I say no to different purchases. I used the example of Mega Blocks. My son received a Mega block dump truck for his birthday, but I took it back to the store. He didn't really notice, but my daughter did, and she wanted to know why, especially since it was free, why didn't we just keep it.

Well, if we keep the dump truck, you are going to want to have the blocks that go with it, and if we get the blocks, then you are going to want the castle set that goes with the blocks. So it makes since to just not get the dump truck in the first place.

If we take the dump truck back, they will give us money back, and we can use the money to buy something that is already on our list. Plus, if we start getting mega blocks, then we would run out of room for the toys that we have, and we would have to get rid of some of those toys.



I think seeing the cause and effect that this book emphasized was a great lesson in the what ifs of accumulating more that you need


While looking for more information, I stumbled on this site that has a whole evening of activities planned around this book. Your family could have a great time playing games together




http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/if_you_give_a_mouse_a_cookie.html



Do you have other ideas for how this book could be used to teach money to kids?

Check out more ideas at WFMW at We are That Family.

Rich People Will Always Have Cooler Stuff

Its the whole point of Being Rich!

This is why socialism or communism will never work. There will always be someone out there who is willing to work harder, longer or smarter, so that they can have the cool stuff. I don't care if you are trading in Dollars, Yen, or sea shells. Someone is going to be luckier and find more food, or be more desperate and cut a better deal.

Imagine the good ol' days. You know, when everyone lived in caves. That is where it all started. We were all equal then. No trust funds, no stock options passed down from daddy. It was Hunt and Gather, each man for himself.But you know how it goes: one cave man gets bigger than the others, another develops a taste for moose instead of rabbit, and another can run faster than anyone.

This develops into needs, and skills that may determine the future of our earth.The bigger caveman requires more food, so he looks to the man who is faster and they make a trade. The man who likes moose, may be able to catch rabbit, but he needs help to catch a moose. The faster caveman can get whatever he wants, because he can trade for it. But one of these cavemen is going to start having cooler stuff. He might start trading for pretty rocks instead of food. He is going to have a bigger collection of animal skins to wear.

And that is how capitalism works.We work for what we get because we get what we work for. But this is also why national health care, public schools, social security and every other government program is not going to work. Because even though the other guy may be richer, everyone else still wants the cool stuff.

And there will always be cooler stuff. You have seen the gold leaf bathrooms, the pimped out jets, and the personal islands. Are these "needs"? It is a statement. I can have it and you can't.

But then someone invented government. And together they came up with a Mission Statement: That's Not Fair! If you ever hear anyone making this statement run, run far far away.

Of course its not fair. It will never be fair.Was it fair that one caveman could run faster, or another was bigger? No, or Yes.Public Schools are great, but they don't score as high as private schools, so we need to make our schools better. We have social security, but when it is time to retire, are we going to be able to buy the condo in Florida on the golf course? We have health care, and we even have access to amazing advances in technology. But there are new and even more expensive treatments, and we want those, too.

We all want the Cool Stuff.Unfortunately, if everyone had it, it wouldn't be cool anymore. Owning a car used to be only for the rich, but now anyone can have one and expects to have one.It almost makes you dream of the glory days, when we were all living in caves. but then you might want my cave because it is closer to the creek. Or I might want your cave because it has more space. So we could trade. I will give you my cave if you give me yours, but I also want those extra furs to go with it...

Party Like It's 1999

This weekend is our 10th Wedding Anniversary.

We took a special trip earlier this spring to celebrate (when my folks could watch the kids), but at the last minute we decided to have a party.

We sent out some evites to our friends, and gave invites to our neighbors and started planing.

We were able to do a simple dessert buffet for less than $50. and we have quite a bit of left overs. The hardest part was getting our house ready, or I guess I should say, keeping our house ready. We just called it an open house, and literally opened our house up, to let the cooler evening air in, and let people wander through our house.

This summer also marks 10 years that we have lived in this house, so it was fun to give ours and tell about all of the changes that we have done over the years.

We felt blessed the whole evening. It was fun what a great mix of people came. We had three people who were actually in our wedding come by, plus some that my husband had known in grade school. There were friends that we see all the time, because our kids play together, and friend that we rarely see, and even some neighbors that we met for the first time.

There is a book out there Your Money or Your Life. The first couple chapters encourages you to take inventory of all you have. Their intention was for you to see how much you have worked, and what you have gained in the process. This celebration helped us do that, and take it even further:

We have a great house that is paid for, with a awesome front porch

We live in a great neighborhood with neighbors that we actually like and trust

We have 3 kids and one dog

We have 1 mini van, a motorcycle, and a lawn mower

4 bikes, a bike trailer, and two tricycles

A nice yard, a fence, a sand box, play house, swing, garden and flowers, a paved driveway

A refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, toaster, mixer, washing machine and dryer

We even have two computers, a keyboard and a projector, plus a stereo and all the goodies that go with it.

We have couches and beds and dressers and a great table and chairs.

And that is just the big stuff. We have so much other little stuff that I could go on and on.

Some of the stuff was gifts, and some of it we bought. But all of it is so much more than so many other people have. Compared to families living in the '70's we would be considered upper class to be able to afford so many luxuries. But our society has changed its thinking and now we are near the bottom.

So this is what we want to be teaching our kids about money: We have so many things for which to be thankful, we likely have way more than we need. And I haven't even mentioned the most important part. We have a collection of great friends. These are friends that we couldn't replace, that have been with us during the different parts of our lives: new jobs, newlyweds, church, neighbors, they are all special. And it doesn't matter how much money we make.

Cheesy Money Joke

Okay, here's a classic

Where did the penguin put her money?

In the snow BANK...

This could be a great way to kick off a silly conversation about money:
1. How would a penguin make money?
2. What do you think a penguin would buy?
3. Do you think Penguins ever retire?