Give free $10 Restaurant.com certificates

Right now, you can send free Restaurant.com certificates to everyone on your Christmas list. You can send up to 40 free certificates every day until December 31.

Keep in mind, Restaurant.com certificates usually require a minimum purchase (probably $15-$20 for a $10 certificate), so you can't score a completely free meal with them, but if you eat out anyway, it's a great way to save money.

A Time to Give: Gifts that give twice

It's the holiday season, and I am always looking for more ways to give, both to the people I know and love and to charities that do important work. The ideal for me is to give gifts that do both: bring joy to the people around me and help people around the world.

Because I'm very anti-clutter, whenever possible I like to give gifts that won't just end up sitting around people's houses. Both Heifer International and Oxfam America have unique collections of clutter free gifts that help to end hunger and poverty in the world. Through Heifer International, you can give things like sheep and goats to villages in need and send your family a card. The Oxfam program is similar, but with a larger variety and price range of gifts. What I like best about these two programs is that you are giving a donation in someone's name, but they are also able to see exactly what that donation will accomplish.

If you would rather give something tangible, consider giving a gift that also triggers a donation and supports humanitarian work. Mercy Corps coffee is grown through a partnership that allows $2 from the sale of each pound of coffee (that's 1/3 of the price) to go directly back into Mercy Corps charitable programs. I also like the artisan collection at The Child Health Site because it does good in two ways. The items are made by artisans in the developing world, thus supporting the growth of small businesses internationally. Plus, every purchase triggers a donation through The Child Health Site to charities that support children. If you aren't into the artisan items, you can check out the large number of items for sale across The Hunger Site suite, many of which raise awareness and all of which trigger donations to good causes. Or, if you are looking for a more traditional gift, consider shopping through iGive, a charity portal that allows you to give to the charity of your choice while purchasing at the stores you normally frequent online.

While I'm on the subject, consider the sources of your holiday cards. It may be a little late for this year, but Feeding America has a collection of Christmas cards that raise money and awareness to help fight hunger in America. One of my favorites though is St. Jude's Ranch, a shelter for homeless and abandoned children which sells recycled cards made by the children themselves. They also accept donations of used card fronts. Read the website for more details.

Please feel free to share with me your favorite ways to give gifts that give twice, and check out more ways to give at Saving and Giving.

Doing good: e-cards

Right now, for every holiday greeting you send, Robeez will make a $5 product donation to Kids In Distressed Situations. If you leave a comment below with your email address, I'd be glad to send you a card.

If you have a blog, you can make an even bigger donation. For every post about the Robeez campaign, Robeez will donate $25 in product.

Get sending!

More e-cards that donate:

Cupcakes for a cause
Send something sweet

Doing good: Knit one Save one

My good deed for today was to crochet a baby cap for the Knit One Save One campaign at Save the Children. They'll send the caps to their infant care programs throughout the world, and send personalized letters to President-Elect Obama, encouraging him to help eradicate poverty. It was so easy to follow their pattern, and since it is so small it took little yarn or time.

Other good deeds so far:

• I baked cookies for my kids at school.
  
• I gave some of my CSA vegetables to one of hubby's labmates.
  
• I added a dollar to my grocery order to help the local food bank.
  
• I walked around my neighborhood and picked up trash.
  
• I covered a colleague's class for a few minutes so she could get a break.
  

Nothing huge, but I hope it is making a difference. Please share your good deeds too, it helps keep me motivated!

Doing good this holiday season

This holiday season I've decided to focus on doing good (as opposed to doing well). Given my recent feelings of defeat, I'm hoping that this project will help me feel better while at the same time helping other people.

I'm commiting right now (and I hope you'll all help me stick to it) to one good deed every day. I know everyone is busy, so these may not be huge or time-consuming actions, but I just want to know that I'm doing something.

Today, I'm focusing on things I can do in my pajamas without getting up from my computer, so here's a few:

Go to Give respect.org and follow the links, and Geoffrey Beene will donate between 5 and $10 to domestic violence charities.

Sign up at Stouffer's Diner Club and you will get 100 free points, plus points for any Stouffer's meals you've bought. Right now, you can donate your points to Feeding America. Every 20 points gives one meal.

Sign up at Uncle Ben's and sign his petition and the company will donate to Feeding Hunger's Kid's cafe program.

