Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

How Can You Tithe When You Can’t Pay the Bills?

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Most Christians believe that you should tithe, specifically 10% of your income.  While this can be a sacrifice, many Christians are devout in doing this.  But does this rule also apply when you have no money?  Tithing when broke is possible, but you may need to be creative in how you do it.

Tithing When Broke

Start Small

If you’re determined to tithe, start small.  Give what you can.  For years, my husband and I lived in the suburbs of Chicago and made less than $40,000 a year.  We always gave to our church, but we definitely didn’t give 10%.  Now that our income has improved and we’ve moved to a place with a lower cost of living, we have increased how much we give.

There’s nothing wrong with giving what you can and increasing that amount little by little as your financial situation improves.

Tithe Your Sacrifice

We all have areas of our budget where we spend unnecessarily.  Maybe you spend money on a case of beer every month or a Netflix subscription.  Tithing when broke may be in part just a matter of finding those little extravagances in your budget and cut them.  The money from those items becomes money that you tithe.

Find Free Ways to Give Money

There are also free ways you can donate money such as signing up for Amazon Smile.  If you shop through AmazonSmile, .05% of your purchase total goes to the charity of your choosing.  (There are over 1 million charities to choose from!)  I found our church there and signed up.

Likewise, some grocery loyalty cards also have a charitable component.  I signed up for our church through my grocery store’s loyalty card, so a part of every purchase is tithed to my church.

There are other ways you can give for free.  For instance, I signed up for Swagbucks.  I use it sparingly, so I only earn one or two $25 gift cards, but I use those in December to donate a toy to a needy child.  Every year, our church puts up a Christmas tree with gift requests from needy kids.  I always take one and buy something using the free gift cards I’ve earned.

Volunteer

Tithing when Broke
Photo by Anna Earl on Unsplash

If you don’t have any money to give to the church or you can’t give as much as you would like, consider volunteering instead.  There are so many opportunities to volunteer within the church such as serving as an usher or singing in the choir.  The office may need help or you may have specific training such as accounting that you can use when volunteering with the church.

There are also other ways to tithe such as volunteering your time in the community working on houses for Habitat for Humanity or working in a soup kitchen.

Final Thoughts

Tithing is an important part of being a Christian.  However, you may not financially be able to give as much as you would like.  Luckily, there are many others ways to give.  Tithing when broke may require you to give of your time instead or find organizations that give a part of your purchase price to your favorite charity.

Read More

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Earning Swagbucks and Saving with Coupons

4 Ways to Make Money for Christmas Presents This Year

9 Common Items for Guilt Free Regifting

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Inevitably it happens.  You open a gift from a well-meaning relative or coworker, only to discover it’s a gift card for a store you never frequent.  Or it’s the third scarf you’ve gotten this season.  Or it’s a pricey bottle of bourbon, and you don’t drink.  Rather than be disappointed by the gifts that you receive, consider regifting them and saving yourself money.  There are 9 common items for guilt free regifting that you should consider happily passing along to someone on your to-buy gift list.

9 Common Items for Guilt-Free Regifting

Gift Cards

Sure, you could sell the gift card, but an easier solution is to regift it.  If you never shop at a certain department store but you know that your mother-in-law does, why not regift the gift card to her?

Before regifting, make sure the card hasn’t been used, that you know its exact value, and that your own name isn’t written on it.

Homemade Desserts

9 Common Items for Guilt Free Regifting
Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash

‘Tis the season to receive homemade desserts, again, and again.  You received peanut brittle and you hate peanuts?  Simply take the brittle and create your own homemade goodie plate to give to someone else.

Gourmet Food

Gift baskets with gourmet food abound during the holiday season.  These make excellent gifts, especially if you regift a meat and cheese basket to a man you know is on the Keto diet or a chocolate basket to your chocoholic office mate.

Personal Care Sets

You can easily regift personal care sets such as body lotions and lip glosses to any woman in your life, especially if you don’t know them well.  The same goes for men’s gift sets such as cologne or hair gel.

Soap

Most people don’t buy or make fancy soaps for themselves, so these make a perfect gift for the person in your life who loves personal care items with a flair.  This is also a great regift for those on your list that you don’t know well such as your child’s teacher.

