Red Nose Day - My Couch Coins Challenge to you

Unless you've been under a rock, you can't have failed to notice that Red Nose Day will soon be upon us.  You must also know that this year Comic Relief are celebrating their 25th anniversary.

A quarter of a century of raising money for causes here and abroad.  Now that deserves celebrating doesn't it?

We've set ourselves a challenge in our house, and to honour the Red Nose Birthday, we're going to raise £25.

I know times are tough, and I suspect that along with other charities, Comic Relief will have to work extra hard this year to persuade people to part with their cash.  That's why I'm not asking for sponsorship.  I'm not asking you to take money out of your purse or write out a cheque.

Instead, I'm asking you to have a hunt about, and donate any money you didn't realise you had.

Genius huh?

Myself and Ruby have been turning the house upside down.  We've hunted down the backs of sofas; upturned forgotten old handbags in the bottom of wardrobes, rifled through coat pockets and checked in lining for sneaky coins that have slipped through holes.  We've even been in the drawer of doom in the kitchen dresser.

It's been a bit of an eye opener really.  In a few weeks we've already beaten our target and currently have £27.99 waiting to be bagged up and taken to the bank.

We've sorted and stacked, counted and checked. It even turned into a bit of a maths lesson!

OK, I admit, we do pounce on Daddy when he comes home from work and empties his pocket change out, and that has been quite lucrative.  But on the whole, we've found an awful lot of cash just lying around.

I asked Ruby whether she thought it was better to have a pound languishing about down the back of the sofa...or would it be better to give it to Comic Relief so it could buy school books for a child in Ghana for a whole year?  Seeing the money in her hands, and realising what it could buy for someone else, made the desicion easy.

£5 will buy a mosquito net and help protect someone from deadly Maleria.  It's a no-brainer isn't it?

So please, have a hunt about.  Check your coat pockets and the bottom of handbags.  Gather what you find - you won't miss it - and please add it to my total here.  Just £1 really does make a difference.

Check out what the rest of the blogging community - AKA #TeamHonk are up to on their website.