Your Mission This Weekend…

5 dollar doodle
In the spirit of all things awesome, I thought we’d dedicate this post (and weekend) to doing something GOOD for each other if you’re up for the challenge :)  This world is full of so much garbage and hate, that for once I’d like to hear about some random acts of KINDNESS going on in our own little circles of life. Can you imagine the power of thousands of us doing 1 small thing to cheer someone up this weekend? How cool would that be? And honestly, it wouldn’t take much effort.

So your mission this weekend, if you choose to accept it, is to find one small way to make someone HAPPY using $5.00 or less. You can interpret that any way you would like, but by this time Monday morning your deed should be completed if you’re up for it.

Here are a few ideas that come to mind:

  • You could pick up a Starbucks for someone! (sadly, only 1 w/ the amount they cost, haha…)
  • You could mow a neighbor’s lawn (pretend we’re back in the 80’s and $5.00 was worth a lot again!)
  • You could surprise a family member who lives far away! ($5.00 for gas?)
  • You could make someone lunch or dinner (or breakfast – ow ow!)
  • You could offer your services free of charge.  (Maybe an hour of your time?)
  • Or, quite literally, you could hand someone $5.00 that needs it a lot more than you do.

There are a TON of things you could come up with, but the best are those that are really meaningful to YOU. The opportunities to make a difference in someone’s life are endless.  And honestly, the thought is worth MUCH more than the mere $5.00 anyways.  My friends Nate and Josh do this every week at ItStartsWith.Us, and the ripple affects of everyone’s single little actions are incredible.  I’ve literally teared up at some of the things that have come out of their weekly missions, and I think what they’re doing is great. (Which is why Nate is my co-founder at Love Drop! :))

So that’s the mission, boys and girls.  Do you accept? Are you ready for some giving back action? I hope so. And I also hope you’ll share what you end up doing and how it affected your friend or loved one too. You just never know who’s going through a hard time right now, and your small act of kindness could be all they needed to perk back up :) Lord knows we’ve all been there at some point.

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30 Comments

  1. Emily September 23, 2011 at 10:41 AM

    Great idea! I know I need to be more intentional of doing things for other people. With these types of goals I need people to keep reminding me though so that I’m thinking about it!

    Reply
  2. J. Money September 23, 2011 at 11:26 AM

    Haha, me too! I’m hoping people share what they ended up doing so that we can all continue to be inspired as well :) To doing good!

    Reply
  3. Jessica O. September 23, 2011 at 12:36 PM

    Paying the toll for the person behind you on the toll road is a great one! (And it’s a lot faster than waiting for change!)

    Reply
  4. Justin Wright September 23, 2011 at 12:44 PM

    Jessica, I agree that paying the toll for the person behind you is a great idea. We had this happen to us in Florida one day while crossing one of the large bridges and for the rest of the day we couldn’t stop talking about it. It was just so surprising and something you don’t expect.

    Reply
  5. J. Money September 23, 2011 at 1:02 PM

    Agreed! Such a small little act that brightens your day for hours :)

    Reply
  6. Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager September 23, 2011 at 1:19 PM

    Sounds like a plan! Can’t wait to see what happy stories come out of this challenge.

    Reply
  7. DWilson September 23, 2011 at 3:55 PM

    I just found this blog and I love it! Count me in!

    Reply
  8. Maria Nedeva September 23, 2011 at 6:05 PM

    It seems I have a head start on this one. I have a friend whose business went bust – she had real estate, overstretched herself and in 2008 the bank called the mortgages in. Bad news…No business, two young children, no partner, no job…only social security but this is hardly enough. She re-organised her life, made sure that they eat well but cheaply; about a year ago went back to work (her own business again) and two days ago became debt free. She paid a substantial amount back in 22 months on very small income. To celebrate I sent her a little gift I brought for her from my travels. But I was thinking, what is she never going to buy for the boys? Thornton’s chocolates. So got some and they are in the pack – she will receive it tomorrow. This is £5 and will bring a smile on two little faces and tell my friend that I think the world of her and am proud of her.

