A Little Help for Those in Need…

On my post around the Coronavirus outbreak delaying tax refunds I recieved the following comment from Andrea:

My husband is a barber and self-employed and due to him being self-employed we can’t get unemployment to do all together we’re pretty much screwed all barber shops in all beauty salons got shut down the other day he is our only income I’m on my last $20 and I am freaking out I don’t know what to do my cabinets are almost empty I have 3 teenager’s/ 1 College kid that is now home from college and other three from school I don’t know what to do I need my tax return

This really affected me and spurred to me to see where I can help a little more proactively as I may in a better financial position than Andrea. I know people have been caught up in the Coronavirus related shutdowns and economic fall out through no fault of their own. So while I have written many articles on how to try and find out more about your tax refund and hopefully get it faster, I cannot control when the IRS makes the payment. Especially with all that is going on and the new world we seem to suddenly be living in.

As such I am going to put aside the majority of my earnings from this site this month – around $500 – and give $50 to 10 people as a start.

I can only make these supporting payments via PayPal or an Amazon electronic Gift card. So please leave a comment below with a little story of how this relatively small amount can help. I will send a follow up email directly to you based on the name and email (only I see that) you add in the comment to confirm which payment option you prefer.

Please don’t send me any personal or address information – I don’t want you to risk that information since we are still strangers after all! Just your email where you can get paypal or I can send you an e-Gift card via Amazon directly to your nominated email account. I cannot do direct cash payments at this time.

Other terms and conditions:

  • I may publish articles for those who send emails. I will remove any personal or identifying information. But I want to drive awareness for this and raise more funds from others in a more fortunate or giving position. Please click here to donate funds for this effort via Paypal
  • It is at my sole discretion of whom to provide these supporting funds. I will follow up to your email and work with you to get the funds ASAP.
  • There are no repayment obligations from your or me once these funds are paid.
  • Email has to match name in some way to confirm identity.
  • Please don’t take advantage of this. I will be publishing payments made for full transparency

Below are some of the emails I have receive that will hopefully also inspire you to make donations. If you are able to help please DONATE VIA PAYPAL. I will get these funds to those who need it and list it here for full transparency (no names shared)





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Donations Received (Total to date = $50)

$50 – Thakor P. (on 3/21/2020)

Thanks in advance and I will redistribute these to those in need

Supporting Payments Made (Total to date = $200)

(from Amy S) – $50 sent on 3/21/2020

Hi. I had seen your post on the site about needing help. I am a 28 year old single mother with a set of twins, a little girl, and a newborn (7 months). We live in a urban area in Memphis that floods with crime (sure you’ve heard the news), and with this new virus out I’ve gotten laid off from my job and kids are out of school eating like crazy and I am out of food stamps. I really don’t like asking for things but I am in my last option and don’t have anyone to turn to, we just need help so please if you could I would greatly appreciate it. There is so much going on with us and I hate for my kids to see me struggle because I don’t want to go back to being homeless or letting my kids see me cry.

(from Brenda L) – $50 Sent on 3/21/2020

I feel terrible writing, however I feel at this point I am out of options. I came across your post on trying to help people and because your words seemed so kind and like so many other hard working families I am still struggling waiting for the IRS to release my hard earned money I decided that it couldn’t hurt to reach out to you.

 Although I am a nurse currently I work for a small store that is privately owned. I have been applying for and have interviewed at a couple places to utilize my license but I keep running into dr offices being closed for patients other than emergencies and hiring processes being put on hold, all because if covid 19, and the store I do work for is only open 6 hours a day with 6 employees begging for the hours.

 I wish I could say I am fighting for the hours but I was the last one hired so the first one to lose hours and even if that weren’t the case I now have 3 children home from school indefinitely.

  I cannot rely on school to feed my girls, I have zero hours at work, am still waiting (since 2/21) for my refund and my local food pantry has run out of food and toiletries (I live in a rather small community). 

So as I said I hate to have to ask for help when normally I take pride in the fact that I can independantly at least make enough to feed us and squeak by but now I am out of options. I literally used my change to go to the dollar tree and get macNchz for dinner last night and now this mornong I have cereal but no milk. I love my kids more than life itself and would do or give anything I could to see them prosper so I figure I can swallow my pride to see them eat. 

Even if you could point me in the right direction to find any help possible it would be appreciated more than you know and definitely more than words in an email could express.

Thank you for taking the time to read my email, even that means so much.

