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Friday, July 18, 2014

Please Donate $25, $50 or Whatever You Can Afford...Huh?



Seems you could spend a hefty $100 and never leave your email box, doesn’t it? We all get these emails from potential senators, representatives, governors, or from people and organizations we would dearly love to help. It’s just not possible in today’s economy.

It really isn’t that people don’t want to help. Most of us would donate if we had an extra $25 lying around that we don’t need. In fact, some would donate that $5 they had left out of their paycheck, if it wasn’t needed. The problem is that no person, affiliate, organization, or charity is asking for $0.10 from you. Yea, change is all that is left and even that gets spent when a really short week comes along.

At the end of 2008, we had approximately $200 to $300 saved back in the drawer but that didn’t last long. By the end of 2009, we had maybe $100 left over after paying bills, and by the time Obamacare was passed, we had nothing. We had to let our health insurance go because the premium had skyrocketed. This year, due to the inflation the media refuses to report, groceries are getting to be an option. When we sit down to figure out what we can pay and what we can scrimp on, its groceries. This is Obama’s economy.

Most of the please donate emails have no-reply attached. You can only donate. You cannot say…

Dear Sir/Madame/Organization,
I would love to help you out but $25 is unreasonable. Unless and until you can take change, I have nothing leftover to donate. If you come to me on the wrong day of the month, I won’t be able to donate change. It’s that simple. Yes—depending upon the organization or person—I would love to help you, but I’m sorry. It’s impossible.

Yesterday, while checking my emails, I realized that if we had the money to donate to these causes, we could afford a decent cut of meat. We don’t even eat out anymore. We stand at the pork or steak counter in the grocery store drooling over the piece of meat we would love to have for dinner, and then we buy ground chuck. Tacos are cheap. Ramen is cheap. Chicken salad sandwiches are cheap, and when I’m behind an EBT card user and see them buying things we only dream of eating, I’m reminded of Obama’s income inequality speech and wondering how we can give anything more to people who are eating much better than we are…

If you sent me an email for donations, know this. I would love to donate to some of your causes. It would be great to send a check for $25 to help you win that seat in congress, or support the soldiers who have given so much, but we just don’t have it.  

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