kmart

I recently posted a story about one of the many financial blessings that I have received in my life. It was inspired by a number of people who were anonymously paying off the layaway balances for random Kmart shoppers.

We are constantly bombarded with stories of corruption in financial institutions, people taking advantage of the elderly, and companies ripping off their customers for an extra buck. Then there are all of the negative personal interactions that we have in our own lives. Because of all of this, I thought it would be nice to hear about people helping each other out financially.

I asked the readers of that post to leave their stories of financial blessings in the comments.

Your Financial Blessings:

Tim @ Faith and Finance – “I remember when a guy from my home church sponsored me to go on a missions trip right before I started college. I didn’t have any money at the time and he asked if I wanted to go on the trip. I said, ‘yes, but I don’t have any money to go’ so he said ‘you’re going’ and paid the cost to go. I’ll always remember that.”

Shanendoah @ The Dog Ate My Wallet – “In highschool, I participated in an exchange group, where kids from Spain came to live with us for 2 weeks and then we would go live with them for 2. Sadly, while we could host, my mom couldn’t afford to pay for me to go. So the school in Spain paid $1,200 of the $1,500 cost, and my mom got to send me to Europe for $100/week.
I will always be grateful for the teacher who arranged that “scholarship”.”

Jeff @ Sustainable Life Blog – “I’ve only been that bad off once, when because of practices now outlawed, I spent about 80 cents more than I had in my checking account – of course, these were of varying sizes, but they put the large transaction through first, not leaving money for the other transactions to clear. I quickly got about 8 overdrafts (or more) and was charged a negative balance fee for my account on top of it all. by the next time I would have gotten paid, it would have taken up my entire check – nothing for food or rent or ANYTHING else.
My dad paid it off and I closed the account, but not after he called me a moron and suggested I get a handle on my finances. That moment was probably the turning point in my finances – i still slipped up after that, but it’s been going mostly up since.”

Elle @ Couple Money – “When I was growing up, my mom’s car broke down and needed a engine. As a single parent with 3 kids on a tight budget it was a bigger emergency than she imagined. A friend came through and offered a gift for a portion of the repairs and a no interest loan for the rest. It allowed my mom to continue working. A real blessing for our family that I never forgot.”

Jai Catalano – “I recently was in a financial bind and entered a video competition and won. I never expected to win nor get blessed with a $1000 prize.”

Pam @ Penny Saver Blog – “I remember feeling really blessed when my husband and I were first married. We didn’t have very much money but we were close friends with one couple who continually blessed us by giving us food, taking us out to eat, and being so unbelievably generous to us. It really meant a lot to us during those tight financial times. It’s so cool how God works through others around us at exactly the right time!”

Amanda L Grossman @ Frugal Confessions -“By the way–my sister and her husband were one of the beneficiaries of the Kmart person!! They had $180 of their layaway paid for them by an anonymous person.”

Ryan @ Budgetable – “This isn’t exactly “my” blessing, but a friend of mines. About a year ago he was going through some really hard times. His wife had just left him for another man, he lost his house, car…his new laptop got stolen… it was really raining hard on him. This was all within probably a 3 month span. Anyways, he got behind on his electricity bill and they shut it off. We live in Colorado and this was during the winter… heat is a MUST. He had no money to pay the bill and wasn’t sure what he was going to do. After being in the dark and cold all weekend suddenly his electricity just turned on. He called the electric company to find out what had happened. Turns out a person who wanted to remain anonymous paid his bill. He said it changed his life… after what he went through the past few months, he had been convinced the whole world was terrible.. that made him realize that there were still good people in the world.”

I think it’s inspiring to see that people are still interested in helping those in need. I think one of the common themes in all of these stories is that the recipients will not forget what was done for them! This shows us why it is so important to take notice of those in need.

photo by Salvatore Vuono