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6 thoughts on “A Little Help for Those in Need…”

  1. Hi my name is Connie …i cleaned houses and my husband worked on small engines and we are raising our grandson and nephew ..i never ask for anything but I really need help…thank you

    Reply
  2. Wow! First off, whether you end up choosing my comment or not, I want to make sure to say thanks for doing what you’re doing. It’s very generous of you to think to give away the earnings from your website (especially refreshing at a time when so many in the world are elbowing each other out of the way at Costco to get 48 more rolls of toilet paper for their stockpile).

    And now… my story – I’ll try to be brief-ish : )

    My family (me, wife, and 2 daughters ages 5 and 1) were packing up our home and pretty much ready to move when COVID-19 made it’s way to the US. I never traveled to any “hotspots” or came into contact with anyone known to have the virus. To my knowledge, I still don’t know anyone that’s come down with it… except for MYSELF! Yeah… if a global pandemic doesn’t put a damper on a move, that certainly does. So instead of *moving* my bedroom, I essentially locked myself in it for a couple weeks… It sucked, but trying to focus on counting myself blessed that I fell in the 80% or so of people that do not require hospitalization.

    And no matter how many articles you read about kids being less susceptible to the virus *that single article* about the horror story of a child getting it and having a horrible outcome is enough to make me certainly feel blessed to say both of the kids seem to be doing just fine (though a bit stir crazy) and the wife had some concerns but they seem to have just been an unusually severe allergy response maybe from dust as we were packing… obviously in our paranoia though EVERYTHING is now COVID-19! What? You scraped your knee? AH! Have you noticed an urge to cough too??!?? But it seems I got it out of my system without infecting them!

    But now we have a house we haven’t fully moved out of, a house we haven’t at all moved into, I’m self-employed so getting completely knocked out of operation for that length of time means no income – and I’d already been breaking down the business stuff before I got sick so it’s partially packed. And I’m not sure how much of that income will come back which is how I found your website…

    Meanwhile, I am hoping to have recovered enough that we can go ahead and do the move before having to pay rent we can’t afford in both locations. But either way we’ve got an extra set of utility bills here we weren’t expecting and we’re going to have to figure out how to make that work so things are going to be tight.

    — Also, don’t worry, we’ve been taking extra precautions to make sure that according to CDC protocol I am not/we are not contagious and we intend to do the vast majority of the moving ourselves to avoid non-essential contact with others. In the case of the few big items we can’t manage, we’ve got some friends who can help and I have some masks (which I had in the garage for woodworking long before the hospitals needed them) and gloves we can use as well as being liberal with alcohol/bleach to various surfaces (and soap to ourselves) on the off chance that there is some viable sample of the virus living somewhere somehow even though it is highly unlikely after this period of time. And all of our movements are planned to be within the guidelines of local, state, and federal governments (honestly we’re being a lot more cautious than the local government here!). : )

    Reply
  3. As a single mother with a 16yr old boy and 11yr old girl. This would come in handy during this time. At this point it is what do we do, buy food? Pay the bills or the mortgage? Spreading what’s left of the money out as far as we can, but it is a struggle. There is no income coming in, it is terrifying out there. You don’t want to get sick, but you still need to go to stores etc. Any idea how much food a 16yr old and 11yr old can eat being home ALL DAY!! This is awesome, everything you are doing. If there is any help out there, appreciated!!

    Reply
  4. This is an awesome thing you are doing…my town fot its size doesnt have alot of resources…i am a food service worker …i had my hours cut by almost 20 hours a week…dont qualify for umemployment cuz im still working…barely made bills before….the owners dont know if we will be able to stay open for long…especially just running drive thru and carry out…

    Reply
  5. Im a mother of 5 and im also waiting on a return ive been out of work as well due to the kids staying home from school i worked at a hospital downtown in san antonio.im looking positive that’s a scary place to work considering the virus i had to look at it in a positive way since kids we’re told to extend there spring break….i waited 2 months to get my employment bank ground checks references my shots up to date drug test orientation to be back to square one….i could really use anything right now I’m very appreciative and grateful.. I not even gas to look for milk or food drives im trying to keep it together this to shall pass….i didn’t plan to become a single parent or feel so alone during this time. my income tax being delayed waiting on a letter i was told, this virus keeping up isolated for better results.no food, no gas,im trying to keep it together my kids don’t understand but its over whelming so much…. I feel helpless with irs….thank you dearly you are very good hearted weather assisted or not to offer to those with income tax issues and bless your heart…..

    Reply

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