Charity organizations are feeling the economic crunch when it comes to donations. But they are seeing an increase in people taking advantage of lower cost items in their second hand stores.
Anna Wooten is making her dollars stretch this holiday season with the help of the Salvation Army. She is like many others who have been looking to charitable organizations for their shopping needs.
"It's a lot less here, and you can get quality goods too. You need to look for anyway to save money at all," said Wooten.
It's no secret; our economy is making it difficult for money to go as far as it use to. The Salvation Army has seen a decline in donations, but an increase in the number of families in need of assistance. Salvation Army Corps Officer, Butch Mallard, said the fact that so many people are shopping in their stores, shows there's a need for inexpensive goods.
“The traffic in our family stores is up because of the economy. People can't shop in the regular stores so they come to us. But our donations are down because people aren't getting rid of as much stuff because of the hard times," Mallard said.
Tighter times have also meant more dollars for organizations like Goodwill. Store sales there are up from last year. Becky Lytel, a Goodwill spokesperson said, "People are picking and choosing what they need the most and where they can go to get a good value."
"We need to be a little tighter with the budget so we are shopping a little bit more carefully this year," added Wilmington resident, Michelle Lee.
The holiday season has opened the door for many to find shopping alternatives that can go a long way.
All donations to the Salvation Army go toward assisting families in our five county region. More than 1,600 families have applied for assistance this holiday season.
At Goodwill, 92 cents of every dollar made go to fund services like literacy and disability programs.
If you would like more information on how you can donate you can use the following information.
Send donations to:
Salvation Army of Cape Fear
P.O. Box 90
Wilmington, NC 28401
GoodWill
www.goodwill.org
5662 Carolina Beach Rd.
910-794-9650
What we need is more common sense
Adversity is the flame that tempers the steel of character.
Charity
If I had something left over to give I would. I lost my job but don't expect anyone to hand anything out to me. Don't judge a person because they don't fit into your own little world.
Well...
unfortunately...I cannot give a penny to anyone...between NHC, the State of NC and the feds...they plain tax me out of being generous to anybody.
Tax Liar
If you are taxed to death..then you must have something to be taxed for, therefore you are a lot better off than those who are homeless, our elderly, and disabled. If you bunch of selfish whinners stopped worrying about what you had to give and lived out of the abundnace you do have, you would see the splendor of the gifts in your life. Last time I checked, most of us had heat and air, not mud floors, running water, and were not starving...if that is the case...then GIVE GIVE GIVE! and stop being so damn selfish!
Barney? Is that you?
It's HIS money, and he can do with it as he chooses.
Perhaps he'd simply like to decide who gets his assistance, and resents the government making that decision for him.....and I can assure you that every penny more in taxes I have to pay when the Socialists get started, will be one penny less that will go to charity.
I agree with you....
I believe in helping those that are REALLY in need, that being said, a lot of people that are in need right now and there because of their bad decisions in the past. I am not responsible for that. Most of us who work hard for a living will be "spreading the wealth" soon enough.
Just the other day a man in the grocery store parking lot asked for some money because he needed to buy gas to get home, so I gave him some. Two days later, he was still there, asking other people for gas money.
People like this expect handouts, and the government is encouraging it more and more. It is going to get a lot worse after the new year.
Actually...
Actually, I foresee a lot less people begging for money after the new year.
Love to help, but...
I just shelled out about $200 for pecans to feed the squirrels through the Winter. It was a bad year for hickories and it also is my way of saying, "Sorry for letting these homicidal cats live here."
you should be ashamed
you spent 200.00 on pecans? There is people who are loseing houses, children that will have no thanksgiving dinner, people have lost jobs, you have NO COMMON SENSE AT ALL!
I bet 90% of the houses
I bet 90% of the houses being lost, owners couldn't affored them to begin with. I'd spend $200 on squirrels before I'd help these people... oh wait, I am helping these people! The government is taking my hard earned money and giving it to them to help with their mortgages.
No...you don't. He's being
No...you don't. He's being funny.
Funny?
