One (small) good deed a day 2024

[Dicey]

A multi-day project in the works, but my 85-year old neighbor is writing a memoir about his life, mostly for his family to have a written history in the future. He had it mostly written, and it's very entertaining, but he's got some vision issues so there were numerous minor punctuation, grammatical, formatting, etc. items that needed correcting in the manuscript. I offered to read and edit, which I have been doing for the past month, and now his work will be free of those issues so his family can enjoy without those distractions.

Badass!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I was working in our yard today, and a guy approached & wanted to ask questions about our neighborhood. He's making an offer on a house a block or so away. We chatted for about 15 minutes, and I answered all of his questions. He also has kids who will be attending the high school my teens attend, so I was also able to help him with info about the school.

[Poundwise]

Imagine being a teenager and being with your friends on the sidewalk and complaining that none of the adults in your life had seen fit to provide you with (Thing) and at that moment a stranger steps out of a door and just hands you one. 😂

Well done indeed!!  You spread happiness, Dollar Slice!

I sent an email thanking our school superintendent and principals for having the foresight to provide eclipse glasses to ALL the students!  This meant that kids whose parents were working or whose parents hadn't heard of the eclipse were able to enjoy the eclipse. We have a lot of low income families who don't seem to get much news outside of what their kids tell them; the mom of one of my scouts didn't know about the eclipse. 

There's often a lot of complaining so I figure that the school administration should get some appreciation when they do things right. I don't spend enough time complimenting people for doing things well so this is a change I'm trying to make in myself. 

On other fronts, I have been showing up to traffic meetings with requests and it sounds like we'll be getting some safer walking routes for the students, as well as some other traffic improvements that should have positive ripple effects.

crocheted_stache-- love your good deed... so easy for you but saves your friend time.

Newday, I hope your friend gets a job!  That would be a big big deal.

[pachnik]

I found someone’s phone and a bunch of credit/debit cards on a bench in a shopping mall.  I took into the closest store for the shop clerk to do whatever they do inthat situation. 

Then, a few minutes later as I was leaving the washroom I saw a young dad checking thru his baby’s stroller.  He was also patting his pockets so I figured that was his phone I found. 

I said “Excuse me, sir, are you missing your phone?” He said yes so I took home to the store where I had left it.  The guy was very happy.

[oneday]

I opened the door for someone exiting the coffee shop holding their order in one hand and a dog on a leash in the other hand. Twice in two weeks! Different people and different dogs.

[Taran Wanderer]

Not today, but a while ago… DD and I were on the beach photographing the sunset when we found a phone on the wet sand.  It hadn’t been washed over yet, and it worked fine (but was locked) when we picked it up. We looked for someone who might have lost a cell phone, but there were no likely candidates, and it was time to go home. We took it home (we live 20 minutes or so) from the beach, washed it in fresh water, put it on the charger, and we waited.  Eventually, it rang.  “Lost iPhone,” I answered. Needless to say, they were delighted!

[oneday]

In waiting for the elevator from the ground floor parking garage, I noticed a package on the floor in the corner of the waiting area (huge risk of theft). It was for a different apartment in my building. The building is locked and the delivery people are supposed to check in at the leasing office to gain access, but I guess this driver didn't have the time or something. Picked up the package and delivered it to the doorway of the correct apartment. Should be at much less risk of theft now.

[Freedomin5]

I made a care package for someone going through a really rough time right now.

[Taran Wanderer]

People on our plane waited in their seats while a couple of people from the back of the plane dashed out to make a tight connection.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Started work on my volunteer project for our soccer club (senior night) & bought my friend a coffee when we met to discuss. She's helping me with a lot of it.

[jeninco]

Started work on my volunteer project for our soccer club (senior night) & bought my friend a coffee when we met to discuss. She's helping me with a lot of it.

It's awesome of you to take this on! Thank you, from all the parents of senior players!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Thanks, @jeninco ! I'm apparently a pro, after running the high school version this year. ;-)

For my good deeds of the day:
1) Worked with my sister on some cash flow stuff for special needs aunt, and once that was resolved, paid her property taxes. We've been in charge of her finances for about two months. She's gone from cash flow negative to having a balance of about $1k. We've done a bunch to optimize, including signing her up for low income discounts, negotiating services, canceling things she wasn't using, etc. It's nice to see things finally paying off a bit. Before, she could have never paid her property taxes from her checking account, and would have needed to pull from her very small savings. But, this year we made it work!
2) DS17 bought a gift for someone online, and signed up for "free" shipping via the purchase flow. The "free" shipping site (free shipping.com - avoid, as it's a total scam) then went on to charge him $19/month for months & months before I happened to notice the charge. He has his own debit card where he can spend some of his job earnings. I helped him get a hold of the site, cancel the "subscription", get a refund for the one month they would allow, and we talked through how to avoid this in the future, including checking your charges at least weekly, to stay on top of any potential problems.

