Random Acts of Kindness

novella1186

I think I've posted about this before; a few years ago I started a Random Acts of Kindness mission and would just try to do little things that might make someone smile. Well, last night FI and I had a random act of kindness happen to us!

I've had a horrendous few days with how sick I've been, and FI was super sick earlier this week. So last night neither of us were in the mood to cook dinner. He went out to pick up food, and the guy in line in front of him paid for our food! I'm sure that guy had no idea how bad I was feeling and how much that made me smile. FI came home with the food and a huge smile on his face, and now he can't wait to "pay it forward" and do that for someone else the next time he's out.

It was just so great, I was really excited. And it was so cool to have it happen to us, and to know that there are awesome people out there doing awesome things. One simple gesture, but to me it was a big deal. So thank you, awesome stranger! Kindness really is contagious.

Has anyone else had a random act of kindness happen to them, or have you done stuff like this for a stranger? Story time!

themuffinman16

When I buy sneakers, I always buy two, and donate a pair to the domestic violence shelter. People always give away dress shoes they no longer wear, but sensible shoes are hard to come by, when you are down on your luck. 

  Some stranger did that for my mother, years ago.  My mom and my sisters were shopping for clothes in a clothes closet at the church, my mom had blisters all over her feet from wearing dress shoes that were too small. The church lady asked my mom what her size was, and went to the store two doors down and bought her a pair of brand new sneakers). It meant so much to my mom, she just started crying. Since then, I knew I wanted to do that for someone else's mother.

AlexisA01

Once during med school, I needed to find a spare tire or use the repair kit for my car because my tire went flat due to the horrible road conditions. I waited for the toll truck to come take my car back to my parents house when this elderly pulled over. They had a model similar to mine and was trying to see if they fix my tire with my repair kit. My car came with a repair kir instead of a spare, I just came from my PEG program in college so I was very inexperienced with cars.

The couple couldn't fix the tire, I called my parents in tears because I was helpless and my car needed to be seen by a mechanic. Then gentleman started to lookat my car. His wife sat in the car with me saying everything will okay and to not worry. He went over and got his spare tire to put on my car and hoped it would last to when I got to the mechanic.

I was shocked and I told them how could I ever repay them for helping and ask me to pay it forward. Ever since then I help people push cars out of the snow. Im on cell, I apologize for spelling errors.

blabla89

That's so sweet!

One time when I was a teenager, I was backing out of our driveway and (don't ask what the hell I did) backed into my mom's car and dented it so badly that the passenger side door wouldn't open. I felt terrible because I knew my mom didn't have the money to get it fixed, especially since the car needed work under the hood already. We had older cars and one of them was always in the shop for something. So mom took her car to the shop for whatever engine repair it needed, and they fixed the dent and the door for free. They didn't say anything about it, but it looked good as new when she got home.

JennyColada

Oh I did that once!

I was getting Jack in the Box drive thru for dinner the night before Thanksgiving (side note: like ENERYWHERE closes hella early that day, ugh!) and paid for the girl behind me. Even the cashier was super giddy about me doing that. It was fun!

paperpusher

I stopped to Dunkin Donuts for munchkins for the office and said I would pay for the lady behind me. She was so flustered and thanked me afterwards. She said she was dumped a week before and that day was supposed to be their one year anniversary.

novella1186

themuffinman16 said:

When I buy sneakers, I always buy two, and donate a pair to the domestic violence shelter. People always give away dress shoes they no longer wear, but sensible shoes are hard to come by, when you are down on your luck. 

  Some stranger did that for my mother, years ago.  My mom and my sisters were shopping for clothes in a clothes closet at the church, my mom had blisters all over her feet from wearing dress shoes that were too small. The church lady asked my mom what her size was, and went to the store two doors down and bought her a pair of brand new sneakers). It meant so much to my mom, she just started crying. Since then, I knew I wanted to do that for someone else's mother.