    Does it count or shall I start again?

    Reply
  9. Briana @ 20 and Engaged September 23, 2011 at 7:30 PM

    I think I’ll make a $5 tip or buy someone Starbucks who’s behind me.

    Reply
  10. Edward Antrobus September 23, 2011 at 9:14 PM

    Instead of Starbucks, go for a cheaper coffee. My work team meets at 7-11 before getting started and several of us get a coffee or hot chocolate. When I go into work tomorrow, I’ll pick up the tab for as many coworkers are in 7-11 at the same time as me.

    Reply
  11. Sharon V September 23, 2011 at 10:06 PM

    Shoot, last weekend, my boyfriend and I hit a good sale on bleach and paper towels. For $11, we got 4 gallons of bleach, and a 6 pack of paper towels, and we made some friends at the local SPCA.

    Reply
  12. Cherleen @ yesiamcheap September 23, 2011 at 11:35 PM

    The easiest way for me is to send the $5 to a charity institution. It may not be a big amount but I know it will help them, especially if I will be doing it weekly.

    Reply
  13. Jeff September 24, 2011 at 9:27 AM

    I started doing this after someone did it for me. At pay and display parking lots they often force you to pay the daily maximum for the ticket ( $7.50 gets you an hour of parking, $10 gets you 18 hours and I’ll be there for 3 hours). When you’re leaving the lot hand someone on your way in your paid ticket.

    Reply
  14. J. Money September 24, 2011 at 5:38 PM

    @Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager – Me too :) You gonna do it with us?
    @DWilson – Great! Thanks so much fo stopping by and leaving a comment :) Welcome to the team!
    @Maria Nedeva – Aww cool!!!! Yes, that def counts :) You can always do something else if you’d like though? Great hearing peole do awesome stuff even w/out being prompted – keep it up!
    @Briana @ 20 and Engaged – OOooh good ones. I kinda want to hide $5.00 somewhere for someone to randomly find later on ;) I’m still thinking what the best way to do that is…
    @Edward Antrobus – Even better — LOTS of coffee, haha…
    @Sharon V – Nice! No “shoot” needed ;)
    @Cherleen @ yesiamcheap – That works too :) Whatever you think will add goodness to this world!
    @Jeff – Love it!! Parking people don’t, but people-people do ;) Haha… good one.

    Reply
  15. J. Money September 24, 2011 at 6:36 PM

    OH. MY. GOSH. That is awesome!!!! Did you hear what that chick said at the end who picked it up? “Too bad it’s not $100!” Hahahahahaa…. yeah, it’s $10,000!!!!

    (going now to check all my pockets and stashes of cash…)

    Reply
  16. Matt September 24, 2011 at 6:50 PM

    ..and by the way I am bad about not giving money out to beggers but I saw a homeless guy on the corner the other day and he had two dogs so I gave him $4. I think it’s an interesting social experiment about how humans can give damn about what happens to animals vs. dismissing a person with real need. I could go on a hundred tangents from here but there is football on :) so have a good weekend!

    Reply
  17. J. Money September 24, 2011 at 7:31 PM

    Haha, I hear that. About the dogs, and football ;)

    Reply
  18. Josh September 25, 2011 at 11:39 AM

    Took one of your ideas but added a twist to it… this morning, I was dropping off my football picks to the guy who runs our football pool and manages the mini market at our complex. I was the only one in the shop with him, so I gave him a $5 bill and asked him to apply it to the next customer who walked in the door. Told him it was for a random act of kindness and he was more than happy to help me out for your mission :)

    Reply
  19. J. Money September 25, 2011 at 11:54 PM

    Awesome!!! way to go :)

    I kept forgetting to do the missions while out and about this weekend, so I decided I’d have some fun on Twitter. Sent this out, and then waited for the answer that I liked the most :)

    “If I mailed you $5.00 right now, what would you do with it?”

