NothingToGive.com

How much do you spend on Christmas presents?

We spend a LOT. It’s scary how much we actually spend.

And what for? What do we actually buy that is necessary?

Very little.

This year, my family and I have been trying to find ways to give even though we don’t feel we have anything to give. Followers of this blog might remember Change for Chile and Hot dogs for Haiti, which were ways we found that we could give without needing to find spare money in the budget.

Our goal as a family though is to physically give enough money to be able to buy a new well for a village in Africa.

A well will cost somewhere around $2600 – which seems completely out of the question for us. How can we possibly find $2600 in the budget to give away?

Our first way of giving came via my business, NewBlogHosting.com. Check out the Websites for Wells idea here.

The problem is, although the business is growing, we’re in October already and Websites for Wells has only generated $251 We’re almost 10% of the way there but 80% of the way through the year.

We’ve been wracking our brains trying to come up with ways we can find ‘spare’ money to give and we realized something we realize every year:

We don’t have money set aside to buy Christmas presents with.

Yet somehow we’ll buy toys for our kids that they don’t need, presents for each other (which will be nice but not necessary) and gifts for all of our nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, parents, friends, children’s friends, co-workers… and the list goes on.

Sure, some of the stuff we buy for Christmas will be necessary. The kids will get clothes that they really need now but we’ll hold back so they can be ‘Christmas presents’ and I’ll probably get some new kitchen implements to replace the ones that have been broken or lost this year… but what about the other stuff which can only really be described as STUFF?

We’ll spend hundreds of dollars on things we don’t need and will possibly not even use after Christmas day.

Of course, you’re probably much wiser with your money than us and don’t waste any money at Christmas, but I know we do!

So here’s our plan this Christmas:

For every dollar we spend on Christmas presents, we’re going to give one dollar to the Well fund.

That means ALL of the Christmas presents, even the stocking stuffers, secret Santa gifts and cute little ornaments we give to each other for the tree.

While we are opening little singing Santa’s and drooling over the new jewelry we’ve been given which will go into the draw untouched with all the other jewelry, a village in Africa will be another step closer to getting clean drinking water for the first time in their lives.

We won’t raise the full $2,600 this Christmas, but we will get a lot closer to being able to give the gift that keeps on giving live, health, and happiness.

Will you give something truly meaningful this Christmas?

Will you set a family goal for the next year and find ways to give money toward that goal - maybe even starting right now by joining with us in our Christmas Challenge?