Happy Financial Matters — $$$

Whenever my Daddy would pay a bill, he’d say to the cashier, “That’s my last dollar, but don’t worry about it — There’s plenty more where that went”.

This past weekend Ginny and I proved the truth of Daddy’s statement.

We sat down at the kitchen table to go over our plans and obligations for the next three months, to see what we have and what we need, and to plan for our anniversary vacation in November.

“There’s plenty more where that went”.

Yes, in November we will have been married for 39 years. Sometimes it seems longer; sometimes, like we’re just getting started. For a long time now, each year we plan a vacation trip to celebrate our love and survival.

Usually we like to rent a cabin in the woods at some state park where we can walk on the beach, stroll through a forest, watch birds, linger over coffee and talk for hours without interruption.

After our planning session we decided to cancel such a trip this year.

“There’s plenty more where that went”.

Increases in homeowner’s insurance and car insurance, gas and food prices, medical expenses, major utility increases, and other such stuff of normal life render us a bit shorter of cash than usual.

We always take our anniversary trip go on a shoestring budget but this year we’re down to flip-flops.

And cash we’ve invested in my publishing venture with Bluefish Books drained us a bit also. In fact, I think we have fulfilled a biblical prophesy thus proving the absolute truth of Scripture.

You know the prophesy I refer to, don’t you? The prophesy found in the first chapter of Haggai.

The ancient Prophet foretold that in the last days people would earn coins only to put them into a bag with holes in it.

I feel he must have foreseen me and Ginny when he said that.

Anyhow we have made alternate happy plans for our anniversary. No cabin in the woods or antique stores or lounging on a bear rug before a blazing fireplace. But somehow, I think we’ll manage. Actually, I suspect we’d be happy living in a packing crate beside the railroad tracks as long as we could be there together.

Which brings me to the real subject of today’s journal entry: money matters.

For a long time we’ve talked this move over with our family and friends and yesterday we made a decision about my book sales.

I searched for clip art to insert on the sidebar of my on-line book catalog. I wanted something to show a poor man but which was not demeaning. I googled homeless, man in a barrel, empty pockets, hobo, tramp, bum, bag lady, etc until I arrived at a cool graphic:

It looks like a poor version of me with a pipe in my mouth and a book in my pocket. Ginny and I decided it would be perfect for our announcement on the Bluefish Books sidebar.

I have no idea how to change anything on a sidebar. So, we e-mailed it to our daughter-in-law, Helen, to post. Helen is a graphic artist who has designed many of my book covers and she acts as computer guru guiding me through the intricacies of internet morass.

Imagine our surprise when we flipped our wall calendar over to October during our personal vacation/financial planning session to find that this same graphic is the October picture on our calendar!

Whooot!

What a laugh.

Anyhow, Helen added the graphic and the following announcement to the sidebar of my Bluefish Books On-line Catalog:

NOTICE TO

POOR READERS

I earn my living selling my books. I have no other source of income, so sales are important to me. No sales, no money.

However, I’ve spent much of my life in poverty. I’ve often lived in want myself. Many’s the time I saw books which I did not have money to buy. That hurt.

Therefore, if you honestly do not have money to buy one of my books, please e-mail me at bluefishbooks@gmail.com and tell me that you honestly can not afford a book, and I will e-mail a pdf, read only, copy for you to read on your computer. One per customer please.

I know you can’t served God and mammon, but I try.

—— John Cowart