That is such an amazing story. I love it.

themuffinman16

I only saw that woman, once, but I will never forget her face. 

buttercup1958

Mine isn't as heart warming but my mom and I went shopping for her birthday today. We were standing in line and I saw a little kid lose their sock. I told the parents about it. They then gave us a coupon for buy one get one free. So I got a free scraf! It did feel nice to have a random acts exchange.

Dreamergirl8812

Okay this isn't heartwarming (I really enjoyed PPs' stories). But one of my friends was worried about getting sick with a cold or the flu once, so she paid for the bridge toll for the person behind her. She thought it would be good karma.

All I could think was that's not karma, that's spiritual capitalism.

kaitlynmichelle

My recent one isn't really random but it made me feel awesome.

When we adopted our cat from the SPCA in the fall, they had mentioned she loved wet food. When I asked her preferred brand, they said they only get wet food by donation since it isn't in their budget. So when the cats get any its whatever is donated (and she said it wasn't often).

Well my Raven adored the wet food we've been giving her. So every day I'd buy a few cans for awhile and carry them home with me after work. And when we had 50 cans we walked them down to the SPCA and said thanks for saving our awesome cat, and we hoped the cats still there would enjoy their treat from us. They looked stunned.

Felt awesome. I'm going to do it again.

themuffinman16

kaitlynmichelle said:

kaitlynmichelle said:

My recent one isn't really random but it made me feel awesome.

When we adopted our cat from the SPCA in the fall, they had mentioned she loved wet food. When I asked her preferred brand, they said they only get wet food by donation since it isn't in their budget. So when the cats get any its whatever is donated (and she said it wasn't often).

Well my Raven adored the wet food we've been giving her. So every day I'd buy a few cans for awhile and carry them home with me after work. And when we had 50 cans we walked them down to the SPCA and said thanks for saving our awesome cat, and we hoped the cats still there would enjoy their treat from us. They looked stunned.

Felt awesome. I'm going to do it again.

That is really awesome!  Kitties and doggies really love variety, and I'm sure with the shelter's limited budget there's only so much they can do. I always leave the spca in tears, because I can't take them all home with me.

novella1186

kaitlynmichelle said:

My recent one isn't really random but it made me feel awesome.

When we adopted our cat from the SPCA in the fall, they had mentioned she loved wet food. When I asked her preferred brand, they said they only get wet food by donation since it isn't in their budget. So when the cats get any its whatever is donated (and she said it wasn't often).

Well my Raven adored the wet food we've been giving her. So every day I'd buy a few cans for awhile and carry them home with me after work. And when we had 50 cans we walked them down to the SPCA and said thanks for saving our awesome cat, and we hoped the cats still there would enjoy their treat from us. They looked stunned.

Felt awesome. I'm going to do it again.

Aw that's so cool! One year my beagle won first place in the city's "cutest pet" contest (so random) lol and one of the prizes was a $100 gift certificate to the local pet store. She already has too many toys and too much stuff, so I used the gift certificate to buy food and treats and then also bought some of the kind of toys I know the shelter always needs, and dropped it all off at the place where I volunteered when I was younger. I said it was from my spoiled beagle :P

Not the best example since the gift certificate was just given to me, but definitely such a good feeling!

novella1186

These stories are all so awesome!!!

sophhabobopha

When I'm working I always give free extras or sodas to nice people or little kids or somebody who looks like they've had a long day, and pay for it after my shift. It makes me feel good when they're happy about it.

This one lady that works at the Arby's here always gives me free stuff. I asked her why, and she said it's because I'm always so nice! That made me feel awesome

novella1186

sophhabobopha said:

When I'm working I always give free extras or sodas to nice people or little kids or somebody who looks like they've had a long day, and pay for it after my shift. It makes me feel good when they're happy about it.

