Oooo I’m about to talk about all of y’all! Yep! I’m about to talk about you. You. And you. This post is for all y’all with them endless Amazon boxes in your house. Yep, I see you ducking. Don’t move that box now honey. CAUGHT! Lol

Just kidding. I’m not going to do you bad. I have a husband over here I just ratted out on Facebook with the 3 empty baseball bat boxes I’ve found in the garage. I’m sure those bats weren’t cheap and he didn’t ask me before he bought any of them. He doesn’t have to consult with me about purchases. I’m sure he’ll swear he used his money (allowance, personal slush fund, whatever you call it).

Just to add to the conversation, we have a joint account where all of our money goes. And we have a set amount we have agreed on as a personal allowance we take out of the joint account/transfer into our personal checking accounts. With the joint account, we pay for all household bills and expenses to include anything for the kids. With our allowance, we spend on our personal expenses (clothes, grooming, work lunches, etc).

Well since the pandemic, both of us have been working from home. Such a blessing. Man we are extremely lucky. Well with no place to go, our personal allowance accounts were building up. Same thing was happening to the joint account. So of course, we started finding other ways to spend money. Shopping!!!!

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Just like you, we’ve been hitting Amazon up! And for me, and like many of you, when the stores reopened, I began to shop the sales and began to rack up on clothes! I practically have the kids “school clothes” if you will. One time when we thought we were returning to work, the seasoned had changed so I went shopping for some summer work clothes. I bought I know 10 or more dresses, with work out/lounging tights, and stuff for under $130. Ask me how many of those dresses I’ve worn? Go ahead and ask me??? Not one! That’s how many! Sigh

But that doesn’t stop us from shopping! Many of us are sitting up late at night adding to our virtual carts. Make a liar out of me! I know when I’m right. Lol. Especially if we don’t want to go to the stores, we are online shopping. Those pick up lanes aren’t there for nothing. Y’all way of getting out of the house is to go drive up to one of those lanes and wait for the cashier to bring out your purchases. And it feels good too! Just any sense of normalcy…feels damn good.

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Well to be honest, I didn’t get you here to only speak about shopping. But I wanted to bring your attention to another fallout of this pandemic that many aren’t aware of. If you have been leery of certain things or going to certain places, guess what? You aren’t by yourself? Many of us have reservations about certain if not all things/places/events outside of our homes. Just like me, we are weighing the risks and the likelihood of being exposed to this virus. And many of us have decided to stay home. Rightfully so…

While many of us are fortunate to work from home, many of us have been shopping from home. However, many of those places we used to frequent, such as personal services, aren’t so lucky. So your state is open with strict rules of masking and sanitation measures. With all of that, it doesn’t mean everyone is working as they previously did.

I just wanted to take this time to remind us of our many services, service reps such as hair dressers, barbers, nail techs, gyms, house keeping, sitters, the extra curriculum activities/sports our kids participated in, and the list goes on and on. Even with many states being open, many of these individuals (many have become friends over the years) aren’t working like they should. Many of their customers haven’t returned. If this continues, chances are great that many will have to close their doors.

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For my husband and I, once we realized how much savings we had due to the shutdown, initially…we were thrilled to build up our savings account. We discussed the bills we would continue to pay even though the places were closed. For instance, my daughter’s gymnastics dues. Our gym fees. We wanted these places to be open when the world went back to normal so we decided to just honor our commitments.

But it took about a month before I realized I hadn’t gotten my hair done nor had we gotten any hair cuts. Then we thought about how the pandemic had to be affecting them as pure service providers. So we had another heart discussion about what was going on with people we cared about. We then decided to send in the money for the services we would’ve had with no expectation of receiving a service.

We realize this isn’t the case for everyone. Nor are we trying to tell you how to spend your coins! Sure they could be receiving unemployment benefits but trust, not everyone is getting these payments that some are receiving especially small service businesses.

My plea for this post is to simply bring your attention to this community issue. I can’t make up every lost customer but I can make up for at least one. So I want to encourage you, if you can, don’t worry about making up for others. Just consider making up for your missed service. Pray about it. Think about it. If you can, sow a seed to someone you know, instead of Jeff Bezos.

Thanks for your attention. Remember you are your own competition.

Competition of 1