Improving happiness through random giving

Now that I have enough income to do more than just survive, a little savings and most of the material things that I want, I've been thinking how I can optimise what I get out of the rest.

One idea has to been to try and optimise for happiness - and it turns out one way to do that is to give some of it away.  So for a few months,  I've been running a giving experiment.

Experiment details

Set a random giving budget of up to £20/month.  

I don't decide in advance how I will spend it, and I'm not obliged to spend it. The gift can be anonymous or not. But if I see an opportunity to improve things with a random gift I'll take it.  Note to any future commenters, I don't tend to give to those soliciting gifts. Sorry. 

A couple of examples

 I belong to a discussion forum that is pseudo-anonymous - some posters know each other in real life, others don't. One poster was having a rough time of it with illness and the loss of a beloved pet so I ordered a book I knew they hoped to read and had it posted to them with a message saying the forum wished them well. 

I'm a regular long distance train commuter, and one morning I overhead a young man struggling to get his payment card to work while buying a ticket on the train. He had no other cash and so the ticket inspector said they had to leave at the next stop (one stop short of his final destination).  I quietly paid his fare when the ticket inspector checked my ticket. 

Results

Setting a giving budget takes some of angst out of deciding to make a random gift. I no longer have to think can I afford to help? Is this person deserving? If it is within budget, I can - and who am I to judge. If I've spent the budget, I don't worry about feeling obliged. You can't help in every situation. 

It seems to have some pay it forward type impacts.  The forum poster above posted a thank you and they have offered to help other posters out with posting specialist books they've found in charity shops.  The ticket inspector kindly gave me a tea from the buffet car - and included in the bag a few other goodies (which my colleagues later benefited from during a team meeting).  I was really touched and it genuinely made my day. 

The routine of life can have a tendency to congeal into one unmemorable mass.  But each giving experience has been highly memorable. Sometimes it's the only thing I can really remember from an individual week or even month. 

Randomness works. Sometimes if offers opportunities for creativity and thought, other times it can near instinctual. 

Gratitude from others is something I've often struggled with and this is a good way to exercise those muscles.

And happiness?  Genuinely hard to stay, sometimes the emotions I feel are strong and not always happy ones - depending on the receiver's situation. But I do experience happiness at the chance to be of help.