Swop clothes for chocs

During Fairtrade Fortnight, at participating Oxfam shops, you can swap a bag of quality donations for a delicious box of Cafédirect tea: http://tinyurl.com/yz9npwp

Guardian guide to freebies

Why waste your hard-earned cash when people are queuing up to give you stuff for nothing, says Huma Qureshi in The Guardian's guide to freebies.

Make do and mend?

BBC News reports that although repairing gadgets can save cash, many people would rather replace their broken appliances. So the BBC decided to find out whether it is worth giving these broken gadgets a new lease of life with a little help from a traditional repair man. Read the story and the accompanying advice from Which?

Treasures on Earth

An article by John Piper on “Treasures on Earth” from the journal Tabletalk, is now available to download.

See also other posts on credit crunch and faith.

Hungry Elephant - affiliate scheme for charities‏

The Hungry Elephant website runs an affiliate scheme for charities to obtain a financial contribution from a vendor when someone uses the charity's code to shop online. It can be a way for voluntary organisations to lever income from the spending of your members or supporters. For example, some supermarkets will pay a certain percentage of the bill to the charity when people shop online with them. And the name? It comes from the "feeling that trying to fundraise is a bit like trying to feed a hungry elephant...a lot of hard work for very little gain". [forwarded by Phil]

Faith, hope and charity shops

Just got to blog about an article with such a great headline! Read Faith, hope and charity shops for a reminder of the benefits of using charity shops. It is extremely ethical:recycling what would otherwise have been discarded; it makes no global, third-world-sweat-shop-exploiting company richer; it releases funds for a range of needy causes. Charity shopping is also thrifty, and it restricts choice and thereby strikes a blow at consumerism.

Public are still giving despite recession

Researchers at the ESRC Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy report that the latest figures show that people are still supporting charities, despite the credit crunch. They conclude: "donors may have less money to spend, but all spending decisions are questions of priorities and they may not automatically tighten their altruistic belts first". For Christians, this time remains an opporunity to show where our treasure lies.

See also: Bad times are good for missions

Glorifying God in our Christmas shopping

Lat minute Christmas shoping today? This article, Glorifying God in our Christmas shopping, discusses how investing a little thought into our shopping will help us give gifts that will encourage faith and hope in God.

Buy Nothing Day 2008

Buy Nothing Day is a global holiday from consumerism - Spend a Day Without Spending! This year it takes place on Satuurday 29 November. Checkout the Toolkit for ideas on how to spend a day without spending.

Shop till you drop?

Despite the credit crunch, new shopping centres keep being opened, including Highcross in Leicester (right). Here's some retail-related stories:

• Although shoppers are keeping a tighter grip on their purse strings, with the economy plunging into recession but shopping centres have always been one step ahead in getting the consumer to splash cash
• Charity shops are seeing a rise in sales
• Something for (nearly) nothing: accessories on the cheap
• The art of Swishing involves getting your friends together to swap clothes and party at the same time. Each participant must bring at least one good quality, clean item of clothing, or an accessory, that she'd feel proud to hand on.
  
• For ethical clothing browse the Lift the Label ethical directory

Credit crunch: web round-up

Lots of credit crunch stories in the media - here's a selection to make you think:

• Christianity and the credit crunch
• We could save a fortune by living in hotels
• Oxford lecture on credit crunch tops iTunes chart
• How do you live without a bank account?

Perhaps you want to emulate the Prime Minister with his reputation for prudence and frugality - is it his Scottish genes? Why not learn from the new World Porridge Making Champion or tartan yourself up?

Fifty ways to save money online

Check out this recent Guardian article with tips for 50 money-saving websites "to help us all stay afloat in the coming months". I'd also suggest Martin Lewis' Money Site - the weekly newsletter is well worth signing up for.
[Image from FreeFoto.com]

Resources for the credit crunch

Let's look at some practical (and free) resources to help put credit crunch theology into practice:

• Care for the Family provides a range of resources on money issues including the Money Secret website (which offers a free online course) and support if you decide try the ‘Cash for a Month’ technique.
• Stewardship also offer resources in the form of challenges, which can be used by individuals wanting to get a grip on their personal finance or used as exercises in home groups to practically apply what is being taught and discussed.
• In Balance your budget we discussed the Church of England's resource: the Matter of Life and Debt website. They include a selection of prayers for those worried about money .

Credit Crunch theology

The blog post Credit Crunch theology: Does God want us to be poor? raises a good question. However, the writer of Proverbs offers a balanced and timeless perspective:

give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God. (Proverbs 30:8-9)

Making time to think

From the BBC website:

When Barack Obama met David Cameron, the pair got around to discussing thinking time - and the lack of it. It's not just potential leaders of nations who are short of opportunities to reflect on the bigger picture. How can any of us grab thinking time during the working day?

... few of us complain of having too much time, whether at work or at home. As a public service, the Magazine asks how to grab yourself some thinking time - from those who've had time to think about it.

[Image from FreeFoto.com]

GOOSHING: the ethical shopping tool

I entered a recent Cafédirect competition and was delighted to win a copy of The Good Shopping Guide!

This tipped me off about GOOSHING - the free ethical shopping tool. Using GOOSHING makes it easy to buybrands from the most responsible companies at the cheapest price… and boycott those corporates that don’t care about animal welfare, human rights or the environment. The price search tool seeks out the lowest prices available - on 250,000 products from over 350 shops. GOOSH away.....

WebWatch: Manage your money

Christianity magazine has a regular WebWatch column, with themed reviews of Internet sites. This month the theme is Manage your Money:

"Over the last couple of months we’ve been analyzing how the Web can help Christians with their stewardship of all God has given. We’ve spoken about stewardship of your time and your thoughts, but we haven’t yet addressed the area most people instinctively think of when they hear the word “stewardship”... Your money.

So let’s talk about it now. How do we use our finances effectively in God’s service? How do we even get them under control? Can the Internet really help? Well, yes it can, in a mind-boggling variety of ways."

Balance your budget

The Church of England launched a tool to help balance your household budget in time for yesterday's Budget. The Matter of Life and Debt website pages now feature an easy-to-use, interactive, downloadable Excel spreadsheet - which totals up income and spending, and allows householders to make adjustments until they are balancing their budget. The resources include prayers for guidance, emphasising that the Bible teaches us to be content with what we have, rather than find satisfaction from over-spending.

One prayer requests:

Lord God, your will is to bring hope and a future to all your people. Trusting in your steadfast love, we ask your guidance as we work out a household budget. Help us to learn to let no debt remain outstanding, except the debt to love one another, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Three more years for current Gift Aid level

Today's Budget contains good news for churches and charities: the current level of Gift Aid will be maintained for another three years. The Chancellor promised, charities will still be able to reclaim 28 pence for every pound donated until 2011, rather than the level dropping to 25 pence in line with the falling income tax rate, announced in last year’s Budget. He estimated this would reduce the losses that charities would incur by £300m.

Rising world food prices

There has been a lot of reporting in the media recently on why the era of cheap food may be coming to an end. The price of wheat has doubled in the past year - and it is not the only foodstuff trading at a high price on the international commodity market. While in the UK, pig farmers are protesting at Downing Street over the price of feed, the global situation is that things have got so bad that aid agencies are having to rethink their programmes.

This made me think about trying to locate my 1980s copy of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ronald J. Sider or (if I can't find it) to buy a new edition (now called Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity). The book was hailed by Christianity Today as one of the one hundred most influential books in religion in the twentieth century and went on to sell 350,000 copies. The basic message - to quote an apt phrase - is to "live more simply so that others may simply live".