Morning!
Here’s a quick corona check-in over here:
- # of days self-quarantined now: 13
- # of people infected in our household: 0
- # of days it took to feel “normal”: 5 (amazing how fast you adapt!)
- # of times I’ve screamed “OH HELL NO!” after hearing the news: 387
- # of times I’ve shut down the news and promised to never look again: 387 ;)
- # of times I’ve invested in the crashing market so far: 3
- State of the kids happiness: Disneyland levels!!
- State of the parents sanity: Ever seen a Yo-Yo on drugs? ;)
Other things I’ve come to realize over the past handful of days:
We’re lucky as hell to have jobs we can do completely online. (And thank the inventors of the internet every single day for being the glue that holds this world together right now!)
We no longer try to keep our house tidy. We were good for about 3 days and then all chaos broke and lost all energy to stay on top of it, lol… (not like anyone coming to visit anyways!)
We’ve stopped trying to prevent our 1 y/o from drawing all over the walls (free art, right?)
I’m APPRECIATIVE for once of our large ass lawn and decently-sized house! Two of the bigger areas that ironically gave me the most anxiety when buying last year! (Though sure to revert post-pandemic I’m sure ;))
I’m a lot more at peace with dying if it’s my time to go… Not that I think that’s coming anytime soon or wishing for it, but this has def. gotten me reflecting more and I catch myself telling the Mrs. almost every day that I’m happy and fulfilled shall my time expire! ;) And now you guys know it too! So only parties when I’m gone – no mourning!!
And then lastly, we’ll incidentally be saving a good chunk of money through all this… Though of course I’d give it all back in a heartbeat to get this thing over with…
Here’s a rough breakdown from the top of my head:
- Daycare savings: $1,000’ish
- Karate lessons: $100
- Coffee shops: $80
- Gas: $50 (?)
- Entertainment: $100 (?)
- Total savings: $1,330
We’ve been spending a little extra though too:
- Extra food: $200’ish
- Extra supplies: $100’ish (?)
- New Chromebook for kids and e-learning/streaming/whatever we end up having to do since the school year is officially closed for the rest of the academic year (!!): $160
- New (physical) subscription to local newspaper a few times a week: $20 (Funny story with this – the day after I signed up I got a call from a representative at the paper who literally asked me if this was a mistake, lol… No! Just trying to do my part supporting the industry and giving myself something new to do in isolation! :)
- Total extra spending: $480
Total real savings this first month: $850. And then approximately $1,000+ in each consecutive month since we’d no longer be acquiring Chromebooks or more back up supplies or anything… Though Lord knows what else will come up by then! I rarely get surprised anymore – every day seems like a MONTH during this thing, doesn’t it?!
At any rate, that’s the update in the Money household over here…
Oh, that, and we’re no longer Millionaires, haha… The least of the world’s concerns ;) I’ve gotten a few notes lately asking if that means we’ll go back to posting up our net worths again, but sadly those days are gone though I applaud the creativity :)
How are things going on your end?! Calm and collected or at least pretending to be? ;) Anyone catch it yet or living in one of the super locked down areas?!
I know some people think this is all an overreaction and I would love for them to be right, but in the off chance they’re not we’re doing our best to heed the advice of the experts and do our part in helping slow down the spread…
Not sure when it’s going to end, but we’ll all get through it!! Sending my love to everyone!
******
Mona Lisa masterpiece by sumanley
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We’re saving as well, considering I’m not driving 60 miles/day to and from work and my husband is at home as well. His normal commute is about 24 miles daily. I’m thankful we both have jobs that are paying us as usual, though we can’t do all job tasks from home.
Overall, this has been really nice for me (though of course I wish it were for better reasons). Introverted me is enjoying the time at home with my husband and cats. Since I’m only working about 4 hours/day I’ve had more time to create, cook, bake, and relax.
I hope the restrictions our governor put into place pretty quickly here in Ohio slows the spread, reduces cases, and gets us all back to our normal routines sooner rather than later.
Amen on that!!
