Helping The Needy at Christmas — At No Cost

It’s time to think about helping those less fortunate. Bad economy or good, there are plenty of ways to do so online and offline that are extremely painless. Here are several examples.

THE HUNGER SITE. This is one habit that could become a year-round activity. Go to the Hunger Site at http://www.thehungersite.com click on the “Click Here to Give! It’s Free!” button and you send food to the poor around the world, courtesy of the sponsors. The page it goes to will also offer you some unusual gift items from around the world worth the visit alone. Tabs at the top will also take you to similar sites benefitting breast cancer, child literacy, abandoned pets, and the rainforest. Here’s the neat thing: you can sign up for a daily reminder which contains a link that will open the site in a new window and keep you from forgetting to check in. For the vocabulary-building-gamester, try Free Rice at http://www.freerice.com/. Here you are presented a series of unusual words and a choice of four definitions. For each right answer, the sponsors donate 10 grains of rice. Play daily, rack up a good score, discover words you’ve never heard of before and some, thank goodness, that are a little familiar. Obviously it’s a numbers game…the more who participate and do sooften, the more is raised. Spread the word.

USE FOOD COUPONS TO FEED THE NEEDY. Think of this as a hobby, another one that can be worked at Christmas or year-round. At no cost to yourself except for the time which you would normally expend on any other less rewarding hobby, you can gather coupons for a shopping spree. When you finish shopping you’ll have a large amount of food at a ridiculously low price which can be dropped at the local food pantry. The trick is to remember that coupons are just the first stage in promoting a product. Hold the coupons for about a month then go in and take advantage of the second stage, price reduction at the shelf. Buy then using your coupons for a deep discount. If there’s a double coupon value day available or a senior discount day (take your mom or grandma and let her make the purchase), by all means take advantage of that. For chump change and some time clipping coupons and checking online coupon sites while watching TV, you get to be a hero.