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Couponing for Community begins TODAY!

This is our chance to ‘flex our couponing muscles’ together for good.  Here’s what will be happening this week:

Nationally:

Over 100 bloggers have rallied together to invite our readers to GIVE this week.  We invite you to use the knowledge and tools that you have gained through couponing to give to a food pantry, rescue shelter, or friend in need this week, May 8-14.   Some of you have been couponing for a while and can simply gather a box of items from your stockpile to give away.  Others may only be able to give one or two items.  But we invite each of you to consider how you can join this effort!

Our goal this year is 10,000 items and we are already well on our way.

IMPORTANT: You can check out our ‘See our Progress’ tab on the Couponing for Community Facebook page to track our totals throughout the week.  Then be sure to count the items that you donate and add them to the total.  Every donation counts!

Don’t forget that this Saturday is also National Stamp Out Hunger Day.  Giving can be as simple as leaving a bag of non-perishable food items by your mailbox on Saturday morning!

We’d love to see pictures of your donations on the Facebook page as well.  We are all about celebrating GIVING through couponing this week!

Locally (Greater Philly Area):

I am very excited to share an opportunity for my local readers (in the Greater Philly area) to come out and give.  Shannon from For the Mommas and I have teamed up to invite our readers to meet us at the Dunkin Donuts on Kugler Road in Limerick, PA (click here for directions) on Saturday, May 14 from 1-3 pm.   It will be an opportunity to make a united effort to give locally as well as a chance to meet face to face!

All of our donations will benefit the Community Nutrition Coalition.    Suggested donations include non-perishable food items or health and beauty/cleaning products.

(Oh…and stay tuned for FUN more details on raffles we will be offering to those who come out to give!)

We recognize that you may not have a lot to give.  But whether you have 1 or 100 items, just come out for a good time.  (Shannon and I promise we are fun!)

Thanks to Dunkin Donuts Philly for partnering with us this week.  You can follow them on Facebook or Twitter to stay up to date on the latest deals and promotions!

Whether you are local or far away, I promise you.  You are NOT going to want to miss this event.  It’s going to be a place where SAVING and GIVING unite like never before!

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Just three more weeks until the nation-wide Couponing for Community event!

The response has already been tremendous.  The number of people joining our cause on the C4C Facebook page is growing in leaps and bounds and the long list of participating bloggers gets longer almost daily.  I have high hopes that we will blow our 10,000 item goal out of the water!

Pretty soon I will look  through my pantry and start making a box of items to give during the week of May 8-14.  In the meantime, here are a few items that I am planning on picking up this week in preparation for my BIG give:

Free Reach and Aquafresh Toothbrushes @ CVS

Nivea Body Wash @ Rite Aid

How about you?  Are you picking up any items to add to your donation box this week?

Welcome to Cha-Ching on a Shoestring!   To stay in the loop on the best deals, freebies, coupons and more, subscribe to our FREE newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed. You can even Like Cha-Ching on a Shoestring on Facebook to get up to the minute deals!

Couponing for Community is back!!  (Or what some might call ‘Extreme Couponing for a Cause!)

If you’ve been reading this blog for very long, you may recall our first Couponing for Community event last year.  It was such a huge success with over 80 bloggers participating and thousands of items donated by YOU, that we decided it needed to become an annual event!

So what is Couponing for Community anyway?

Couponing for Community is an effort by couponers all over America to use the power of couponing to make a united impact.  We invite you to join this community of couponers by using your couponing skills to give to a homeless shelter, food pantry, or a friend in need during the week of May 8-14, 2011!  May 14 is also National Stamp Out Hunger day, so giving is as easy as leaving a bag of non-perishable items by your mailbox.

What is the goal?

This year we are setting a goal of 10,000 items donated in one week’s time. We invite you to track your giving during the week  of May 8-14 and then share your story on our Facebook page. We’ll even have a giving tracker to tally up everyone’s efforts!!

What can you do now?

• First, head on over and Like Couponing for Community on Facebook!   That will help keep you up to date on the details of the upcoming event and give you a place to connect with all of the other participating!

• Second, as you shop over the next few weeks, begin to set aside items that you can donate during the week of May 8-14.  Note: Since we want to keep a tally of items given that week, make sure to keep track of the number of items that you give away.  You can even take a picture to upload on the Facebook page.

• If you have a blog and would like to participate, simply write up a post about Couponing for Community and then submit the direct link to your post on the ‘Join In’ tab.