Show me a homeless bum starving downtown and an arboreal rat of the family Sciuridae, and my last six pecans are going to the squirrel.
It's smarter, provides a beneficial service to mankind, and likely smells better.
Pecans FOR HUNGRY SQUIRRELS
Understand this: I will give *MY* money to whatever cause *I* consider important.
Those people who are "loseing" their houses can rent an apartment. The ones who lost their job can find another job. There was a story just last week about lardbutt children, so maybe they should skip Thanksgiving dinner and go run a few miles.
Meanwhile, the forest animals find that the hickory and pecan trees that fed them for two-hundred generations have been cut down to put up another McMansion. The area they have to live in shrinks every day.
So you worry about people who can't manage their lives and I'll worry about helpless animals that have no voice or rights. In other words, you decide how to spend your money and I'll decide how to spend mine.
pecans
Aparently you and your little followers have never had a tragedy in your lives. You are so quick to blame. My husband had a massive heart attack at one time witch left me with 2 small children and a job being a cashier. Oh, but wait, I must have been living above my means right? I'm sure alot of the people in trouble are but there is a small few who the economy itself is taking over. Since you people are so well off I can't wait till Obama taxes you more just like he should. SPREAD THE WEALTH!!!! wE'RE WAITING.......
Keep waiting
I've already begun restructuring my income and investments to insure that the Socialists can't get any more than they currently do. It's great to have an in-depth knowledge of the tax code, plus an accountant sister who specializes in tax issues for backup.
So you'd better plan on taking care of your own kids, and I'll take care of the squirrels. We all have our individual priorities.
BTW I probably give away more in charity every year than you make at your cashier job. So let me emphasize this point again: In the event the Socialists get REALLY creative, change the tax code, and start hitting my wallet, guess what category gets cut out of my budget first?
where are you
Commonsense, where do you live? I love SQUIRREL SOUP and since you have fatten them up they probably taste good! Wackem, packem and stackem!
oh my
Squirrel soup? The sound of that makes me gag. That would be like eating a rat. I have lived in NC for 42 years and not one piece of squirrel, possum or deer has crossed my lips. Weirdest thing I have had is beef tongue... Course I have probably eaten worse at the local Asian places.
Uh...that's the other thing....
It's also my way of apologizing for hunting them most of my life. I only quit hunting about ten years ago.
I fully support regulated hunting...I just don't hunt anymore myself.
Give up the idea of hunting THESE squirrels, however. With the cost of those pecans, these are "the golden squirrels."
Haha!
Wow, you hunted squirrels? What a challenge that must have been. Did they put up a good fight? I hope you at least ate them.
And you know, you didn't have to be so insensitive to the lady's situation where she was left with nothing after her husband's heart attack. She had a valid point, that while most people who are in a bind right now may have been living above their means, there are quite a few who aren't who are forced into a bind.
I'm not a sensitive guy
I make Mister Spock look like a weeping, emotional basket case.
However, considering the confrontational, in-your-face attitude regarding the joy at her avenging angel, Obama, raking me over the coals, I'm sure that even Mister Rogers would have told her to go to blazes. Since she wants to see Obama take money from me and give it to her, why would I give a hoot about her husband, children, or feelings?
If people spent more time managing their lives and less time crying the blues, they'd find that things will turn around and get better, quickly.
Really???!?!
WOW, WOW - really? Are you serious???
If life were only that simple. It's not just about losing a house or losing that job you worked your whole life to get, spent thousands of dollars at college for a degree. Maybe your parent's put their home up to help you pay for it, and they're losing it. Is it their fault then? It is your fault?
I'm assuming you've never hit rock bottom.
If it were as simple as just "getting another job" do you think the country would be where it is at today?
Turn on the news, or just simply open your eyes and ears.
My mother never owned a house in her life
She lived in a rented apartment until the day she died. My share of her booming estate was about $5k.
I grew up in rock bottom. I was still a baby when my father finished second place in a gunfight. That was pre-welfare and pre-Medicaid. My mother went back to work and the four of us lived off her small salary and the supplemental security income from my father's social security. I was a latch-key kid at nine. I can remember eating Wheaties for dinner because it was three days to payday and that's all we had. I can remember my mother breaking down crying because I fell, ripped the knee out of my school uniform pants, and she had no blue thread to mend them and no money to buy any.
