By night, you can usually find me blogging. It’s the only time where I can fully focus on blogging tasks.

But by day, you can find me doing many other things that matter to me. Mostly it is taking care of my 3 little ones, but about 10-15 hours per week you can also find me serving as president of a local non-profit that sends food home with underprivileged children.

I honestly don’t have a lot of free time for anything other than taking care of my children and running our household, but blogging is an outlet for me and I LOVE giving back.

Helping others figure out how to do the same, even when they think their plates are full and their pockets are empty is a passion of mine.

How to Be a Conscious Consumer

Most budget conscious moms like me are familiar with cash back and coupon websites. They locate cash back opportunities or coupon codes to redeem on retail websites.

I recently found out about a wonderful new website that will help you give back simply by shopping online as you normally would. It’s called Giving Assistant, and it operates much like a combination of the two (pointing you to cash back opportunities and sharing coupon codes), but there’s a neat catch:

A small portion of any money you earn from using the site is reserved for a charity of your choice.

It’s such a wonderful idea and the website is super simple to use.

How to Shop Responsibly and Save Money at the Same Time

Here’s how Giving Assistant works:

1. Sign up for Giving Assistant using your email or Facebook account (I used Facebook). I signed up to donate money to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC (the non-profit that gives my program a big percentage of our food each month).
2. Specify what percentage of money earned you would like to keep versus donate. (80/20, 50/50, etc)
3. Start browsing categories for coupons and cash back. Under each offer, you will either see the words “SHOW COUPON” or “GET DEAL.” If you choose a coupon, it will reveal a coupon code, and GivingAssistant will donate one meal when you redeem that coupon. If you choose to get a deal, the keep/donate percentage you specified above will go into effect, and you will receive part of the savings with your designated charity receiving a portion.

Note: If you want to change your designated charity, just navigate to My Account near the top of the page, and click on Settings in the top right corner. This is where you can change your charity and adjust the percentage you’d like to receive in cash back versus donate.

They have a HUGE searchable database of charities to choose from, so you should have no problem finding a cause you love.

Once you sign up and locate the non-profit you are excited about helping, you can send all your friends to the sign up page to do the same. That’s what I’m doing with the Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC. We have a dedicated volunteer base who would love to help out!

Types of Retailers You’ll Find Cash Back & Coupons For

Giving Assistant has coupons and deals for any kind of purchase you can think of. You can find deals on accessories, beauty products, clothing, and electronics. And you can also give back while saving on flowers, food, health, home & garden, pets, shoes, and travel.

Some of my favorite merchants are on Giving Assistant:

• Amazon
• Crocs
• Disney Store
• Kmart (I saw a $5 off coupon…who couldn’t use that?!)
• Kohl’s
• Sears
• Priceline
• Travelocity
• Cheap Caribbean
• Payless
• Target
• Lenovo
• Walmart
• Ulta
• Bath & Body Works
• Sephora
• Coach
• Fossil
• Victoria’s Secret
• White House Black Market

This is just the tip of the iceberg. As you can see there’s a variety of big box stores and brands represented on the Giving Assistant cash back website.

Shopping responsibly is just one way busy moms can give back even if they don’t have tons of free time.

What are some ways you work in charitable giving into your busy mom life?