    My friend @BudgetMyWorld sent back: “Put it towards my fundraising for crohns and colitis.” He’s running a half-marathon to help spread the word on it – a disease that he carries himself – so I was happy to help contribute to it :) Sent him a crisp $5.00 bill in the mail – woo! (I know, never supposed to mail money but i wanted to physically send it away and write the note/envelope too – feels more real than doing it online).

    Here’s his website if anyone’s interested in learning more: The Huff’s Race for a Reason

    Reply
  20. Elle @ Odd Cents September 26, 2011 at 3:03 AM

    I attended a small business seminar, and I struck up a conversation with a hairstylist. She was complaining that with this “new” technology, her business was suffering. She was trying to start hairstyling classes, but people were no longer interested, because they could find everything on the internet. I told her that she should check out youtube to see what was being offered. She was very annoyed to hear that people were making videos about EVERYTHING and putting them online for free, which translated to her paid services not being needed. I suggested that she should look into starting a youtube account and maybe making her own videos.

    Reply
  21. J. Money September 26, 2011 at 9:10 AM

    I was hoping you were gonna say that :) You gotta adapt in this new world of ours or you’ll just go crazy and fall behind! Nothing stopping her from getting new clients (or even a new hobby?) from youtubing and/or blogging about all that she knows too. Hope she at least gives it a try!

    Reply
  22. Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager September 26, 2011 at 2:37 PM

    @J. Money – Helped my friend who was working on a project. Basically gave her all Saturday to help her out. Can’t wait to see the final project.

    Reply
  23. J. Money September 26, 2011 at 3:07 PM

    Cool! Well done my friend :) See you in a few days…

    Reply
  24. DMB September 26, 2011 at 5:11 PM

    Went to a Party and paid the $5 Valet parking fee for the car behind me…They were SUPER excited, grateful, and confused all at the same time!!! Doing something nice for someone else ALWAYS makes you feel better, especially when they really appreciate it. I’ll try to do random things more often, and $5 is very manageable :)

    Reply
  25. J. Money September 27, 2011 at 1:47 AM

    Haha, yeah! Good work – that’s fun :)

    Reply
  26. Natalie @ Mango September 27, 2011 at 12:45 PM

    J. Money, I think this is probably my favorite of your posts so far. Not because it is breaking news or revolutionary information (don’t get me wrong– some of your other posts have covered those categories), but because I think this post will actually make a huge, positive difference. With all of your readers doing just one nice thing, the whole world will be lifted a little higher this week. I LOVE THIS!

    Reply
  27. LB September 30, 2011 at 6:49 PM

    I was so excited about this mission, but then I spent all weekend painting my living room. Does it count that the week before I was visiting my mom and did all kinds of nice things for people? Probably not, it was ND and everyone is super nice and you just can’t help to be the same way ALL the time.

    Reply
  28. aj October 5, 2011 at 4:45 PM

    Unfortunately we spent the weekend at the hospital with MIL whose kidneys almost shut down…but we bought a book of parking passes for $10 (parking garage prices are $1 an hour)
    and shared them with others that were also visiting at the hospital so they didn’t have to worry about paying the fee when they left. Many people don’t know that you can go to the cashier’s office to get the discounted passes. (MIL is home now, thank goodness.)
    It was a bad situation that we made better by doing something good for others while we were there.

    Reply
  29. J. Money October 6, 2011 at 6:25 PM

    @Natalie @ Mango – Awww, thanks! I’ve been trying to get it out for a while now, but never thought it was worth posting :) I guess I was wrong!
    @LB – Haha, sure – being nice ALWAYS counts ;) If you want extra credit though, do something special *this* weekend.
    @aj – That is brilliant!! SO so kind of you, thank you for sharing that :) And I’m super glad MIL is doing better! I hope it’s not a permanent thing :(

    Reply

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