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Kind things under ten dollars
Small money, deliberately spent. The amount matters far less than the specificity — a $4 coffee for the person on the shift nobody wants lands harder than a $40 gift nobody asked for.
Showing 1–30 of 37 ideas
Keep the cat in at dawn during nesting season
Fledglings leave the nest unable to fly properly for about a fortnight. Dawn is when both cats and birds are busiest.
5 minutesUnder $10An animal
Not rated yet
Refill the one thing you keep rebuying
Pick a single household item and stop buying new packaging for it. One item, permanently, beats a good fortnight.
Half an hourUnder $10The planet
Not rated yet
Mend it once before you replace it
One repair attempt, on one thing, before it goes. Most failures are a seam, a fuse or a seal.
Half an hourUnder $10The planet
Not rated yet
Plant the tree you will not sit under
Whatever you plant now shades somebody who has not been born yet. That is the whole appeal.
An afternoonUnder $10The planet
Not rated yet
Learn to make the food they miss
The thing from their childhood, or the country they left. Getting it slightly wrong still counts.
An afternoonUnder $10Someone you live with
Not rated yet
Deal with the thing they keep meaning to deal with
The cupboard door, the unopened letter, the tap. It has been on their list for two years and it is forty minutes of yours.
An afternoonUnder $10A relative
Not rated yet
Keep sending the birthday card after the divorce
Children lose half their extended family in a separation, usually without anyone deciding that should happen.
5 minutesUnder $10A friend1 person did this
Not rated yet
Read the book your teenager is reading
It gives you a subject that is not school, not their friends and not anything they have to defend.
OngoingUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
Buy two and leave one
Suspended coffees, paid-forward meals and school-fund top-ups exist. Most people have never noticed the option.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger1 person did this
Not rated yet
Buy from the list rather than guessing
Food banks and shelters publish exactly what they are short of. Donations that ignore it create sorting work.
Half an hourUnder $10An organization
Not rated yet
Tip in cash where the card tip may not reach them
Card tips are sometimes pooled, taxed through payroll or partly retained. Cash usually goes to the person.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Teach a child something genuinely useful
Changing a tire, wiring a plug, making one good meal. Competence is a form of confidence that lasts.
An afternoonUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
Ask someone to teach you their food
Being asked to share something from home reverses the usual direction, where the newcomer receives and thanks.
An afternoonUnder $10A neighbor
Not rated yet
Say keep the change before they count it
A small overpayment is worth more as a decision you announce than as coins you leave behind.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Be the house where the friends come
Teenagers need somewhere that is not a bedroom and not a street. Somebody's kitchen is the whole infrastructure.
OngoingUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
Return it better than you got it
The borrowed car with a full tank, the returned dish with something in it. The margin is what people remember.
Half an hourUnder $10A neighbor
Not rated yet
Split the bill by what people can actually pay
Dividing equally is simple and quietly excludes whoever ordered the cheapest thing for a reason.
5 minutesUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
Pay a bit more at the place that employs people
The difference between the independent and the chain is usually small per item and decisive per year.
Half an hourUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Buy the last of it at the end of market day
Unsold fresh produce at four o'clock is a loss the trader eats. Buying it is a favor disguised as a bargain.
Half an hourUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Take the other child out
When one child is seriously ill or disabled, their brothers and sisters become invisible to every adult around them.
An afternoonUnder $10A caregiver
Not rated yet
Send the carer the card, not the household
Cards and gifts go to the patient or to the family. The carer receives almost nothing addressed to them alone.
5 minutesUnder $10A caregiver
Not rated yet
Write an actual letter
A letter can be reread, shown to visitors and kept on the mantelpiece. A text cannot do any of those things.
Half an hourUnder $10A neighbor1 person did this
Not rated yet
Plan something that is not built around drinking
People in recovery, pregnant, on medication or simply not drinking are excluded from most adult socialising by default.
An afternoonUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
Ask an older person to teach you something
Being useful is the thing most often lost in older age. Being taught is a better gift than being helped.
An afternoonUnder $10A neighbor
Not rated yet
Become a regular somewhere on purpose
Being known by name in one place is the cheapest antidote there is to feeling like a stranger where you live.
OngoingUnder $10A neighbor
Not rated yet
Ask what they would make if you let them
People who make things all day rarely get asked their opinion by the people they make them for.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Cover the few pounds someone is short at the till
Being short at a checkout with a queue behind you is a small public humiliation, and it is trivially preventable.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Bring food in a container they never have to return
A borrowed dish is a small ongoing debt. Food in something disposable is a gift with no strings at all.
Half an hourUnder $10A caregiver
Not rated yet
Go to the small thing nobody else will
The exhibition, the first gig, the talk to nine people. Attendance at the small things is what people remember.
An afternoonUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
Teach six people the thing you can do
Most useful skills are held by people who do not think of themselves as qualified to teach them.
An afternoonUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet