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

August 31, 2020 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

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

A Two-Step Approach for Preparing Kids for a Giving Holiday

Earning Swagbucks and Saving with Coupons

4 Ways to Make Money for Christmas Presents This Year

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: budget, Giving Tagged With: Giving, tithing, volunteering

4 Ways to Make Money for Christmas Presents this Year

December 18, 2016 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

You may have started with the best intentions.  You didn’t want to go in debt to pay for Christmas presents, so this year you resolved it would be different.  This year you’d set aside money every month, so when November came, you’d be able to buy Christmas presents with cash on hand.

But then, you’re car broke down and the repair was more expensive than you thought, so you had to dip into your Christmas savings.

It happens.  Sometimes Christmas is only weeks away, and you don’t have money to pay for the presents.

Don’t worry.  There are still ways you can make money to buy presents for Christmas.

Consignment Shops

4 ways to make money for christmas this year
Make Money for Christmas Presents

Do your kids have clothes they’ve outgrown?  Do you or your spouse have clothes in the closet that you don’t wear anymore?  Why not take them to a consignment shop?  When the shop sells your clothes, they’ll give you a portion of the sales price.  Or, they may just offer you a flat fee upfront.  Either way, it’s money in your pocket for items you weren’t using anyway.

Pantry Challenge

Take a minute to go look in your freezer, refrigerator, and cupboard.  Chances are you have a lot of food there, probably more food than your family will eat in a week.  Why not have a pantry challenge?

There are several ways you can do this.  One idea is to just take a week off completely from grocery shopping and just eat up what you have in the house.  If you normally spend $150 a week for groceries, that’s $150 you now have for Christmas gifts.

Another idea is to do a pantry challenge for a month.  That doesn’t mean that you don’t buy any groceries for a month.  Instead, it means that if you normally spend $600 a month for groceries, try to mostly eat up what you have in the house.  Give yourself an allowance, say $200 for the month to buy perishable essentials like fruit, veggies, milk, etc.  At the end of the month, you’ve saved $400, which you can use for Christmas presents.

Credit Card Rewards

If your credit card offers cash back rewards, start saving that money now.  You won’t make a lot this way, but you can use that money to help supplement your Christmas fund.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is an online search engine.  You use it just like other search engines, but you’re sometimes rewarded with Swagbucks.  Earn 2,200 Swagbucks, and you can get a $25 Amazon gift card.  With diligent effort, using Swagbucks every day and doing other activities as well as meeting your Swagbucks daily goal, you should be able to earn enough points for the $25 Amazon gift card in a month.

If you need money for holiday presents, a pantry challenge will give you the most reward for your effort.  However, the other three strategies will help you make additional money.  By combining all four strategies, you may have enough money to purchase your gifts in cash.  Take some effort now, and you won’t have to go in debt this holiday season.

What other strategies do you use to raise money for Christmas presents?

 

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: budget, Giving, ShareMe Tagged With: budget, christmas, frugal, Giving

How I Plan to Have a Low-Cost Christmas

November 29, 2016 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Every year, more Christmas expenses seem to crop up than I have budgeted for.  Typically, our budget can handle the extra strain, but this year is different.  This year, our central air conditioner unit needed to be replaced, and we’re on a mission to pay off the loan as soon as possible.  That means this Christmas I have to be smarter with my spending, and I have to spend less than I usually do.

I have a plan to reduce my Christmas expenses without skimping on my kids’ gifts, but to be successful, I have already started my holiday shopping even though Christmas is months away.  Here’s my plan:

low-cost Christmas
Plan a low-cost Christmas

Take advantage of coupons.  I am on several e-mail lists for different stores.  This weekend, Michael’s sent out a coupon for 70% off one regular price item.  I will be going to Michael’s and using this coupon to purchase a Christmas gift that I’ll tuck away.  Any time from now until Christmas that I see high value coupons, I’ll take advantage of them to buy a Christmas present at a fraction of the cost.

I’m making some gifts.  Last year, when fleece was on clearance after Christmas, I bought some to make blankets for each of my kids.  I have made one blanket, and I’ll be making two more in the next few weeks.  These will be one of their presents.  I also plan to make some doll accessories for my daughters with fabric I already have in the closet.

I’m saving credit card rewards.  Starting in August, I let my credit card rewards accrue.  Right now, I have enough for $50 cash.  By the end of next month, I will have enough for $100 cash.  By Christmas, I hope to have $150 cash.  I’ll save that money and use it in December, especially close to Christmas when retailers discount products that they’d like to sell for the holiday.

Entering giveaways.  When I have time, I’m entering giveaways for prizes my kids would like for Christmas.  I’m not really banking on this strategy, but if I do win, that helps me round out my Christmas stash.  Last year I won a game for one of my children, and a craft set for another.

Using Swagbucks.  If you are a member of Swagbucks and you sign up for all of the different programs and offers, you can accumulate Swagbucks quickly.  However, I just use Swagbucks for Internet searches and answering the daily poll and getting secret codes, so I earn a bit more slowly.  Still, I expect to have enough Swagbucks to redeem for $50 in Amazon gift cards by Christmas.

If you plan to use this strategy, you’ll need to strategize because you can only get one gift card per month.  You’ll have to plan ahead and cash out month-by-month so you’ll be able to access your points.

What strategies do you use to save money on holiday gifts?  Do you also start buying Christmas presents in the fall to save money?

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: Frugality, Saving, ShareMe Tagged With: christmas, gift giving, Giving, holidays

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