I'll hopefully find more online donation programs over the next couple weeks. I also plan to dig into my stockpile and make donations to my local food bank and domestic violence shelter and to look for Random acts of kindness I can do throughout my days. Hopefully I'll be able to do some good deeds that involve more time commitment in volunteering or more substantial donations as well, but I'm giving myself credit for any good that I add to the world.

Any suggestions on good deeds I can do are more than welcome!

See also
Free and Easy Ways to Help Charities
More Ways to help charities
Click to donate

What I got for Christmas

My in-laws ask us for Christmas lists every year, and this year I was given the specific instruction to ask for something completely impractical, so I asked for what I saw as small extravagances, pretty things that would make me happy: new placemats and napkins, potholders, a teapot. This got me affectionately teased on Christmas morning, but really in the end did make me happy.

Our friends mostly gave us gift cards, greatly appreciated by us because they packed so easily to come home and because they give us an excuse to eat out more often without blowing our budget.

My brother gave me what I've been asking for for years: world peace (well, a shirt that says "Peace on Earth," which is close, right?) and warm socks (yes, actual warm socks).

Our family gave us a lot of kitchen appliances: a waffle maker, a coffee grinder and french press, a bread machine. They also gave us lots of coffee, tea, and cookies, which will keep us blissful for quite a while.

We got some money, which will be put towards an extra debt payment.

And my big Christmas present from hubby? I'm almost embarassed to admit its extravagance. A Roomba. It makes me so happy to come home to a clean carpet every day.

I'd say it's a pretty good haul, huh? So, what'd you get?

Fun and inexpensive christmas gifts

In my quest for a frugal Christmas, I thought I'd share some inexpensive Christmas gifts that I've given over the years.

A home manual

When one of my college roommates moved into her first apartment, I put together an instruction manual for her on how to live on her own. It was basically a binder in which I put favorite recipes, cleaning checklists, shopping lists, money saving tips, and other assorted tips that I'd written. I decorated the front, and I taped a Bed, Bath and Beyond giftcard to the inside of the back cover. If I were doing this again, I might also include a coupon envelope and some other assorted knickknacks to help her get started. It was a very inexpensive Christmas gift for me because the only thing that cost was the giftcard, and I think I got that from a rewards program. It was really useful for her, though, and I think she still uses and adds to it herself.

A stress relief bag

A few Christmas ago, I put together a "stress relief" bag for my best friend for Christmas. It contained two boxes of herbal tea (from the grocey store, purchased for next to nothing), 50 cent marble notebooks in 3 different colors, a coloring book (from the clearance table at Borders) and 8 pack box of crayons, a small bottle of bubble bath and various little toys and balls. Most of the things in this bag, besides being useful, were appreciated because they had meaning for the two of us rather than because of how much they cost.

A love journal

The year my husband and I were engaged, I gave him a journal in which I'd written to him every day for several months. I had also glued in things like the stubs from movies we'd seen and pictures of what we'd done. He still keeps it next to his bed.

Pleas share any ideas you may have for inexpensive Christmas gifts which are also extremely meaningful.

In search of a frugal Christmas

I really love Christmas. I have images of snowy mornings, childhood innocence, family caroling and tree decorating and every one of these ideas makes me feel warm and fuzzy and happy. For the past few years though, I have gotten so caught up in the business of Christmas, and the business of the end of the semester of school, that I have not really let myself get into the spirit of Christmas.

It really doesn't take much for me. In college, we set up a tiny Christmas tree, put tinsel in our hair, and danced around. I baked cookies at my mom's house and went from dorm to dorm delivering them to all my friends on campus. I sat on the floor quilting a Christmas present and eating Chinese food out of boxes while my roommate and I crammed for a psych final together.

That's the kind of Christmas I'm looking for again. The kind that's not about gifts or travel plans but is just about love and giving. I want to really feel like it's Christmas again. I'm sitting here now with my Christmas lights lit, the "holiday music" channel on my television, and a big pot of applesauce on my stove. I'm wearing snowman socks. . . shhhhh, don't tell my boss. When I finish writing this, I'm thinking about cutting some paper snowflakes out of white scrap paper. I might even find some tinsel to put in my hair. :)

I am interested in finding frugal ways to buy Christmas presents and deorations, and in the next few weeks, I hope to share some of those. But right now, the only Christmas I need is in my heart and mind.

And that kind of Christmas doesn't cost anything at all.