12/6 Expressions

Financial expressions for the day: Although the fact that we are in a recession has been reported in the media non-stop, I really did not know anyone "personally" affected by a job loss until the last couple of weeks. It also seems that charitable donations and contributions are down. This has been a great time for me to declutter some of my previous "frugal buys" and help those in need. Just this week, my daughter's school has been asking for gifts to donate. She had a few new in the box Barbies, that she donated. Made me proud that she let go so easily. Since she is an only child, I worried whether she would "share". Yesterday, my husband's office put out a call for winter coats and blankets. Much to my surprise, they are also accepting "gently used" items. So, my daughter let go of two of her genetly used coats and a blanket. I had a new, still in the package, "great deal" from Amazon a couple of years ago, blanket to contribute. Yup, it has been a hard lesson, but for me, I need to be careful with those "great deals". Without a purpose, they can take up valuable shelf space, waiting to be used. I doubt I will need another blanket for another few more years, so, now I am glad the thing is going to someone who can use it. I guess the movie we watched yesterday, "The Blind Side" is still haunting me too. Sometimes I forget how fortunate I am. Yesterday, I took my daughter out for an opportunity to do some community volunteer work. On our way back, our neighbor flagged us down. She wanted to pass on a gently used sweater someone had passed on to her to my daughter. She asked what we had been up to and when I let her know about the volunteering opportunity, she asked if she could take my daughter with her to volunteer at a local soup kitchen. Yup, there are plenty of opportunities to help/volunteer.