And in the meantime you’re totally allowed to enjoy and appreciate the staycation!! What an accidental blessing! :)
Maybe this is the optimistic Mustachian in me but I see: More people outside in the neighborhood and parks with their families, walking their dogs, jogging, enjoying the fresh air, hiking, riding their bicycles, or just sitting on the porch reading a good book. I see less: Gas guzzling cars clogging the roads and freeways, people saving money instead of spending it at restaurants, bars, gas stations, department stores, or any other consumer money pit. As a health care professional with direct patient contact every day my risk of catching any virus is greater than the average individual. Do I worry about that? No. Will I catch it? Maybe. Do I watch the sensationalistic news? No. Do I go to the grocery store in a HazMat suit? No. I do read the CDC guidelines regarding any disease or infectious agent as I always have bypassing the media that spins it out of control. COVID, like the flu, can and will cause mortality in the elderly, immunocompromised, and those with underlying medical conditions. Since October, there have been up to 54 MILLION flu illnesses and up to 59,000 flu deaths in the U.S. alone but most people will refuse to get a flu shot. Currently there are 737 COVID deaths in the United States. I guarantee that if there is a COVID vaccine available next year there will be a line outside of my building a mile long. Any death is very sad and unfortunate, but like most things in life just control what you can control. If it is outside of your circle of control there is nothing you can do about it and no sense worrying about it. What we can do is make our bodies durable and tough to kill. Don’t eat or drink junk, exercise, stay hydrated, get the proper immunizations, and take care of ourselves and our families.
100% to that first part at least ;)
Like going back in time and living more simply!
I was thinking the same thing! We’re saving so much money but also spending some money that we otherwise would not have. Example, not buying at coffee shops, quick stops for snacks, impulse buys at Target. However, I ordered two puzzles for by family to do and then impulse bought a pair of yoga pants. Working from home makes you realize you don’t own as many yoga pants as you thought. We’re definitely spending more on groceries, too. Overall, our savings are up. This is good because my husband is off work paid but not sure how long his company will be able to sustain that :/
It’s def. getting scarier for employers :(
Maybe buy him a pair of yoga pants too while you’re at it? :)
I’ve done the work-from-home thing for just shy of four years now, so the last two weeks have been nothing special. We rejiggered our office/library/music room so I have a bit more space and light, and rearranged the guest bedroom so my wife has a decent place to do her work (and framed some art to give her coworkers more interesting stuff to see over her shoulder during teleconferences).
Her car hasn’t left the driveway in two weeks. That’s unprecedented.
I stopped shaving ten days ago. She’s been politely (not yet passive-aggressively) silent about this development.
And this week I started teaching myself piano. :)
BEARD TIME!!!
DO IT!!!
I save 3-4 hours a day without my commute and swims so that is nice. Doing lots of free weights, push ups, crunches and after work bike rides. Then some reading.
I saved money by not buying a bus pass for April and was able to redeem $100 rewards money on my groceries. I cook at home all the time so my food budget is a little higher mainly because of shortages and I have to buy what’s available rather than the cheapest item. Fun fact – in my area the only frozen vegetable item you are going to find at any store is lima beans. Poor lima beans.
I work for a gadget company that caters to a lot of seniors so we are busy, but not actual work related busy but free mental health counselling busy. It’s not that we don’t want to talk to lonely people, it’s just that we have to help our actual customers and when they sit on hold for a long time, their anger and frustration builds and builds and we take the brunt of it.
We now have about 3 hours a day off the phones to catch up on our work and sooth our frayed nerves. I know it’s not as tough as it is for front line workers, but it is challenging.
We have a after work Skype with Wine party set up for Friday.
I think WD-40 will get the crayon off the wall!
PS If you have to call technical support/customer service, please, please, PLEASE, do not speak to the rep on speakerphone. We can’t understand you, you cut in and out or you are pretty much shouting at us. Nobody likes to say “can you take me off speaker phone” 50 times a day.
Good tip!!
And even better Skype party idea!!
Hang in there! :) I did customer support for a good 10 years over my career – both in person and on phone – I feel your pain!
I’m actually still reporting for work, since I’ve somehow been deemed “essential.” Gonna have to keep that in mind for my next performance review. :)
My wife is working from home, and our kids’ school District already issues everyone a Chromebook. This week is a transition week, with the focus being more on getting used to 100% online course work. Next week is spring break, and then it ramps up for real.
We’re still tidying the house, but that’s more to foster a sense of normalcy than anything else. Most of our activities (soccer, etc.) were pre-paid, so no savings there yet.
Best windfall has been long walks in the afternoon. We are lucky to be in a beautiful neighborhood by a lake, and its been great to spend focused time with each other!
Excellent!!
What line of work are you in out of curiosity?
Cool your schools are so organized… We’ve been off for a while now and no direction whatsoever yet :(
I work for a major airline. For now anyway??
Dang – not a fun industry to be in right now!
