november 2020 donation - kiva 2

I got laid off last week, which I'm hoping won't affect my monthly donations too much, but this month was a very expensive one. i paid for 4 tickets to the huntington museum for ting's bday, bought a rather expensive pan (it was 35% off for black friday and we do need a new non-stick pan but I don't want a chemically one), and still need to buy christmas presents for people including a $60 hand vacuum for my godmother. I was planning to buy us one too since I broke ours but I'm probably only going to get one if it's super cheap since altho I broke ours, it's basically still usable. 

anyway! so if you read my last post about kiva.org, you saw that I was given a $25 credit from PayPal for a future loan. I decided to lend it to bernard, a tailor in kenya who needs funds to buy materials for his business. 

but I did actually donate too! normally when you donate via credit card, you're asked if you want to help cover transaction costs by adding another like 3-4%. at my previous kiva loan, I donated the requested $3.75 to help cover costs, and this time I donated $6.25 for a total of $10 to kiva this month. 

clothing

Generation Z & The Fast Fashion Paradox

I'm not gen z, and I don't do fast fashion, but clothing is definitely my biggest consumer weakness. it's worse too because I wear mostly synthetics tho I, obviously, know better. I justify it to myself in saying that I'm upgrading my wardrobe to better brands which use better quality materials so items last longer and shed fewer micro-plastics. and yeah, I actually have cycled out all my columbia fleeces for north face, marmot, and arc'teryx. I also never buy new, because used is cheaper but also more environmentally friendly. I also try to sell all my clothes rather than donating them because there's more control that it doesn't end up in landfill. 

but regardless of those reasons, I still have way too much clothes =\ I literally have like 10 fleeces. different weights, but several at each weight. it's also really ridiculous because I only wear certain colors so it's even more pronounced that I have too much. I sometimes blame my completist inclinations. when I was much younger I would try to finish everything in a series: nancy drew, stephen king, etc. I definitely still have a little of that now, but it's less pronounced. 

I don't even think it's the clothes itself (studies confirm it usually isn't), but the excitement of getting a good deal, of winning an auction, of having something come in the mail, of getting something new. realizing this, I've more recently told myself that a good deal is not good enough. good thing J is much better at that, lol. we were at grocery outlet and they had a $20 bottle of sake that used to be like $80 and I really wanted to get it. not because I like sake, but because it was such a good deal! we ended up not buying it because neither of us really likes sake and my reasoning for wanting it was really stupid. tho had I been shopping by myself, I might have bought it. ugh.

for 2021 I'm going to focus on narrowing down my closest. that doesn't mean I can't buy anything new, but I do think I want to do the one thing in one thing out rule. and, more importantly, really focus more on the purging. I probably have 20 dresses total? for some reason, I love buying them but am always too "embarrassed" to wear them. buy for your actual life, not the life you want, or some saying like that. 

my purchasing guidelines for new things: economics, ethics, and the environment. not necessarily in that order. 

kiva

I'm really starting to really like PayPal as a company! a few months ago they offered a $5 bonus to a donation made thru their app. I, of course, took advantage of that offer and donated my monthly give to Planned Parenthood. a couple weeks ago they offered a $25 future credit for lending a minimum of $25 on Kiva. I had heard of Kiva but hadn't really looked into it before but, again, I took advantage!

there are TONS of people you can lend to, in any amount, in like many counties, for a million different reasons. I was only planning to lend $25 (sort of matching my monthly donation), so I sorted the borrowers by how much remained of their ask. there were three women just short $25 of raising their total: two from the Philippines (there are a lot of borrowers from the Philippines I think?) and one from Uganda. one wanted funds to buy additional merchandize for her bodega, another wanted money for feed for her animals, and Sifa, from Uganada, asked for funds to expand her clothing business.

I chose Sifa, because she's a refugee and because this was included in her ask: Sifa is grateful that the income will help her to grow her business while increasing her income.

almost immediately after checking out, I got a message from Kiva and PayPal saying I got another $25 to lend next time. for no particular reason, I think I'm going to wait till December to lend it out.

this is separate from my november donation since this is technically a loan so I guess I'll eventually be paid back. mentally, I'm treating this as a donation. especially since I'm pretty sure I'll never "cash out" and will keep my funds cycling thru Kiva as long as I can. what an incredible service!