2012 - Where It Goes

  This year we got $401.00 from doing Feed The Real Need :) Tonight we decided that we would give $50 to Unicef because my Mom read about a young boy who was forced to fight a war until Unicef came and took him away from there.  We are giving $150 to Heiffer International to buy a water pump so that a community doesn't have to walk 5 or 6 miles just to get water.  Sawyer thought we should put $21 in my Mom's wallet so that when we see homeless people on the street we can give them $4 or $5 each.  Gemma wanted to give TRUEAfrica $20 to help with education in Africa.  The Central Asia Institute is still building schools in the Middle East so we are giving them $30.00.  We are giving the local food bank $50 and using the rest ($80) for people we know that need it.
  We love doing Feed the Real Need because it doesn't matter how much you already give, this makes it so we can give more.  We love having a family meeting at the end and choosing the people to give to.

  I think this was a very good idea.  See you next year!

Feed the Real Need Combined Total: $766.00  

Fund Facts!

I promise this is the only post of the year that will be by me, the boring mother, but I have had many people ask me how I work the fund so here are instructions.  The hardest thing is getting from the good intentions part to the actual giving part and I have found this system to be the BEST.
#1 - set up a new email account just for your fund.  trust me. it literally takes 2 minutes.
#2 - set up a new checking account at your bank that includes it's own debit card.  you only use this card to pay directly to charities.
#3 - set up a PayPal account using that new debit card/routing number/email (you will also need a PayPal account to your current banking account if you don't already have one).
#4 - add the PayPal app to your phone

And voila!  You are ready to go!  This way any time I am tempted to eat out I simply get out my phone,open PayPal (log into my primary bank account) and send money to the new email address/PayPal account with a memo that says something like, ' wanted steak real bad but resisted '.  Yes, I really wrote that in a memo...to myself.....  This system is great because you can do it right in the moment and for any measly amount but it adds up!
This would work great for savings accounts, missionary funds or travel funds as well.
Every post deserves a picture so here you go:

Merry Christmas!

feed the real need TOTAL: $332.00

Guest Donation! A Real Need in NY!

Who do you think it is??  Well if you guessed Milo, you are right!  A few weeks ago my Aunt Brittany told us that she had saved up money from doing Feed the Real Need.  She knew that people in New York were about to have another storm after they had Hurricane Sandy.  She knew they needed coats and blankets so she asked us if we could help her find some.  We found 12 coats and 8 blankets thanks to the ladies from our church.  My aunt Brittany paid to quickly ship them to Staten Island from her Feed the Real Need fund.  We all felt good about helping people and we hope they are warm!  I might be the next to post (again!).  See ya later!

                                          

2 in 1! Our trip and GUEST APPEARANCE!!!!

Guess who it is?  If you said "Milo" - yep!  You're right!  A few days ago I got a letter from my Grandma and here is what it said:

"Grandpa and I made BBQ ribs for supper one night.  It cost us about $15 for a meal of ribs, potatoes, veggies and milk.  If we had gone to Tony Roma's it would have cost at least $35.00.  Donating $20 difference to Feed the Real Need.  Love, Grandma Harker :)

We are so excited to have our first story of someone to put on the blog!  We hope we keep getting more stories of other people who try our experiment!  You don't have to send us money if you don't want, you can just tell us that you did it and we will put it up on here.

On to the second part of my post:

About a week ago we went to Lake Las Vegas for a family vacation.  Remember - NOT Las Vegas the city!  The reason I am writing about this is because we brought a TON OF FOOD.  There was so much we had to pack it lasted us about 4 days.  We never ate out once.  We brought groceries so that we could still work on our blog.  We ate french dip, ravioli, oatmeal, boiled eggs, yogurt, soup and rolls, and 3 different types of bread.  We had to take 2 coolers and make all of the food but it was OK even though I really like to eat out too.  Here is a picture of my sister eating a turkey sandwich at our hotel!

Guess how much we saved for the fund?  $135.00!!!!!

That's all for now!  Bye!

+ $155.00 Fund Total = $222.00!

We Were on the TV!!!

This is Sawyer - by the way I'm 7. TV crews came to our house and it was cool to watch us on TV! More people are coming to our blog! I hope people keep coming and joining us! Here is the clip in case you missed it:

click here to see us on tv!

Soccer Snow A No Go

Hi! It's Milo again.  A few days ago I was at my last soccer game and I wanted a snow cone.  My Mom said, "I would, but I need to put that money in our fund."  Then she said - "you can buy one with your own money if you want."  I said "no". So instead I put my money in the fund, too.  That's my story for the day.

+ $2..00. Total = $67.00

First post of the YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi this is Milo again.