I used to work for Continental airlines back in the day and it was one of the most fun jobs I ever had (or I should say – the most fun *outside* of the job when taking advantage of the traveling perks, haha… Best way to see the world right there! :))
Why aren’t you still paying for daycare?
My son and daughter in law will still pay for their two year old’s daycare, even if my grandson is home with them while they rearrange their work schedules. They are essentials.
The daycare is a business, and they still need the income. And they are not paid a lot. It should be part of your budget..
Sorry to hear you aren’t paying it. ☹️
Didn’t even think about it to be honest? We called and told them we won’t be coming in for a while as we’re self-quarantining and they immediately said they’ll go ahead and cancel all future payments until we’re back. Told them thanks and it was out of my mind! But you’re right – there is a gray area of morality here so will have to think about it a bit and see how I feel…
If your daycare shuts down – why WOULD you still be paying it? You wouldn’t pay for another any service you aren’t receiving…
Wow. A service? They are taking care of your children.
I never considered daycare for my toddler a service. She was a saint to me. And well worth the investment in my child’s protection and education.
I agree. My kids are well past daycare age, but our (in-home) provider was a godsend. She was worth every nickel and then some.
Sounds like you are using the time wisely. I am still working at the office but it is lonely with no traffic. I feel grateful that I have the 10 min ride to and from work. I have been using the drive thru banking for the business as the highlight of the day. It is so different to see so little vehicle movement when out there during the day. I walk my dog every night and the foot traffic is up! I find myself crossing the street a lot to stay away from other walkers with dogs. I think our dogs are getting more exercise now than ever! We are very lucky to have been give a portal for Christmas so I still get to see my little grandson and we read, sing songs & just watch him run all over the Livingroom. I am thankful for the technology but it will never replace the “being there & hug” that needs to be felt! BE WELL EVERYONE!
You too, friend!! Maybe we’ll meet in person one day too and get to enjoy it more than our online convos :) Glad your job is safe, it seems like anyways!
It’s a bad idea to ponder death and to feel that it’s OK if it is your time. It’s one thing to know that on a spiritual level but to accept it as truly OK without a bloody fight is akin to stepping one foot into the grave. Survival is a basic human imperative and it isn’t safe to mess with that in your head. People that fight to live survive, people that are fine either way die. So snap out of it J, we’d like to have you around a lot longer. I’m almost 65, with asthma and another lung issue. But I’m a distance runner, tennis player and extreme hiker and I hate losing. I’m not losing to a microbe. There is no way I’m letting a virus put me down. I’m so NOT OK about that happening! Do you feel me on this? So you stop it right now.
I never said I’m OK with dying! Just that i’d be at peace with it whenever it comes, lol…
You can bet your sweet ass I’ll be putting up a fight to the last minute! Just want everyone to know that I went out fulfilled and not fighting out of regret! ;)
Glad to hear you’re all safe. Now that we’re all staying from home, grocery, electric, and water bills have gone up, but the savings from not eating out, less commuting should more than compensate. I’m glad I’ve completely paid of my home by selling some stocks before the market crash. I get to enjoy the paid off home now, especially that I’m both working and sleeping in it. But if there’s one lesson to learn from this craziness, it’s that your health is your true wealth.
Oh wow!! Good timing with that!! That’s a hard decision to make too – and one I often struggle with myself whenever I come across money…. You go and enjoy that fully paid off house! What a blessing!
Our stats are strikingly similar on all bullet points except I think we’d have to be zombies to let anyone draw on walls, you are way more laid-back than us
We are still paying for all our optional services from small biz and individuals though (dogwalker, therapy, etc) since we know they’re gonna be hit hard by all their lost business. We’re not paying for daycare because they’re a huge company subsidized by another huge company and they don’t need our money to keep paying their people.
My oldest friend just let me know they have a confirmed case in their family. If you’re a praying type, please pray for them.
Just wondering what kind of business in daycare doesn’t need the money?
Is it government subsidized?
On it!!
And will have to research that bout our daycare too since JJ just called me out on it up there, haha…
I want a pic if your kid sneaks a wall design by you before you clean it! ;)
LOL you will get a pic! ;)
Yeah if yours is a small biz and you can, it’d be good to support them. I won’t share more details on our specific situation here because that would reveal private information about our lives I’m not prepared to share publicly but if I weren’t certain of my facts, I’d be paying them.