This one lady that works at the Arby's here always gives me free stuff. I asked her why, and she said it's because I'm always so nice! That made me feel awesome

I will say that I've worked in customer service, retail, been a bartender, a hostess and a waitress. I would ALWAYS pull strings and do things that I wasn't *technically* allowed to do for people who were very nice, only because in those industries the very nice people seemed to be few and far between and I always loved dealing with them. I did not go above and beyond for the assholes. Nope.

Super sweet old lady? Yeah I can pour you a double but charge you for a single (and not even tell you I did that, and maybe you won't notice it on your bill, but I will personally feel good knowing I gave you a little bit extra just for being cool).
Done and done.

allispain

A couple weekends ago, DH and I went out for a late night drink/snacks with some of his coworkers. We were the first of our group to get there, and the place was packed. There were 4-5 large groups, with two more waiting to be seated (including ours). The hostess was close to tears - we got the vibe it had just been a long, stressful day, plus they seemed to be understaffed for that number of customers. 

DH started helping her by reorganizing the menu stack and getting silverware lined up to be taken when she was seating parties, and I started directing traffic for all of the large parties that had people straggling in. When a group cleared out, we helped her move the tables around to fit the new parties coming in. It felt good to see her look calmer and calmer as we helped out - by the time we sat down with our group she was all smiles and looked like she was having a much better night.

ETA - spelling

LabLove86

I just saw this - I am not sure how old it is . . . . but fits right in with this post

http://madworldnews.com/waiters-bad-teeth/

WinstonsGirl

Paying for someone's coffee/order actually happens quite regularly in my area at Tim Hortons.  We've made international news about it in the past.  

One guy called into a local radio station about this a month ago or so.  He needed change for a $20 so ordered a coffee.  Got to the window and the car in front had paid for him so he offered to pay for the order behind him (to get his change of course).  Well, their total was about $22 and change.  He said he had to scrounge his car for coins to have enough to pay the order cos he didn't feel he could back out.  Still didn't get his change either.  

themuffinman16

LabLove86 said:

I just saw this - I am not sure how old it is . . . . but fits right in with this post

http://madworldnews.com/waiters-bad-teeth/

That is just amazing. I LOVE that story.

wandajune6

We bought a lot of the liquor and mixers for our wedding. I went to a local grocery store for the juice for DH's signature drink because they had a great sale. A guy saw me wandering the store with a cart full of pineapple juice and asked what was up. He wished me well and I moved on. When I was checking out, he saw me, ran over, and paid for the juice-- and wished me a wonderful wedding. It was wonderful.

As for what I do...

I go through phases of being a major couponer. When I get lots of free stuff, I donate it to a local women's shelter. One of my friends volunteered there for years and told me about some of their needs. One of the harder things to get is toiletries. I like to bring over things like nicer hair products, deodorant, etc. When I can get good deals, I also stock up on kid's shampoo. I also do this with clearance bras in bigger sizes. It sounds silly but I've heard that no one donates bras and bigger bras are particularly needed.

I don't always have a lot of money that I can donate but if I can get $200-300 in product for under $20-30, I figure that it's worthwhile. Plus, I've heard that people get very excited about nice products. (I also donate the fancy scented bath/body products I inevitably get as gifts every year. Why not regift products that others will love?!)

novella1186

WinstonsGirl said:

Paying for someone's coffee/order actually happens quite regularly in my area at Tim Hortons.  We've made international news about it in the past.  

