Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Thinking Twice about Who Gets My Money

Today, I did something I normally hate doing- I paid retail for a hardback book. It was the latest “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” for my son, and though I could have probably held out for it to come to the library, I decided to splurge. My son will be thrilled, but honestly, the thought of his happy face wasn’t what tipped me over the edge in pulling out my wallet- it was the store selling the book.

This adorable, boutique children’s bookstore struggling to stay afloat moved into our neighborhood a few years ago, replacing a God-awful “American Opinion” store filled with skin-heads and secret late-night meetings.

This store deserves my money.

In the past few months, since my husband’s company shut down, I have, for the most part, spent as little money as humanly possible. But when I do decide to splurge, I am trying to make sure the person, or institution, getting our hard-earned (or hard-SAVED, now) dollar is worthy of it. That it is the kind of business we believe needs to still be around a year from now.

We’re all facing the conundrum of needing to save money for our own private benefit, but spend money in order to keep our economy alive. To make peace with this, we need to remember both sides of that coin with every purchase: what, and who.

This is the only way we’re going to like the way our world looks when the dust settles.

-TWM

3 comments:

Jeff Kinney said...

Thank you, Jennifer, for supporting your local independent bookstore! And for buying my book!

I hope your son likes it!

TheWastelessMom said...

As I said, Jeff, the money was WELL SPENT. Connor, and all his friends, are dealing your books like trading cards at school! Thank you on behalf of all of them...they are wonderful.

Jennifer Lamb said...

Narnia is worth every penny!