And, of course, stay tuned for all the latest details right here on Cha-Ching on a Shoestring!

I promise you.  You are NOT going to want to miss this event.  It’s going to be a place where SAVING and GIVING unite like never before!

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I just wanted to take a minute and say a final THANK YOU for all who participating in Couponing for Community last week.  It was so much more than I ever hoped!

I did the best that I could in tallying up the number of items that were donated nationwide using the pictures that were posted on our Facebook page.

Are you ready?

As a group of bloggers and readers, we donated over 3155 items to food pantries, homeless shelters, abused women’s shelters, animal rescue shelters, friends in need, and to the Stamp Out Hunger drive.

And that isn’t counting the $1092.44 worth of items that were collected by Giselle and Lauren from The Saving Addiction!  (Check out their haul here!)

That is a lot of pasta, cereal, deodorant, shampoo, soup, toothbrushes, soap, rice, snacks, and the list goes on, friends.

THANK YOU!

In fact, to give us a better sense of what we accomplished as a couponing community, I made this:

This free slideshow personalized with Smilebox

(Note: I was unable to use all of the pictures posted. I apologize if yours isn’t here.  Everyone’s donation made a difference!)

And here we are.

It’s time to celebrate our united effort in giving this week.

This week has made me think about what giving should look like.

When we were first married, I worked for a woman’s help center.  I had yet to be introduced to the world of couponing and I remember being amazed when someone would come through our doors with a generous donation for the women that we helped.  Let’s face it–groceries and make-up and diapers and  toiletries are expensive!  The thought of having extra to spare was not in my frame of reference.

Now I get it. Using coupons has opened a world for me that did not exist before.   I can now give that deodorant away freely and easily because I always know that I can get more free in a week or two. (Or free toothpaste or shampoo or pasta or you fill in the blank…)

And this brings me JOY.

May I encourage you to recognize the value in the skills that you have learned?  Because you know how (or are learning!) to use coupons, you are able to not only take care of your own family’s needs, but you have the resources to help meet the needs of countless other families as well.

I hope that brings you JOY.

And now it’s your turn.  How were you able to share from your resources this week?  Leave a link or a comment below and let’s celebrate!  You can continue to post pictures on our Facebook Event page as well.  If you don’t have a blog, leave a comment with the scoop on how you were able to give!

*Remember if you haven’t had a chance to give yet, you can leave a bag of non-perishable food items by your mailbox today (5/8) for Stamp Out Hunger Day.

And may I just say “Thank You”?  I have been so  touched by the generosity I have seen this week.  Keep up the great work.  You truly have the ability to make an impact in a very real way.

I simply felt that I needed to highlight this donation by Meghan from Saving in the Rain:

That would be seventy-eight boxes of cereal.  Go ahead–count ’em.  (Or you can just take her word for it!)  She scored most of them for free. (The highest price she paid was $.70!)

Check out the rest of the latest donations here.  (Have you added yours yet?  Remember this isn’t a competition–every bit counts!)

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Here is my health and beauty donation for Couponing for Community.  It’s been many months since my last donation, so we had quite a stash.

A couple of years ago (pre-layoff/coupon era), I would have never thought this was possible.  I’ve been thinking a lot about how couponing has changed my perspective on giving.  Since most of the items above were free or nearly free, giving has become something that is just second nature and so much fun.

I plan on giving some of this to the Keystone Opportunity Center.  The rest I am going to give to a woman in our church who is heading up a project for a low income housing community in our area.  They are looking for many of the items that we are giving, so I’m excited to share!

Now for some important news for my local readers:

I am inviting you to come out to an event being held for the Keystone Opportunity Center on Saturday, May 8 to drop off your donations.  They will be collecting the food for Stamp Out Hunger, but will also be taking health and beauty products and donations for their clothing exchange.

I would love to meet you there any time between 12 and 4 on Saturday.  The event is actually being help up the street at 142 Main Street in Souderton, Pa. at the old Wellington Sporting Good Store.  (The sign is still up.)

I know it would be easier just to leave a bag by your mailbox, but I would be delighted to meet you (just promise you’ll let me get a picture with you, ok?).

If you can come, here are some items that I know would be a great help:

• summer clothes for their clothing exchange

• items like deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, etc.

• non-perishable food items

If you plan on coming, could you leave a comment or send me an e-mail at kaleyandwes @ chachingonashoestring.com (remove spaces)?  It will help me plan ahead.  (Plus I’d like to share some info about another fun event up the street for your kids!)