One guy called into a local radio station about this a month ago or so.  He needed change for a $20 so ordered a coffee.  Got to the window and the car in front had paid for him so he offered to pay for the order behind him (to get his change of course).  Well, their total was about $22 and change.  He said he had to scrounge his car for coins to have enough to pay the order cos he didn't feel he could back out.  Still didn't get his change either.  

lol that poor guy

NowIamMrsKlein

There was this promotion at the grocery store where you could collect 'stamps' with every purchase and save them up to redeem them for kitchen knives. You had several months to collect them

FI and I were diligently saving them up for a Chef's knife that we needed but hadn't been willing to pay money for. It was taking us FOREVER to save up these stamps because we did most of our bigger shopping trips at Walmart and then usually only went to Safeway for produce. Needed something like 170 stamps (1700$ worth of groceries) to get this big knife. We were in line at the store and FI and I were just chatting about how impossible it was going to be to get enough stamps before the promotion was over  even though we only needed 30ish more stamps. etc etc. And I think i said something along the lines of "Maybe after the wedding, we'll be able to save enough to just go buy a new knife set"

The woman in line in front of us turns, reaches into her purse and pulls out this stack of stamps. hands them too us and says 'pay it forward, and congrats on your wedding" and then just walks away. It was enough stamps to get us the knife.

Seems little, because she didn't have to do anything to get the stamps besides her regular grocery shopping, but she could've used them herself to get the promotion. It completely made our day.

novella1186

SoontobeMrsKlein said:

There was this promotion at the grocery store where you could collect 'stamps' with every purchase and save them up to redeem them for kitchen knives. You had several months to collect them

FI and I were diligently saving them up for a Chef's knife that we needed but hadn't been willing to pay money for. It was taking us FOREVER to save up these stamps because we did most of our bigger shopping trips at Walmart and then usually only went to Safeway for produce. Needed something like 170 stamps (1700$ worth of groceries) to get this big knife. We were in line at the store and FI and I were just chatting about how impossible it was going to be to get enough stamps before the promotion was over  even though we only needed 30ish more stamps. etc etc. And I think i said something along the lines of "Maybe after the wedding, we'll be able to save enough to just go buy a new knife set"

The woman in line in front of us turns, reaches into her purse and pulls out this stack of stamps. hands them too us and says 'pay it forward, and congrats on your wedding" and then just walks away. It was enough stamps to get us the knife.

Seems little, because she didn't have to do anything to get the stamps besides her regular grocery shopping, but she could've used them herself to get the promotion. It completely made our day.

That's so awesome! I love stuff like this. 

VulgarGirl

Over the summer I was at a gas station getting a drink inside and the lady at the next register was like counting change to get $5 worth of gas and she had 2 kids in the store with her (there were a few more...3 I think, in the car with her..husband I'm guessing). So anyways she pays and leaves to go put in $5 worth of gas into this very old looking car. Yeah that's gonna get you a lot of nowhere. So I tell the cashier to put $20 on her pump on me. Cause yeah, I've been there. Digging under car mats for a few pennies to get home. Oh yeah.

Well I ended up having to go out to tell her so she'd keep pumping, and she seriously just started crying. Even her husband! He asked if I lived in the area, if he could pay me back when he got paid later in the week and I just went "No, that's not needed, just have a good day".

So like the next day I'm at Fry's (our Krogers) and I'm going to pump gas and this guy comes over and asks if I have fuel rewards to use and I'm like no cause it takes me forever to earn those and he goes "Well I do, and I don't need them, so here" and he scans his card so I can use his 20 cents off!

Dude...instant karma points.

KatieinBkln

These are all so sweet!

Okay, I have a dumb question. How does "paying for the person behind" actually work? Do you just give them your credit card number? Throw a wad of cash and hope it's enough? Wait around till after they are rung up and then "swoop in"? (That doesn't seem quite right, especially since I'm always hearing about people doing it at drive-thrus). Someone explain the logistics so I can start being a better person!

VulgarGirl

KatieinBkln said:

These are all so sweet!

Okay, I have a dumb question. How does "paying for the person behind" actually work? Do you just give them your credit card number? Throw a wad of cash and hope it's enough? Wait around till after they are rung up and then "swoop in"? (That doesn't seem quite right, especially since I'm always hearing about people doing it at drive-thrus). Someone explain the logistics so I can start being a better person!

Usually at drive-thrus they've already put in the person's order before they get up to the window, so they can just total it up for you.