We are SO very VERY VERY grateful that very little seems to have changed in our little corner of the world. Both of our 20-something kids have “for now” jobs with grocery stores. When this all came down, us parents were preparing to be ready with open wallets to help them get through this. Little did we know at the time what a blessing their “for now” grocery jobs have turned out to be. In the “parent” household, I work from home (20+ years) and DH has been deemed “essential,” so he still gets up and goes to work every day. As far as food, we started this year doing Meal Planning so that we only go to the grocery once a week. This far into the year, we are into a groove and were able to plan & shop for 2 weeks of meals *kinda* easily! Yes, we’re all being socially “aloof” (our term for it!), but otherwise we are all feeling SO blessed to be able to earn a living & help friends/neighbors who are not as fortunate!! Love & well wishes to all!
Awesome to hear!!
My wife would kill for those grocery shopping skills, haha… I think she’s down now to 3x a week and can’t figure out how to shorten it :) (I’ve tried to take one of the days away at least but I don’t think she trusts me, lol…)
Ha! It’s definitely been a challenge! And not every weekly menu is a winner, or even inspirational (i.e. some weeks have Mon/Wed salad dinners, Tues/Thur pizza dinners….you get the idea). But the time/$$/time/gas/time saved by NOT making multiple trips to the grocery has totally been worth the effort to us! You know that old saying about having time OR $$, but never the 2 together…..well, we’ve got the time to plan it out now! Ha!
Yeah we do, lol…
Hey J Money!
I think it’ll be awhile before I am able to truly recon the net gain/loss from this Coronavirus. I’m working from home, saving money in gas and spending on coffee or the occasional slice of pizza, but spending more on electricity. Gaining money from the government but losing money by 32-hour per week restriction. But I supposedly can apply for unemployement for the difference.
I did happily buy stocks today at a good discount! Though I have to admit that I put a little more into cash savings than I normally do. This pandemic has made me rethink my stance on emergency funds a touch.
I’ll say it now and forever again – it’s never bad keeping “too much” in savings!! We all have our own comfort levels with this stuff, and you don’t need to maximize every last dollar like the FIRE community tends to preach. Every dollar serves its own purpose!
https://budgetsaresexy.com/each-dollar-serves-a-purpose/
I expected to save money this month, too. However, I am still checking my emails and getting appeals for money EVERY DAY. Some of them are political or sort of political (meaning, donating not to a party or person but to enable getting out the vote and trying to pressure Congress to take care of the low income folks who are the ones really hurt by this [all those minimum wage wait staff and bartenders, etc.] and not give huge handouts to big businesses, etc.)
But there is also the big donation to the Oregon Food Bank for the benefit of the hungry now-unemployed folks and the big donation to Street Roots who works with the homeless and has been reaching out to them to give them info on this pandemic and what their options are, since they don’t have TVs or computers. Etc.
So, no, not saving here, but not personally hurting, just worried about others. The best thing that is happening is that someone on NextDoor suggested putting food in the Little Free Library boxes for the hungry and I went on the rooster to ask people who had LFL boxes if I could put food in them and I am now doing that. Being able to do anything, no matter how small, can help with that overwhelming feeling of helplessness, at least.
So glad to hear that your kids are enjoying this time. They will probably have happy memories of it!
Cool idea w/ the little free library boxes!! That’s a nice thing to do! :)
Still trying to decide where to put more of our donations too… I like to give *monthly* and automatically instead of one-time, so it usually takes me a while to add new places to our list, but we’re currently up to 11 now (mostly local) so we’re getting there! Ultimate goal is to hit 100!
I remember you talking about the wonderful places you donate to! I encourage you to consider your local food bank. For me, it is a social justice issue. In this wealthy country, people should not go hungry. We are fortunate in Oregon to have a state wide food bank that backs up all the hundreds of places that give out food.
Now on my list to investigate! :)
We are still paying $60 for our daughters dance. The class went virtual online but even if it didn’t I’d still pay for it I want the dance studio open when this is over. Our y membership we are saving about $50 a month we opted to pause our membership and donate $20 a month to them while closed. They are now open as a daycare for $50 a week for essential workers only. We are spending about the same as usual on eating out because I’m trying to support local. We’ve invested 8 times since market crashed not huge amounts smallest $100 largest $800
Nice job with those 8 investments!! That’s confidence with your strategy right there! :)
Pretty cool the Y has set up daycare for essential workers too.. $50/week is a STEAL.
