I have found a way to use my bargain-hunting skills and love of shopping for good! Hubby and I, after lamenting the consumption-oriented state of the holiday season, have decided to go through a local agency and "adopt" a poor family for Christmas. Each family member will make a Christmas list, and we will be responsible for buying them gifts, wrapping them, and delivering them to the family the week before Christmas. We requested a family of five, which sounds expensive, but the agency says should cost us no more than $200. To tell you the truth, hearing that made me feel very, very guilty. We easily used to spend that and more just buying gifts for each other, much less a family of five.
The family we buy gifts for will likely live at or near the poverty line. For anyone who isn't familiar with the definition of poverty, the US government says it is a family of four making less than $18,810 per year. Think about that for a minute... many of us put more than that in our retirement accounts every year. For more information on poverty and the cost of living, watch this brief video. It is a scary reality for far too many people.
If you are interested in doing something like this, contact your local United Way or your church and they can put you in touch with an agency with a similar program.
9 comments:
HUH, I didn't know my family of four was living so close to the poverty level. $26,000. That is weird because I don't think of us as poor at all.
Savvy saver - this is a great idea. I will definitely look into doing something like that also. I'm sure there are alot of families out there that need help due to the hurricanes.
Thank you for this. I've been wanting to do something and this sounds perfect.
Savvy Saver,
Such a great idea, i'll follow-up with my church on this.
I was disgusted at the categorization of what poverty is. poverty that requires a shelter with a seperate room for a baby, a heater setting at comfy 62F, a car for travelling... this is American definition of Poverty. Compared to the world out there American poor are EXTREMELY RICH!
Your idea is great and I hope it works out well for you and the family. But I also hope the agency is doing a good job of "screening" the participants.
I teach in an elementary school and have come across families who milk the Christmas season for all they can. They sign up with every possible charity/church/organization then have a big garage sale later in the year with all their loot. Probably not quite what you had in mind for the gifts you carefully chose for them.
anonymous 2: I think we all know that though. it's all relative, and that IS poverty here.
sorta.
bohemianmama & anonymous 2,
it's good to think of the cost of living when you quote prices. a one bedroom apt may rent for much, much more in california's hot markets than in many, if not most other places in the country. i know that in california, the rate savvysaver quoted for the poverty line would be incredibly painful. my apartment mate and i pay 1200 a month for a 2 bedroom apt, and if you have three kids that would mean 3 kids in one room, and 19k - 14.4k = 4.6k. if you take into account taxes, food, utilities, there's no way that 4.6k left after housing is enough to live on that in the bay area. the US is so diverse when it comes to cost of living, i do think that the poverty line is unrepresentative for some locales, while entirely valid for others.
as for anonymous, i don't think you understand how essential a car is in many places in the country. in the bay area i'm fine, but when i was in LA for a summer, it was ridiculous: LA is a spread out city, and the chance of finding AFFORDABLE housing close to a place where you can get a job, is a pretty difficult task. buses down there were unreliable as well, not like the relatively decent systems in bay area.
i am inspired to read posts like these, where people who blog about personal finance don't let increasing their personal net worth get in the way of their altruism. best wishes this upcoming holiday season to you, and may your heating bills be low! :)
anonymous 2- They do screen the families, they are usually the same ones that use the organization for budget and job-skills counseling. The families are not allowed to participate in any other holiday-season gift charities like Toys For Tots.
anonymous 1 - if you watched the video you would see that an income at the poverty level DOESN'T pay for those things. They don't have money left over, in fact they would go into debt. A poverty-level income only leaves $400-$500 per month for an apartment, which is even unattainable in many parts of the midwest, much less the coasts. Also, around here you can't get around without a car, there is no public transportation and communities were not designed with walking in mind. If you take into a account that many of these families have one parent and three children, the cost of childcare outweighs the income from working. Many of these people are in a downward spiral.
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