Do You DONATE?

The best thing about using coupons is the ability to help others.

For example, I dragged my husband (though not forcefully, thankfully!) to Target and Walgreens earlier this afternoon. While at Target, I asked him a silly question I already knew the answer to. ((If I do not involve him in the couponing he will lose interest and become bored fairly fast.. so letting him believe that he's my human calculator for the day helps keep him focused and he's less likely to keep asking "are you done yet?".)) My question was "How much is 20% off of $10?". It's an easy math problem sure.. but he likes feeling needed. Well, the lady behind me answered at the exact same time my husband did. Man, did that make me feel stupid. :) Target had some RE home stuff on sale (mainly stuff for dorms, etc.). I got talking to this customer who was thinking about picking up sheets for her niece. She commented on my binder and said she wanted to get into couponing but had no idea how to start; no idea where to find coupons. I reassured her that couponing is easy to get into and that she could find coupons all over the place.. like Target.com for example. Before I walked away I made the mental decision to let go of getting the comforter that was on clearance for $9.98 (even though I had a 20% off coupon for it). I also handed her the coupon and told her to get it. That's when her husband walked up and she's like.. "I could get it for my niece.. or for $7.98 I could get this for myself". I was glad I could influence the sale but at the same time I'm glad she saved even more money than just shopping the clearance items. Also, before we checked out at Target we were walking though the make up isle and I saw a lady trying to decide on what cover girl make up to purchase. At this point I still had my binder open and in one of the front pockets I had $1/2 Target coupons for Cover Girl products poking out. I found several of these coupons at the beginning of last week (it's a miracle what you find if you clip your coupons in a timely manner!). I think I handed that customer two coupons. I can't send Target coupons overseas so it's better than throwing them out!

Okay, so the point of this post was to talk about donating. Do you donate to your local shelter, food bank, the USO or other private charity organizations? Back in June, I bought an 18 gallon Sterilite tote which I denoted to my husband and friends as my "donation bucket". I realize that most of it is either feminine care (pads are great to donate because they are always going on sale) or toothpaste. There are other random things in there as well. Like brand-new womens plus size trousers, a Justin Beiber cd, diapers, facial cleansers & lotion. Also, the great debate that my husband epically lost.. there are a couple bottles of vitamins inside. I also have bags of cat litter still in the trunk of my car that we either planned on giving a good friend of ours (she gave a good home to a cat we found last October && the cat just had kittens.) or donating to the same shelter. With all the recent good deals on either toothpaste or feminine care, if you don't use it but have coupons for it.. buy it to donate. You will improve the quality of life of another individual or even a family. I currently have ARV $233 worth of goods inside. I had to take the lid off of it because it's starting to overflow a bit. My family is waiting to do our donation until we have more to donate. One of the good thing about giving back to others is that you can write it off on your taxes... that and it feels good to be a responsible citizen in our community.

Coupons help us to save money but shouldn't we also use them to help others?