Thanks to her example, leadership, and refusal to accept mediocrity from her kids however, she saw all three of her children finish college, two on scholarships.
I took a year off after my first career, bummed around the country working odd jobs and writing magazine articles. I can assure you that there's ALWAYS plenty of work out there if you look for it. You just can't sit on your butt in one place and moan about no job. Get your tail out to Kansas, Nebraska, or the Dakotas and you'll find plenty of work.
You think you invented hard times? You think I never had my share of difficulties in my life? I've been knocked on my butt finanacially, emotionally, and every which-way you can imagine in life. To quote that old Astair and Rogers number, "I pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again."
Here's a quote from William F. Halsey that has proven valuable whenever I have faced adversity: "There are no extraordinary men... just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with.
In other words, when the going gets tough, the tough kick in the afterburner and win.
Start thinking that life has kicked your butt and guess what? It has.
What do you want, a medal?
Like you hinted to, everyone goes through hard times, and some more than others. But you still may have had it better than some.
When you left to go bum around the country, I'm sure you didn't have kids or a family to support, did you? And I'm sure you didn't have some sort of disability which kept you from being able to actively find and work any job which you came across. Some people can't just get their tail out to Kansas, Nebraska, or the Dakotas where there may be plenty of work.
I'm not making excuses for people, but sometimes you just run out of options. And when someone has tried everything they are able or know how to do, then what's wrong with asking for help?
Always an excuse for failure, right?
If my kids were still young and suffering, I'd leave them with their mother or grandparents and walk to where the work was, if I had to. I'd mail money home.
Are you telling me you can't do what eleven million uneducated, illegal aliens can do?
You're 100% correct when you say that I've had it better than many. Do you know why? Because I learned at an early age that no one can beat me except me! I learned that the quality of my life is directly proportional to the thoroughness of my planning.
As long as you have a discernible pulse, you are not out of options, but the day you lie down and say, "I can't..." it's all over....and you've lost.
Great comment
I may not agree with Commonsensenotcommontoday, but this comment is one of the best he has ever posted.
Very well put!
Perfect quote for the current times. ""There are no extraordinary men... just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with."
Credit Bull Halsey
I was just fortunate enough to have learned the quote at an early age.
pecans
We have 2 huge pecan trees so we feed them too. Plus I feed the birds all year. I would feed my deer but my hubby wont let me set up a feeding station.
We have 4 kids 19-25 all out on their own, we give plenty of charity to them allllllllll year long.
I am totally a scrooge but hey, I never asked for anything for free either.
Common don't even think about replying about Obama giving it away for me..... Peace
Zippy! Sssssshhhh!
I wouldn"t mention those trees again. Are you familiar with the term "imputed income?"
That mob who will be taking power in January are BIG fans of expanding imputed income. Even if you let the squirrels eat the nuts, every pound of pecans falling from that tree is four dollars in your pocket.
That could yield a pretty big tax liability....
...but that's some change we need, right?
hummm
Perhaps I could write them off as a charitable contribution to the homeless (squirrels).
You couldn't resist making a comment. Nut...HA! Get it?
No mercy
Madam, Obama shall hang around your neck like a dead albatross for the next four years.
I blame YOU.
wow
Blame me? Cant blame me yet, nothings happened. He would have won w/o my vote. OK fine blame me my husband is.... Blame me for global warming, the war, the economy and Katrina as well. Oh'yeah Katrina was Bush's fault.
ashamed / guest 555
should i be ashamed that i spend 6 dollars a day on coffee?
people are losing their houses because they can not afford them. because they live beyond their means
children with no thanksgiving dinner is the parents fault.
lost jobs, why didn't anyone save their pennies
why did they live beyond their means?
the most valuable employees will continue to be employeed.
glad you reminded me i need some pecans
how
how is that any of his problem? its his money he can spend it as he wishes, just like I spend mine.