Growing increasingly weary of constantly being asked for money or donations.

I'm at a point now where it's tiring to be asked for 50-cents, a dollar or a donation. What really put me off this year was back in January, during Martin Luther King weekend.

I had taken a short bus trip to the next town over on Saturday. Went to the bank to deposit a small check. Then went to a favorite bakery about a block away from the bank. Ordered my lunch - a warm feta cheese sandwich and a bottle of water. I was waiting for my sandwich when a teenager, 14 or 15 walked into the bakery and asked me for a donation for some kind of drug program sponsored by his church. I had 75 cents in change, so I gave him that. I think he had seen me leave the bank branch, so he might have thought I had a lot more money than I actually did...but the one cashier (and one of the owners) was in back fixing my sandwich. She didn't look very happy when she returned just in time to see this teenager leaving...but still requesting donations from people who were eating their lunch outside.

Really? You can't even have your lunch in peace and quiet when you are inside a restaurant? Many more requests for money since, but I've started only taking enough money to buy my lunch at one of several nearby restaurants. Then walking back home with no change, no folding money and no ATM card in my wallet. Hopefully, this will solve the problem.

I hope it does. It feels like you feel an obligation to help when asked and somewhat resentful about that obligation. It's hard when you feel that way. If you don't have the money to give, that is one way out of it.

melodiccolor wrote:I hope it does.  It feels like you feel an obligation to help when asked and somewhat resentful about that obligation.  It's hard when you feel that way.  If you don't have the money to give, that is one way out of it.

MC, if it were once, or even twice per month, I wouldn't mind at all. Unfortunately, it is a whole lot more often than that. What annoys me the most is people coming up to you when you're having a small meal in a local McDs and asking you for money. This has happened to me three times within five weeks. Then there are the people at the bus stop across the street on my way home. One of whom claimed he needed 50 cents for bus fare, which I gave him. Bus arrived, but he wasn't on it. If there is one easy way to tick me off fast, it's to lie to me. Btw, there is only one bus line which stps at this stop.

I only give donations and stuff when it gives me a sense of something from the experience of giving and I don't mind what they do with the money.
Regardless they'll get to where they need to go in life whether you give em cash or not or they lie or not and spend it on drugs.

IE: You give people stuff for you and cuz you really feel like it. Not cuz you got guilt tripped or you caved into it.