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Kind things worth spending on

These cost real money. They are here because some problems are genuinely solved by buying the thing, and pretending otherwise is its own kind of unhelpful.

11 ideas

• Give money without making it a loan

  A loan between friends creates a debt that outlasts the need. A gift, clearly stated, does not.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Buy the thing they would never buy themselves

  People under financial pressure cut the small pleasures first, and those are the ones that hold a life together.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Buy the work rather than praising it

  Artists, writers and makers get a great deal of encouragement and very little income. One is a great deal more useful.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Quietly pay for a child's kit

  The boots, the instrument, the trip. Children drop out of things because of cost, and nobody is told why.

  5 minutesMore than $10A neighbor

• Help with the deposit, not the rent

  A one-off lump unlocks a situation. Ongoing help postpones one, and is far harder to stop.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Turn the one-off donation into a standing order

  Charities can plan against regular income and cannot plan against appeals. Five pounds monthly beats sixty at Christmas.

  5 minutesMore than $10A stranger

• Quietly pay for the thing they canceled

  Money is the first thing to go in a crisis, and the cancellations are small, private and cumulatively demoralising.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Cook for twelve, invite near-strangers

  Adults stop making new friends largely because nobody hosts. A table is the cheapest social infrastructure there is.

  An afternoonMore than $10A friend

• Give to the unfashionable thing

  Money follows stories. Drainage, insurance and boiler repairs raise nothing and close more organizations than anything else.

  5 minutesMore than $10A stranger

• Quietly cover the person who is skint

  Someone stops coming out because they cannot afford it, and tells everyone they are busy instead.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Make a hard-day box for a caregiver

  The person looking after someone else is usually the last one anybody looks after.

  An afternoonMore than $10A caregiver