by Pam on December 23, 2010
Christmas is a time of giving, and it is intriguing to read the various articles that have been written about the famous billionaires who are giving so much of their wealth to charities. Examples include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as well as George Lucas. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet started a Giving Pledge and many billionaires have joined in and the result is extreme generosity.
It just goes to show that if the wealthy are willing to share their wealth with others, the world can definitely be a better place. After all, they won’t be able to take their money with them so they might as well brighten someone else’s day with it while they can.
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by Pam on November 29, 2010
If you want to sell a gift card you don’t plan to use, you can do so by listing it on a website called CardSwap. You enter both the merchant name and the value of the gift card into the website. CardSwap gets 6% of the sale price and the minimum they will receive is $4.50.
Once your gift card is sold you will receive an email with the shipping details. Your job is to mail the card within 3 days of it being sold. Then you will receive a cheque in the mail for the sale price less the 6% fee.
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by Pam on November 15, 2010
Do you have anyone on your Christmas list that is really tough to shop for because they already have everything? If you do, don’t worry, consider treating them to an “experience” instead of buying them more stuff.
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by Pam on November 11, 2010
Every once in a while I go through my drawers and my closet and remove items of clothing that I either never wear or am highly unlikely to ever wear again. Sometimes I find it hard to part with my things, even though I know I never use them, however, I find that “decluttering” is a great way to make better use of my closet and drawer space, as well as a neat way to help others in need. And yes, I just made up my own word. I think the English language needs a word like “decluttering”.
Once I have rounded up all the items of clothing, and possibly some shoes, etc. I drop them off at a local thrift store. Someone else might as well make use of them. This also goes for other miscellaneous items around our house. About every six months or so we get the urge to do some “Spring cleaning”, and you would be surprised at how many things we discover we have that were hidden away and never used.
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by Pam on October 26, 2010
I received a great money-saving tip from one of my readers that I wanted to pass along to you. The email went as follows:
“Two years ago my husband and I had a bunch of Air Miles built up, but we knew we wouldn’t be using them in the near future so we used them up to buy gift cards which we then used for gifts for our brothers, grandparents, etc. I’m not sure if we got the biggest return for the miles (not sure of the rate) but what’s the point in holding onto points for a flight you may never take? Better to use them up I say.”
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by Pam on October 20, 2010
After reading Under the Overpass
I will never look at a homeless person the same way again. Although in the past I had volunteered in a place where I rubbed shoulders with homeless people, I could never really fully imagine what it might be like to be homeless. But once I read this book, I was able to get a secondhand glimpse of what it is like to be homeless. Their life is far from easy, and it’s good to know that there are ways we can help them out.
Under The Overpass is about two young men in the United States who decided to live as homeless people for 5 months in 6 different cities across the U.S. They came from upper middle class families and decided to discover for themselves what it truly is like to be homeless. As a result of their experience, they developed a new appreciation for the hardships these folks experience. You will too, if you read this book.
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by Pam on September 12, 2010
When someone gives you a gift of money for your birthday, Christmas, or just because, what do you do with it? Do you treat it as earned income or do you just blow it because you did not have to work for it?
Most of us are likely to treat our gifts of money differently from our earned income. Rather than just popping it into our savings accounts, we are tempted to spend it, perhaps even on things that we don’t really need. Why? Because it’s not as if we are using our own money, or so we think.
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