[jeninco]

Thanks, @jeninco ! I'm apparently a pro, after running the high school version this year. ;-)

For my good deeds of the day:
1) Worked with my sister on some cash flow stuff for special needs aunt, and once that was resolved, paid her property taxes. We've been in charge of her finances for about two months. She's gone from cash flow negative to having a balance of about $1k. We've done a bunch to optimize, including signing her up for low income discounts, negotiating services, canceling things she wasn't using, etc. It's nice to see things finally paying off a bit. Before, she could have never paid her property taxes from her checking account, and would have needed to pull from her very small savings. But, this year we made it work!
2) DS17 bought a gift for someone online, and signed up for "free" shipping via the purchase flow. The "free" shipping site (free shipping.com - avoid, as it's a total scam) then went on to charge him $19/month for months & months before I happened to notice the charge. He has his own debit card where he can spend some of his job earnings. I helped him get a hold of the site, cancel the "subscription", get a refund for the one month they would allow, and we talked through how to avoid this in the future, including checking your charges at least weekly, to stay on top of any potential problems.

That's fascinating -- I just ordered checks, and "Free shipping.com" offered me a free! $10 for using Free Shopping.com!  Fortunately, it rang my scam-meter pretty quickly, and I noted out of that webpage before entering any information.  (Side note: I'd looked at the checks a few days ago, and decided the total $ was too high. Logged into my email this morning, and -- hey, lookie there, they're half off. Don't mind if I do!) (Side-side note: I know, most things can be paid via the inter webs, but I'm old, and we have a system that works. I just bought several years worth of getting to continue using our existing system, and having the ability to write occasional checks to older people who prefer that.)

Great job helping out your aunt!

[LaineyAZ]

A very small good deed:  Gave a pen to a petition signature-gatherer because hers was running out of ink.

Gathering signatures on petitions to get on the ballot is a job that doesn't pay much so most of those people are pretty cash-strapped.  I hope that replacing her pen meant she was able to continue working and making a few more dollars.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@jeninco - I looked on their website, and they are actually connected with some decent retailers, which is sad. Those retailers are contributing to the problem, because they are a total scam. I'm glad you were able to notice they were scammy. DS17 is still learning all of those things!

[Dollar Slice]

My friend needed to get some community feedback for her arts-related senior thesis and put out a call to get some people to submit some comments on her work, so I spent some time with the work and wrote up a few lines that she could submit to her teacher. Not sure how many she needs, but that's one down :-)

[crocheted_stache]

Today I took one of my local elected officials and some volunteers out bike riding on a street that's slated for improvements. I don't think the official has done much bicycling. We all hope his having this firsthand experience and hearing the direct feedback from volunteers will inform his decisions regarding the improvements.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@crocheted_stache - that is a fantastic idea! Well done.

[Freedomin5]

I started a FIRE club at work. Hopefully, this can help inspire a few more people towards good personal finance and FIRE.

[jeninco]

Pushed to organize three couples (so far) from the immediate neighborhood to rotate Porch happy hours on Friday evenings.  We hosted the first one, and the second one was this evening (I know it's not Friday, but this week's hosts wisely checked the weather forecast, and this was the nicest evening: it's supposed to be mixed rain and snow the rest of the week). Everyone (including us) has been delighted with the activity: it's a lovely social hour and a half or so -- so far food has also been present, in quantities that mean we really don't need to eat dinner after. (This is partly on me: I have a thing about cooking yummy food, so I try to make sure no one is going hungry.)

I'm pleased it's working so well, and everyone else seems pretty tickeled with the plan, too! As the weather gets nicer, we'll probably expand to include more neighbors, and I fully intend to have one or two (maybe in July and August) be full-on neighborhood versions.

[crocheted_stache]

@jeninco That's a great idea. I miss hosting people. Maybe outdoors is the solution to lingering pandemic fears and lingering pandemic messy house.

Today:
Attempted to help a coworker to do another coworker's job while she's on vacation. My role in this was a long call that was equal parts technical troubleshooting and moral support.

Sent a few bucks to an online friend's GoFundMe and sent him a Linkedin invitation. He's determined to get a job again after some health issues. His field is related to mine, but he doesn't live near me. I'll offer to connect him to people, but the greater service may be in the form of encouragement to carry on job-hunting and a little help with the rent in the meantime.