Alcohol

Of all the regifts, this is likely one of the best ones to give.  Plenty of people would appreciate receiving a bottle of alcohol, especially high-quality alcohol, for a gift.

Books

As long as you haven’t read it and the book still looks brand new, consider regifting it to your favorite bibliophile.

Pen Sets

A fancy pen set is on my list of the most boring gifts ever, but some people really like having a fancy pen that writes smoothly.  Consider regifting this to the academic or business person in your life.

New Clothing

If you receive gloves, scarves, hats, etc., these make the perfect gifts to regift because they’re fairly generic.  Just make sure the price tag is still on and the item is in pristine condition.

Regifting, when done well, i.e. carefully considering if the other person would actually like the regift rather than just giving it to her because you have to give her a gift, can offer several benefits.  First, you get rid of a gift you don’t want or need.  Second, you save money by not buying an additional gift.  Third, you help the environment by consuming a bit less because you’re passing on your unwanted gift rather than buying a new one.

The holiday season is the time when most people regift.  However, don’t forget, you can also regift for birthdays and housewarming parties.  Perhaps save one bottle of alcohol as a gift when you’re invited to a dinner party.

How to Turn Unwanted Christmas Gifts into Cash

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The stress has come and gone and Christmas is over. As you go through your gifts you might see some that aren’t your style, don’t fit, are duplicates of something you already have or something you just don’t need. You don’t need to have them sitting around your house collecting dust in the back of your closet. Christmas is also a financially difficult time of year, and you might need to get some cash in your hand along with another type of assistance such as a car title loan to use toward your debt. Consider turning your unwanted Christmas gifts into cash and use it for something that you really want or need through one of these five ways.

Return them to the Store

One of the most common things to do is to return the item you received back to the store where it was purchased. It helps to have a receipt when returning something to avoid receiving a lower price than what was paid or being limited to store credit for the amount of the return. Stores tend to have more lax return policies around the Christmas holiday and take items back for longer time periods than usual. Don’t take too long to return the item or you might get stuck with it if you end up trying to return the item after the specified time frame. If you do end up with a gift card and don’t anticipate using it, read on to see how you can turn them into quick cash.

Trade Them

Trade your gift online through one of the many trading websites and services available. Sites such as Cardpool, allow you to trade or sell gift cards to others. Trade your gift card for one to a business that you’ll patronize, or sell it for cash. Depending on where your original gift card is for, you can typically get back up to 90 percent of its value. You get rid of the gift card and the recipient gets a small discount on their purchase. It’s a win-win for everyone. PaperBackSwap is a book lover’s dream. You list your unwanted books and earn credits to get books others are looking to get rid of. Gamers benefit from Game Trading Zone to swap games and accessories with others interested in gaming.

Sell Them

It makes sense that selling your items can give you cash quickly, but it helps to understand where your item will sell quickest and give you the most money. Don’t expect to get the full value of the item, because buyers want to find a good deal, but you can still get some cash from the item. Craigslist is a quick way to sell items without needing to pay listing fees or worry about shipping costs. Always meet people you meet from Craigslist in a public location for safety reasons. Other sites, such as Poshmark, allow you to list accessories and clothing that you don’t want. You’ll appeal to a large pool of buyers looking for your items, but keep in mind that you’ll be required to pay small fees in exchange for listing your product on their website.

eBay is another site with millions of users. You can sell pretty much anything and everything on eBay, but keep in mind you have to pay a listing fee along with a seller’s fee, which is a percentage of the sale price of your item. OfferUp is an app only service that allows people to buy and sell items to individuals in their local area. It requires parties to meet in person to exchange items, which saves on shipping costs but stay safe by always meeting up in a public location.

Give them as a Gift

Indirectly get cash by saving the item and giving it to a friend, family member or coworker who you feel would benefit from it. Clothing you got might be too small or large for you but would probably fit someone you know perfectly. Keep in mind who gave you the gift so you don’t embarrass yourself by trying to give it back to them or someone you mutually know.

There’s no reason to leave unwanted Christmas gifts lying around when you can turn them into cash while helping someone else get something they want at the same time.