For years my husband and I have loved being small business owners. We love working for ourselves and being creative is what sets our hearts on fire. I run store front photography studio and he runs a very well know Wedding Videography Company. We’re both extremely busy year round, until now.
The shut down has been hard for us in more ways than I can count, not only are we not able to do what we love, but we aren’t getting paid either.
With three little girls at now home full time and businesses that are shut down, we are learning to navigate a new normal.
I always knew that growing up poor would come in handy! Anyone else feel me! If you grew up without a lot then you know what it’s like to live with the bare minimum. You probably know what it’s like to add water to your dish soap, conditioner and laundry detergent. You know that fabric softener is a luxury and that getting your hair done at a salon is out of the question.
For some people, all of these things might a bit extreme, but for me this is a normal I was raised in. We were loved, but we didn’t have much and we knew not to ask for anything. When this whole Covid-19 thing started to go down, I knew right away that it would affect us and that we better buckle up for the long haul.
First things first. I told my hubby that we had to apply for food stamps right away. Now normally I would NEVER admit that, but I’ve been a single mama before, I’ve lived on minimum wage, so I know whats up. We applied for food stamps, temporary jobs, unemployment, and started looking at bills to cut out immediately.
First things first, I put a hold on my debit card that has ALL of the auto-drafts on it. I love auto-drafts, but in this case it was the quickest way to keep expenses from coming out of our account.
Things that we were no longer going to be using like, our daughter’s cell phone had to go. Since there is no more school, soft ball, or volleyball, that’s 50 + dollars we could save right away.
Ballet, Gymnastics, and all extra actives were a quick no for us.
Can’t go to them, can’t keep paying for them.
Gym membership – yeah, can’t go, not paying.
That storage unit that cost us 70.00 a month, you guessed it empty that bad boy into our garage and get rid of what won’t fit.
We lowered all of our credit cards to the minim payment and asked to skip our auto loans, mortgage and even the studio rent.
We are still awaiting some sort of approval from unemployment – that would be so nice! We haven’t gotten any sort of stimulus yet – a girl can dream! But I know that most business owners haven’t gotten theirs yet – especially if they hadn’t filed 2019 taxes yet.
The only thing that we did get approved for was food stamps, and ya’ll that is embarrassing for me to put out there, but when you have 3 little kids and ZERO income coming in, you have to take whatever help you can get. I am so glad we did that because these kids are eating everything and not having to stress about buying groceries has been a saving grace for whats left in our bank accounts.
I’ve navigated rough roads before and I am sure we’ll be okay. We are strong and brave and resilient and hopefully things will settle down sooner rather than later. We’ve both applied for other jobs, because something is better than nothing at all, but we’re waiting on responses.
This pandemic has also changes our lives in a TON of positive ways too! You know everyone know that American is know for being obese and flat out of shape, right!? But darn it I think it’s because we all WORK SO MUCH! All we do here in America is work! We save 2 days a week, only 6 days per month to relax and the rest of the time we work. I’ve seen more people out and about than ever before! It’s a beautiful thing to have time. Time is something we just don’t have enough of, EVER! The past month we’ve made lifestyle changes that I hope stay with us forever. We wake up early and the entire family goes for a 2 – 5 mile run/ bike ride for the kids, our dogs included! We’ve been outside BBQing more than ever before. My marriage is the best it’s been since our Summer Vacation last year!
So this Pandemic thing has not been all that bad, there are in fact more good things than bad. Sure money is a little tight and it’s a little scary to not know what the future holds, but as long as we have each other I know we’ll be just fine.
