Extra Charitable GivingSince we now, as faithful budgeters, have our money under control, we have categories for our money and there sometimes isn't any slop in the system to handle extra giving. This came to light for me over the last holiday season when I was presented with a couple of giving opportunities but did not have the money on hand to give. I generally only carry my gas money and very little spending money in my wallet so when these extra giving opportunities arose I did not have the extra cash to give at that moment. I could have given a little and then reimbursed myself after the next pay but I usually forget about it by the time payday rolls around again. The answer was to plan ahead and budget for extra charitable giving over and above what would traditionally be our tithe. We have set up two additional budget items. The first is called church extra for those extra activities and giving opportunities that we want to support in our local church or missions associated with it. The second is a general charity category that we keep in an envelope at the house. With this extra charity money I can go ahead and give my gas money away and replenish it out of the envelope when I get back home. I still believe that you can't give too much and now it even fits in our budget. I don't want to make giving so restrictive by budgeting that it no longer becomes and act of compassion but we now know that the money is there to be given and will not have to hesitate when we see a need. Give it a try; put an extra charitable giving category into your budget.
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