We are starting our second year of feeding the real need and I feel great about it.  I feel good because every year we will get to donate to Heifer again.  Last year we donated a trio of rabbits (3 rabbits) and a goat.  This year we're aiming for a water buffalo.  Well, I am anyways.  We haven't really talked about it yet.
The first thing we did so far is we had to pack a cooler when we went to the State Fair.  I had a  peanut butter sandwich and a Capri Sun.  We put $20.00 into the fund and didn't buy dinner there.  I paid $1 to see a 14 foot alligator and then I was mad because it wasted my money.  The alligator was asleep.  

My name is still Milo!

C ya!

This is me and Sawyer.  I am the one in the tie.
+ 20.00.  Total so far: $50.00

Best Christmas Ever

It just didn't feel like Christmas.  I kept telling myself that it was because there was no snow on the ground.  On Monday night we had a family meeting and officially 'ended' our official experiment for this year.  Our grand total was (drum roll please.........................................................) $365.00!!!!  I had opened up a separate checking account for this and that was our balance!

So we had a nice long chat and decided on the following:

$200.00 went to Heifer International.  I have researched this charity and they have my full confidence.  It is the 'teach a man to fish' concept and the kids are really excited about it:

$120 for a goat (https://secure1.heifer.org/gift-catalog/goat.html)

$60.00 for a trio of rabbits (https://secure1.heifer.org/gift-catalog/rabbits.html)

$100.00 was used for local Christmas charity

$20.00 went to Community Action (local food bank) - did you know that the food bank can turn $1 into $3 worth of food and donations?  It is nice to give food, but money goes further...

$65.00 went to the Central Asia Institute (https://www.ikat.org/).  I absolutely love this organisation.  Sawyer had just checked out a book from the library about the war in Afghanistan so the need for real education and equality for women over there was a topic we had just been discussing.  

Suddenly it really feels like Christmas and I love it.  I feel like my heart is just bursting with gratitude and I know that 'Christmas spirit' is really the love of our Heavenly Father that we can feel as we help take care of His children.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a meaningful new year.  It will be tough for us to beat this year but we will sure try!

Vacation Victory!

The week before Thanksgiving we went to California.  I knew in the planning of this trip that we'd still be doing this blog and I was determined to stick to it.  I spent a good portion of a day just packing food and running to the store because I knew once we were in vaca mode I wouldn't want to waste time finding local grocery stores.  

I purposefully booked hotels that either had kitchenettes or at least a fridge/microwave and I packed more food than I ever thought we'd actually go through.  I was wrong.  Man, we go through a lot of food!!  So the trip wasn't totally perfect (blog-wise) but it was pretty darn close - I thought I had us covered but there were a couple of times we had to grab some real food (even I can't survive on fishy crackers, turns out).  We were away from home for a total of 16 meals and saved for the fund $135.00.  BOOYAH.  That combined with some other days makes this a pretty great post for us.

How I love my husband and children for not turning this into something I have to push alone.  I guess I kind of assumed that eventually I would be the mom who had to give daily lectures about sticking to a plan but, no.  Sawyer cries when he thinks we are going to use money that is meant for the fund and Neil hasn't complained once....even when I was handing out pb&j's on a Disneyland bench or offering an apple in the car....for the 10th time that week.  It's not like it's SO hard all of the time or that I think this is a really huge sacrifice - I know it's little on those scales, but it sure is comforting to try something together and feel united in that alone.  I've loved it.  I think we are going to make this an annual tradition.....

I am still hoping for some guest appearances on this blog!  Substitute one night in a restaurant with a home-cooked meal and donate the difference to charity.  Send me a picture so I can spotlight you and your kids can see that they are part of something (even if only slightly) greater!  We are ending our experiment soon but I will post guests all year long until we start up again next September, so step on up and Feed the Real Need!!

Who Says Cheaters Never Prosper....?

 Just because we've decided not to spend real $ on food doesn't mean we can't eat out - we know some budget tips so get out your pencil and notepad and save these ghetto-friendly tips for a rainy day:

#1 - Kids Eat Free at Ikea EVERY Tuesday.  As long as your offspring are little enough to fill up on the kids menu you are good to go.  Swedish Meatballs for everyone!  Our total was $6.55.
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/IKEA_Food/restaurant.html

#2 - Kids Eat Free Quesadillas if you Dine In at Cafe Rio. 

We spent 2.5 hours looking at tile for our bathroom remodel one Saturday.  That's right - TWO AND A HALF HOURS and we didn't even finalize anything - probably because we were so hungry that it was debilitating (if you know me you also know that this happens to me quite easily).  We were starving when we finally got out of there.  I looked in my wallet and suddenly angels appeared and began singing the Hallelujah Chorus because I found a Cafe Rio card with 10 Stamps! Free Meal!  We got a salad, drink, burrito and 2 kids' quesadillas for $5.93.  The quesadillas are pretty little so I shared my salad with Sawyer and we were both very satisfied.

Check out that receipt!  I love you, Cafe Rio - I will be back as a real customer in January :)