A few years back, the Give Away a Dollar a Day game came into my awareness. I have no idea who originated this, but I’ve had so much fun playing, I thought I’d share it with you.

What you need to play: 

• a dollar
• a piece of paper (I like heart shaped post-its)
• string, twine, ribbon, tape, a rubber band, paper clip,  (< something to attach the note to the dollar)

How to play:

• Write a few happy or encouraging words on the note.
• Attach the note to the dollar.
• Sneakily drop, hide, place the dollar in a public place. Leave it there, and walk away. (No fair peeking to see who finds it.)

What’s the point?

You know that feeling you get when you reach into your pocket and find money you didn’t know you had?
Well, in playing this game, you are giving someone else that experience.
Money is coming to another with no strings, no expectations and no efforting.
Because it has a note attached, the recipient can’t explain it away or think that they received by accident or due to someone else’s misfortune. And because you’re leaving it for whosoever will find it, you are relinquishing your controlling ideas about who deserves or doesn’t deserve money and what they “should” do with it.
In leaving money just laying about, you are shifting your consciousness around money and scarcity and abundance and generosity. You become a genuine giver because you have no requirements of the recipient. You are giving for the sheer joy of giving. And believe me, this is joyful. Just try it. You’ll see.

One dollar is a small enough amount for most people that giving it won’t deplete you. Yet it’s a large enough amount, that finding it makes a person feel special.
As an added bonus, because you are flowing money to unknown strangers in unexpected happy surprise ways, you open yourself up to receiving in happy surprise ways. Giving away a dollar a day helps you loosen up around money, contribute to the flow, make money part of a game, and change your entire relationship with money from one of angst to one of joy. Isn’t that worth $30 a month?

If the very idea of playing this game causes you too much fear, then play the game with a smaller amount. Give away a dollar a week, or give away a dime a day or whatever. Just begin. Yes, now.  Then tell me about your experience.

To get you started, here are a few of my favourite hiding places:
on outside window ledges of public buildings,
tied to trees on hiking trails,
tucked among the groceries on supermarket shelves,
coins near playgrounds and bus stops,
on bus benches,
coins on top of parking meters,
wherever people have to wait in lines (post office, dmv)
near the youth hostel,
by the senior center.
Choose your own locations. Just do it. Beginning today or tomorrow, and then share how this helped you grow.