Discretionary Giving

I just wanted to share something that has been such a blessing to our family. While setting up our giving budget, we chose 3 organizations we felt led to give to continuously, one of those being our local church. And then we set aside one quarter of our giving budget for "discretionary giving." You've heard of discretionary spending, which means a section of your budget that's free to be spent on whatever you like. Well that's what we did with giving. It's so much fun! Each month, we have a set amount that we can give to whatever cause or need comes up. November is usually spent on Operation Christmas Child and December on adopting a needy family for Christmas. We can sponsor a child for camp during the summer or give to victims of natural disasters as they happen. Some more ideas and things we have done:

• Given to a needy woman and her kids in the parking lot, wanting to buy dinner for them.
• Given to a friend who was a contractor and had his trailer with all his tools stolen, along with his livelihood.
• Given to adoption funds.
• Made blessing bags to hand out to homeless people.
• Did couponing to donate the items to a food bank.
• Given to various other charities, including human trafficking prevention and pregnancy centers.
• Given to family members' and friends' mission trips.
• Called the electric company to pay one family's bill that was about to be shut off. (my dad gave me this idea, but we still have not done it!)

Some of you may be saying, "Well, I do this anyway. I don't need to set it aside in my budget, I just give as I see need." That's great. Maybe our personalities are just different. I purpose to set this money aside for God and to help others, and then I don't have to wonder if I'm giving too much or too little. We can increase the amount as our income increases.It gives me freedom, because it's organized, purposed, planned. :) (see my personality?) I just wanted to share in case it helped someone.