We believe in the innate goodness of people. No matter who you are, we want you to feel welcomed and at home in our little shop. We also get a lot of joy of using our own handmade goods and we know that the experience can never be quantified by money, therefore…
We offer all our products on a ‘pay as you feel’ (PAYF) basis. You are free to pay as little or as much as you can/feel/wish. There is no judgement in the amount you choose to pay – just know that if you pay a little more, the surplus will help those who cannot; if you pay the minimum, we’ve all got your back! If we end up making a profit, it will go straight back into investing in the shop 🙂
How to PAYF on this website
Pricing transparency
Products that we did not make by hand ourselves (like soap tins) are sourced as locally as possible, they have a minimum price to cover sourcing costs.
You will have to pay for postage and packaging costs.
There will not be any holiday promotions, coupon codes or social media gimmick. What you see is what you get!
Any profits made will be put straight back into the shop for:
- materials & tools used to make the products
- our time and hard work
- web hosting (ScalaHosting): €78 per year
- domain registration (NameSilo): €9.25 per year
- Stripe transaction fees: around 1.4% to 2.9% + €0.25 + tax
- (If you have any suggestions for other service providers that are more affordable please let us know!)
As we put our trust in you and time in making the products, we hope you can in return respect us and value our time and creations for what they truly are. Let’s make this ‘pay as you feel’ way of life long-lasting and a rewarding experience for everyone😊
Our first time PAYF
Back in 2016, we went on a long helpx (help exchange) trip to Australia. Serendipity always runs high during travels. When you are out of your comfort zone and away from all things certain, what you are left with is fate and meant-to-be. After a month of volunteering at a vegan animal sanctuary, we returned to the city Melbourne. Thanks to a friend of a friend, we got to sleep for a few nights in a nice squat (it’s not an oxymoron!).
On one of those days in Melbourne, we met up with a friend whom we knew in Hong Kong. She was on a working holiday and said we could meet at this restaurant where she was volunteering at – Lentil As Anything.
After a long bike ride amidst the city streets and along the Yarra River, we found ourselves on the grounds of this massive convent. Our friend invited us in, showed us the ‘menu of the day’ on a chalkboard and explained that this is a ‘pay as you wish’ restaurant where guests can also contribute their time and volunteer as a way of giving back.
The restaurant was full of life, it’s like coming home after a long day and being served a warm, delicious home-cooked meal. In all honesty, we cannot remember how the food tasted like but a clear image of volunteering in the kitchen with our friend and serving food to many faces of happy smiles stayed imprinted in our memory. There were no obligations to pay, if anything a good experience cannot be quantified at all.
This experience planted a tiny little seed in us. And as everything comes full circle, we now come to you from Ireland with a vision for a shop where everyone can ‘pay as you wish’. The fond memory of the times at Lentil As Anything popped into our mind, reminding us and reassuring us that it is all meant to and it will all work out ♥
PAYF is all around us!
We want to give a shout-out to other PAYE (donation-based) initiatives we have personally come across such as Vipassana meditation retreats, Wikipedia, Bandcamp, open source software…