Trim the Fat Tuesday: The Charitable Giving, Part 2

In this, the easiest Trim the Fat Tuesday sequel of all, I am going to

Cut back our cash contributions to charity by 20%.

 This particular way of saving money never feels all that great, but it is definitely easy to do. This is, after all, a completely optional way to spend our money, and there's no monthly bill that must be paid.


The last time we did this, I was focused on making sure that we started paying attention to our charitable giving to keep donations more organized—just one per month. Now that that's taken care of, it's an easy next step to cut back on the amount we can give each month. Our current monthly budget for charity is $50, and cutting that by 20 percent means our new budget is $40 per month.

To feel less stingy (rationalizing here?), I remind myself that we are typically very good about donating the clothing we no longer wear and all of the toys and games the kids have outgrown. We also hope to continue giving a portion of our harvest to a local food pantry later in the season. We are also able-bodied and skilled enough to donate our time to various projects, and most of Kirk's road races and triathlons raise money for charity. Hopefully our karmic balance sheet is still in the black.

Savings per month: $10

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