Someone asked about being a scrooge, because he doesn’t give to charities.
So, how much of a Scrooge are you?
I’m pretty Scroogey.
Not adding a tip for take-out, for example. Tips are for service, and I’m doing all the servicing: driving, picking up, driving back home. Stop asking, I say.
Ignoring all beggars and homeless, and there are plenty in my area. Not going so far as to throw them into poor houses or wishing them dead, though my current proposal is to put them someplace where no one is. Like, The Mojave Desert. Plenty of space, fresh air, etc. Early draft stages, as someone will have to figure out what they do once they get out there.
I don’t like giving or receiving gifts just because someone says it’s Christmas, and that’s what we do, “because I say so.”
I do my part to assemble two trees, and bring the Christmas bins down from the garage rafters. But I do not help with any decorating. I’ll put the empty bins back up in the rafters when the wife is done, bring them down again around 1/1, and put the full bins back up to the rafters.
Lots of the same here, so pretty Scroogey. I’m more likely to pay for someone’s stuff at the store when they’re short and it’s really clear they weren’t expecting to be, and they’ve got stuff for their kids. Also more likely to give something to a beggar if I can walk them to a restaurant and pay for their meal; I’m not just handing cash over so you can drop it on drugs or booze.
I’ll tip kind of generously (at least 20%) when we’re out, mainly because I know others don’t. If your service was great, I’ll tip really well and go tell a manager what a great job you did; if you’re shitty with your service, I’m not tipping and I’m finding a manager to let them know how much you sucked. I’ll also tip for drivers who bring food (pizza), same thought process.
Gifts, I prefer buying for others. There’s times I could drop a couple hundred on one of my really close friends and never blink about it, and never expect anything back. If you’re spending more than $25 on me, you’re probably spending too much.
Otherwise, tbh I really don’t donate a lot. We do something for the poor where we grew up, because we relied on help there as I was going through school. [A season on TV for a show only on for 2 years doesn’t generate much in royalties, folks.] When college calls wanting money, I only put it toward the student emergency fund. Shit happens on occasion, you shouldn’t have to do without merely because you’re a college kid and “this is life, deal with it.” After that, you’re probably not getting anything out of me.
If you get offered food and want the cash instead, I take it as a sign you’re really not that interested in help, and I’m not interested in enabling you to continue making shitty decisions.
Idk if I’m more generous around the holidays. Maybe a little because there are more opportunities to do stuff for others.
I think I’m reasonably [what’s the opposite of Scroogie?] in general. I tip well. A few extra bucks is nothing for me but may well make a difference to the person serving me. I will give food or food gc’s if it’s convenient for me to do so (I don’t make it a point to look for people.) I agree that if you turn your nose up at a gift card and ask for cash instead, you’re not really hard up enough to need me.
I buy from kids who are selling stuff to make money for their band or choir or whatever. Or just give them a donation. (But only if the kids are doing it. Don’t bring your kid’s order form to the office.)
I give pretty generously to orgs I know do good things with the money. Those I give the most to are run by people I know personally.
I don’t decorate for the holidays much. SO really enjoys doing this and I’m happy to let him. I often help with putting stuff away afterward.
I give money. Cash buys bus fare, dry socks and underwear, hand warmers, things that are a lot harder to find from pantries than food. Maybe they’ll use it on something I wouldn’t have bought for them, but at least I help make them feel a little more human and a little less like a rabid dog, or worse, invisible.
Gotta be careful with that. There was a time here where kids would go to Costco and buy a box of Hershey bars and sell them at the train station for $2 for “band.” Total scam.
Socks and underwear are a big one with homeless people. I’ve been told you can often tell the difference between who’s really homeless and who’s just begging for cash if you can see their socks.
Maybe I should start carrying around extra socks just in case I encounter a homeless person. Socks, sandwiches and scotch. That ought to do it.
Food pantries are high on our list. Church. We get Girl Scout cookies every year. We buy a Christmas wreath from the Boy Scouts every year.
We volunteer at Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul Kitchen a couple times a year; we give to Jon’s charity and attend the black tie event most years.
When I worked in NYC, I would bring leftovers from our parties and give them to the ‘homeless’ people near Penn Station. Some people took it, some didn’t. I ignored those folks from then on.
We give $500/yr to St. Jude, because: children.
I give $20/yr to law.cornell.edu because I use their database often. Not a charity, I know.
We tip well. My wife used to wait tables (and still fills in at a local place from time to time. heck, $300 for 6 or 7 hours of work ain’t bad; pays for a nice meal on occasion.)
I still help support an org in Zimbabwe that I visited years ago. I get to hear about the direct impact of my money and that is nice. I’ve also started supporting one of the kids from that program. She started out as an orphan kid living in a slum. Was sponsored by this program, went to college, is now working on a phd (still in her mid twenties) and has founded her own ngo.
Adolescent girls in poverty stricken parts of Africa miss school when they are on their period for lack of supplies. Her org gets period supplies to girls who need them so they don’t miss a week of school every month. Simple - but important. I send her money.
Speaking of seeing the impact though:
I really hate seeing the social media videos of people giving stuff to others in need just to video their reaction. How humiliating. Don’t do that to people. If you need that sort of validation from your charitable gifts, they aren’t really gifts.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
MAT 6:3-4
I am not totally secretive, I do talk about some of my charitable doings (see above), but I don’t brag about them, and certainly don’t post on social media about it.
(I’ve posted pictures from events, but that was more showing that we had fun rather than ‘Look at us, we are good people’)
I have on a large handful of occasions. Underscores how truly expensive it is to be poor and how society shits all over people who fall on hard times and are trying to get out of the hole they’re in.
Maybe it is. For society as a whole, it’s not. Again, find someone else to find your shitty decisions.