Many daycares are small businesses I agree with JJ but I wouldn’t pay the full $1000 and I’d want to make sure they are still paying their employees or trying to as best they can if so I’d pay something to keep the workers afloat. The employees usually don’t make much :-/
I have 8 children and a dairy goat farm. We have plenty of food – never ending supply of milk, cheese, eggs, and meat from chickens and pastured cows. I also have a family emergency fund so financially my family will be fine since we live very frugally. We closed our farm to visitors over a week before our state recommended anything because we didn’t want to be a part of the problem. It broke my heart to lay off 2 full-time employees who worked the on-farm business. We’ve also told all of our part-time employees (6 of them) not to come in until further notice. Fortunately, we have a significant online business as well (primarily goat milk soap but goat cheese, canned produce, and goat milk fudge and caramel as well). That is keeping the rest of my employees working for now while the family takes care of the animals. My oldest daughter is 32 weeks pregnant with her second child. She and her husband have sufficient savings for a prolonged down-turn. Her first child was by c-section due to pre-eclampsia. She is terrified because the hospital has already limited the birth to only 1 visitor and she’s scared it will go to zero by the time she goes into labor. She’s contracted with a midwife and is praying hard for a safe homebirth but will transfer to the hospital if necessary. Interestingly, we made hand sanitizer for sale for years and it never sold well, so we discontinued it this December. We had so many customers asking for it that we brought it back and sold more hand sanitizer in 2 weeks than we have in the past 5 years. Hopefully people will keeping buying soap and hand sanitizer and I won’t have to lay off any more employees. I don’t particularly want to take any loans from the government, but I will be looking into it to see if it’s worth it. The hard part for me is that while I am very prepared to weather a recession, some of my employees are not. I don’t want to personally go into debt to meet their needs when they’ve not been saving or creating an emergency fund. But it’s hard to let go of the feelings of responsibility.
I should also add that my husband and I as well as all of our children under 18 have stopped taking a paycheck completely during this time in order to keep paying the employees.
AHHH YOU ARE GUYS ARE SO GOOD TO EVERYONE!!!
What an amazing way to lead!
Can I PLEASE come visit y’all one day with my own seemingly small # of kids now? :)
What a cool way to grow up… and learn the value of good ol’ fashion hard work too!
Sending positive vibes over to your daughter for a smooth birth!
We are saving half the cost on daycare, which is fair to us since they are still open and we want to make sure the teachers are supported. We can also choose to send them each week if we want but we’ve kept them home since last Thursday. Minnesota will be going into stay-at-home tomorrow evening. Luckily, we have plenty of groceries and I’ll probably put in a delivery order today that will come next week.
We’ve still been working each day! It’s not a full 8 hours but it’s plenty to get things done and we entertain the kids. They go down in the afternoon for naps or room time. We’ve been going on walks in the afternoon or evenings a lot, still plenty of folks outside. Like another commenter I found it a bit amusing that I’ve seen more of my neighbors in the past week than in the two years I’ve lived here
I will say the first few days we stayed home I was totally scared. The news was getting to me. Stopped checking all the time and now I mainly read the digest of the day. I also realize that the vast majority of us will be fine and that if we end up getting hospitalized we will have to deal with it as it comes. I think the big thing this has reiterated is the importance of pursuing FI, having an emergency fund (that isn’t all just stocks), and also having a will. Being prepared is the best way to relieve stress!
I think I could definitely work 100% remote in normal circumstances. The kids might still need to go to daycare but I bet I could handle 2-3 days at home with them!
Sounds like you’re adjusting pretty well! :)
Been seeing a lot of things in the media about how “FIRE is dead” now – and ironically coming from FIRE bloggers?! – but like you I only think it’ll make it *stronger* since it really is planning for a life of financial freedom whether emergencies are going around us or not. Sure it’s not optimal, but the people smart enough (and motivated enough!) to reach FIRE in the first place can surely adapt to anything thrown there way compared to the average person. So FIRE is still very alive and thriving in my books!
Keeping up community payments while we are quarantined is a personal and case by case situation. J$, your daycare easily could have already decided to lay off employees during this time so they wouldn’t get sick and because they lost clients who did not get remote work options. Zero judgement. We had just done a major scaling back in gym membership and house keeping prior to the working from home so there were savings there. Also we got our kid to take the bus which removed am care. That was before all of this became real for us in the US. Since the shut downs here I am saving hundreds from eating out and coffee. My local favorites have all closed temporarily. My nanny on the other hand is a single mom of two. So since she is a master gardener among other things she has been earning her $ by landscaping our yards. Making us healthier and happier along the way. It’s a win win. The neighbors hear our music and stroll by across the street to see the socially distant party of four at work. My kid is sucking up all the schoolwork I give her so that’s going well. I have zero complaints and am eternally grateful we are safe at home.
