FMM: Creating Change

Instead of the usual questions, this week's Friend-Making Monday is about helping others.

Here's the blurb: 

To my wonderful friends and lovely FMM regulars, I’m asking that you write a quick post today about your plans to donate food to a local food bank or church or charitable organization in your area during the month of September. (You can even copy this paragraph for your own post if you want to.) Maybe you plan to donate 10 cans of beans or 5 packs of spaghetti or one jar of peanut butter. Or maybe you’ll make a cash donation or volunteer. You don’t have to get fancy or expensive. Just give as much as you can, and be proud of yourself for making a difference. Then, like usual, post a link here about your plans to donate for change. And if someone leaves a comment on your blog about their plans to donate food or money to the hungry, leave another comment here at http://www.alltheweigh.com/ letting me know. And when you’ve gathered your donation, you can e-mail a photo of yourself and your goods so you can be featured on my blog.

My Plan:  The idea behind this is donating as many pounds as you have lost in the year in food.  Well, that won't work for me as I haven't dropped any pounds this year (and have actually gained a few), though I'd really like that to change before year-end.  Anyway, my usual donations are money to church and various charities, and then I usually try to donate clothing at least 1-2 times per year.  I rarely donate food because we use the "dual-pot" finance system in our marriage -- we each have our own accounts and split up bills.  I have very little fear that we'll ever get divorced, but I feel like I've seen so many friends go through it, I both like the idea of removing money from a potential source of disagreement as much as possible, and to know it would be one thing we wouldn't have to worry about too much if we ever split up.  And the way it works right now is that I pay the mortgage, he buys the groceries.  And interestingly, we try to also split up household tasks (did I say we?  I meant I).  Anyway, he gets household labor credit hours (though I'd never call them that) for his hours of grocery shopping.  So donating food either means he pays for it so it's really him donating -- or I need to drag my butt to a grocery store, one of my least favorite places now (sooo crowded last time I went). 

My goal will be to send money to North Texas Food Bank or donate groceries by next week Monday -- that will give me the weekend to work up to the chaos of the grocery store.  Or take the easier way out in my mind of giving money, though I'm sure food banks are quite happy with either. 

Such a cool idea, and I especially like that we're thinking about food donation now in September, instead of November and December when I think it's more common.  Fun plan!