Like at the speaker you order a large coffee and then the person already at the widow is like "I wanna pay for whoever is behind me". Am at all explaining this in a way that makes sense? Cause I'm kind of confusing myself. 

KatieinBkln

MagicInk said:

KatieinBkln said:

These are all so sweet!

Okay, I have a dumb question. How does "paying for the person behind" actually work? Do you just give them your credit card number? Throw a wad of cash and hope it's enough? Wait around till after they are rung up and then "swoop in"? (That doesn't seem quite right, especially since I'm always hearing about people doing it at drive-thrus). Someone explain the logistics so I can start being a better person!

Usually at drive-thrus they've already put in the person's order before they get up to the window, so they can just total it up for you.

Like at the speaker you order a large coffee and then the person already at the widow is like "I wanna pay for whoever is behind me". Am at all explaining this in a way that makes sense? Cause I'm kind of confusing myself. 

Ah, that does make sense. I'm still not sure about non-pre-order situations, though!

VulgarGirl

KatieinBkln said:

MagicInk said:

KatieinBkln said:

These are all so sweet!

Okay, I have a dumb question. How does "paying for the person behind" actually work? Do you just give them your credit card number? Throw a wad of cash and hope it's enough? Wait around till after they are rung up and then "swoop in"? (That doesn't seem quite right, especially since I'm always hearing about people doing it at drive-thrus). Someone explain the logistics so I can start being a better person!

Usually at drive-thrus they've already put in the person's order before they get up to the window, so they can just total it up for you.

Like at the speaker you order a large coffee and then the person already at the widow is like "I wanna pay for whoever is behind me". Am at all explaining this in a way that makes sense? Cause I'm kind of confusing myself. 

Ah, that does make sense. I'm still not sure about non-pre-order situations, though!

Yeah, those I have no idea. 

I guess you could just be like "Hey, here's 20 bucks use it for the next person", might not cover the whole meal...but some of it?

wandajune6

MagicInk said:

KatieinBkln said:

MagicInk said:

KatieinBkln said:

These are all so sweet!

Okay, I have a dumb question. How does "paying for the person behind" actually work? Do you just give them your credit card number? Throw a wad of cash and hope it's enough? Wait around till after they are rung up and then "swoop in"? (That doesn't seem quite right, especially since I'm always hearing about people doing it at drive-thrus). Someone explain the logistics so I can start being a better person!

Usually at drive-thrus they've already put in the person's order before they get up to the window, so they can just total it up for you.

Like at the speaker you order a large coffee and then the person already at the widow is like "I wanna pay for whoever is behind me". Am at all explaining this in a way that makes sense? Cause I'm kind of confusing myself. 

Ah, that does make sense. I'm still not sure about non-pre-order situations, though!

Yeah, those I have no idea. 

I guess you could just be like "Hey, here's 20 bucks use it for the next person", might not cover the whole meal...but some of it?

Back before EZ Pass, on those rare occasions where my parents would be driving separate cars, the first person would always pay the tolls for both cars. They also had a habit of giving the person at the tollbooth a $10 and tell them to pay for other cars until it ran out.

It's actually one of my favorite memories of my parents helping me move into the dorms--- my dad paying for my mom and confusing the hell out of the tollbooth attendant with his request!

thisismynickname2

These are great stories!

A couple weeks ago DH and I were walking home from the gym. It had snowed on top of snow and ice a few days before, and I noticed that the US Postal Service truck was stuck on the corner. I slowed down and watched the back wheels spin.  I pointed it out to DH and we approached the guy and asked if he needed a shove. 

Me being a weakling and ineffective, the mailman hopped out and pushed with DH while I worked the gas pedal. Another guy saw their efforts and joined in. We got the guy out!

He was SO happy and shook our hands. Apparently he had been stuck for about a half hour! I'm actually sad that no one else noticed and helped before then.