At the beginning of the year, I made a little challenge for our family to try to give away as much as we saved/spent on consumables like groceries and household items. I called this the “Save to Give Challenge.” Today I finally tallied up ALL the mountains of receipts that I had been accumulating since the I Love Ram update in September.
Honestly, after the last two weeks home with my kids and husband, three hours of data entry was just what this little nerd needed.
Plus, it was interesting to figure out how much Eating Poorganically has changed our spending patterns.
I’m really excited to tell you how we did, but first . . .
I’m going to toy with you a bit.
I will tell you that our savings was only 45% off the pre-sale and pre-coupon price. This is lower than last year, but I suspect this is because there is no obvious saving at the Farmers’ Market or my garden.
Thus because our spending on consumables was higher than our saving, that is the number we are aiming to match with our giving for the year. And drumroll please . . . .
we are shy with our giving by about $150.
Thus, in order to have you all help me give this money away to a worthy cause, I’ve decided to play a little guessing game.
The person who can mostly closely guess our monthly average spending for groceries and household items (without going over), gets to recommend the charity or non-profit organization that we will give the last $150 to.
Here’s a few pieces of information to help you with guessing.
1. There are five people in our family. 2 adults and kids ages 6, 4, and 2.
2. This number includes CONSUMABLE items like food, medicine, toiletries, diapers, and household items.
3. This number does not include dining, entertainment, clothes, gifts, or bills.
Put your guess in the comment field and please include the following information.
1. Your guess of the monthly average that we spent. (Remember don’t go over.)
2. Which charity or organization you’d like to see us give the $150.
3. How the organization helps PEOPLE. (Sorry, we won’t be giving to an organization that helps animals or the environment or other non-human entities.)
4. Some of you already guessed on the Facebook page and those guesses will be taken. If you want to make a second guess based on the new information, just put “final answer” after your guess.
5. If you read The Poorganic Life in your e-mail, you may have to click through to this post on the homepage of my blog because there is some weird problem that limits commenting from the e-mails.
I can’t wait to see all the great charities you recommend. Happy Guessing and SAVING TO GIVE!
Hmmm … let’s see … my guess is $423/month. If I win, I’d love for you to choose OneVerse in support of translation of the Word of God for the Vidunda people. 🙂
I’m afraid I would have no idea. I don’t even know how much I spend in a month. Living alone means food spoils if you buy in quantity, so I tend to shop for only a few days at a time and go a couple times a week. Keeping track of spending on food just sounds like too much effort for me. I am a frugal shopper, however, and don’t buy things that I think are too pricey. I passed up Italian sausage the other day because it was $4.59 a pound – for sausage that’s mostly fat and fillers! That’s just crazy… And why is poultry sausage (I always buy poultry versions) more expensive than pork sausages when poultry is cheaper than pork? I don’t get it. I really enjoy reading your posts, though and I have made some changes in my buying habits as a result. Thanks!
$555
I’d like you to give the money to the most recent missionary that had “extra expenses” they were trying to pay off. I feel like that’s the needs I can never support, but I know how important it can be in the life of a missionary. The extra or unexpected needs.
Ok, my guess for a monthly average is $375. I figure when you say average, you probably had some months that you spent more and some where you were under budget? My charity of choice is the Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) Association. This is the birth defect that Jacob had when he was born. They raise money for a variety of aspects including medical research, helping families, etc.