Aww yayy!!! What a great way to still keep your nanny employed!! I bet you’re gonna have a killer yard afterwards!! That’s a helluva skill!
Amazing how everything changes. Haven’t really thought about expenses just yet but month-end is coming when I reconcile. Have a feeling it may not have changed all that much as we’ve added a few more streaming services and attempted to support some local eateries with some take-out.
What I miss most is the social interaction. My buddies & I normally get together every other week to have dinner and a couple of drinks to catch up. Now that we can’t do that, we’ve started a weekly Skype call – everyone brings their own beverage of choice to the call. First call lasted 2 hours…last one was nearly 3! Kudos to technology for helping us through this crazy time.
Enjoy the weekend! Stay safe…stay distant!
HAH! Just got an invite to do a virtual happy hour an hour ago!!
Not sure my kids would let me attend – even at home! – but I’m gonna try and sneak it in and see what it’s like :) Technology is def. saving the day here, though you’re right you can never fully substitute real life interactions.
We are here in flyover country, a college town in the midwest, waiting for the other shoe to drop. A preventive 30-day stay at home order for our county was issued Monday. I’m trying to work from home but the distraction level = very high and the concentration/productiviny level = very low. I’ve worked from home for many years, but this is different. At some point, all the shoes will have dropped and we can settle in, but it doesn’t seem like that has happened yet.
# of days at home: 14
# of trips out: 1 (to take family member to hospital for scheduled heart procedure)
# of times my teenagers have asked to go to the grocery store: 1 million
# of times my teenagers’ boyfriends have texted me to ask if they can come over: 8
# of frozen pizzas consumed by household: 4
# of frozen pizzas consumed entirely by me: 2
# of times I’ve wished to have teenagers right now: 0, haha…
Though I guess it’s just a swapping of issues whether they’re 6 or 16 :) Except for the grocery store thing – my kids are obsessed with them too for some reason?! And dare I mention CVS or they’ll get ecstatic! Lol…
Hi J! It’s great to hear an update from you and learn how you are surviving. I too have tremendous peace if/when it’s my time.
I can only imagine the waning sanity of parents around the globe! Yo-yo on drugs;) I compared the volatile market to that of the erratic behavior of a meth addict recently. The ripple effect of it all.
All is well here – working from home, getting out to run, walk & bike in the park as much as possible. Unfortunately, the extra home time has inspired me to bake so I’ve gotta work it off somehow. I do share with my neighbors though.
Nice theme pic!
Oh how I wish I lived near you!!!
We suck at baking stuff here so never have any goodie like that :)
It’s been a while since I posted here, but I’ll give this one a go:
Financially, my fiancée and I are doing ok, comparatively speaking; I’m marginally less comfortable than I would have been if this happened, say, a year or two ago, since we bought our first house about 10 months ago, and in the last 6 months have started to see some financial outlay for the wedding (which not coincidentally are the reasons I haven’t posted in a while, watching these two things put a “dent” in my closeness to FIRE status briefly depressed me, lol), but ultimately I remind myself that I’m blessed to be in the position I’m in, thanks to my financial habits over the past 10 years, and my problems are small compared to many folk.(Too, I learnt my lesson from panicking during the market correction of 2011 (a year after I started investing), so psychologically I feel relatively well equipped).
I work in accounting, so I’ve been deemed essential, which I’m ok with, as our office isn’t large, and we’ve stopped face to face client meetings..and truthfully if my fiancée were both stuck at home 24/7 we probably wouldn’t make it to the wedding, haha. :)
She currently isn’t working, as she works for a craft brewery (they’re still doing to-go crowlers and growlers a few hours each day, but they’ve had to trim the staff to only ownership, which is 4 folk…though currently all signs point to them staying afloat well enough to bring back the full staff once this passes), but she got her first unemployment check yesterday, which truthfully is a big help, because though small, it means we don’t currently have to drain the emergency fund to pay the bills.
We don’t have any services such as daycare (since it keeps getting mentioned) that we’re faced with the question of paying while they’re closed down, but, thanks to my fiancée’s job, we’ve gained a new appreciation for local small businesses, so we’re trying to do what we can to support those around us (which mostly involves drinking good beer and eating good food from mom and pop places, so it’s not what I’d call a hardship, lol).
I also think it’s nice to see more folk out just taking walks, communicating (even if it’s just texting more often), and making a point to try and support the folk around them.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Solid ending, sir!!
Welcome back to the site, and early congrats on that wedding!
Life now > $$$ later at times :)