I actually found it really helpful to finally write up this blog post, this way I also see where the money goes exactly to. For simplicity’s sake I have divided it up in three parts:
- Very Short Summary (at the end is the link to the receipts I have).
- Detailed Summary
- Outlook to the Future
Very Short Summary
Donations leftover from previous months: ~1,100 Euros
Costs of buying supplies for my neighbourhood pantry and fledgling solidarity garden in March 2022: 757,47 Euros
Carry over to April: 342,53 Euros
Link to receipts:
(This is a ZIP folder, I am on a Mac and take cybersecurity seriously, but please, still scan it before unzipping, it’s just good practice 😉
Detailed Summary
Towards the end of February I run a birthday fundraiser (now closed) for my neighbourhood pantry on Facebook but you can see it still here: https://www.facebook.com/donate/2428844467245911/ A few donations came also in via Paypal. So, whilst some of this arrived in March, I decided, again for simplicity’s sake, to bundle it all up into February. I haven’t kept any receipts until after the first week of March (sorry about that, will do better in future!), so the ‘carry over’ of ~1,100 Euros donations is a realistic estimate only, as I also spend some of the money on the pantry and garden in the last week of February and the first week of March.
I received one dedicated donation for gardening tools and seeds, so if you want to donate to something specifically, just put a note against it.
Receipts, there are two missing for March, one is for 3 Euros to buy non-prescription medicine for one of the families, the second is for my first online order in March for 76,78 Euros.
All other expenses are documented in the attached files (see above) and I have taken out the items I purchased for me personally.
Here is a summary list of what I have spend your donations on (Froiz, Dia and Gadiz are our local supermarkets btw):
76,78 Euros Food & Basics Froiz, no PDF receipt
114,37 Euros Food & Basics Froiz
3 Euros Medication
19,70 Euros Cooking gas for one family
133,17 Euros Food & Basics Froiz
3,06 Euros Dia Stock-up
95 Euros 5x Fruit and Vegetable Box from https://www.facebook.com/aHortadaAvoa
149.17 Euros Food & Basics Froiz
21,90 Euros Gardening Tools
29,08 Euros Vegetable Seeds
3,06 Euros Gadiz Stock-up
9,90 Euros More gardening tools 😉
3,14 Euros Dia Stock-up
96,14 Euros Food & Basics Froiz
I also received a big in-kind donation consisting of two big shopping bags full of food (lots of lentils and peas!).
Plus I have access to an ’emergency fund’ of just over 300 Euros should I need it aka if things are really going haywire/south here in Europe. But if that doesn’t happen, we hope and pray for it!, the money will go back to the donor.
Outlook to the Future
Like pretty much everywhere else, prices are going sharply and steadily up and nobody knows how everything will play out in the end. As long as I can, I will help my neighbours, because for me it’s not about charity but about sharing what I have and what I can fundraise for, with your help.
If you want to contribute to this, two very important points first:
Please don’t give more than you can easily afford.
Please don’t give anything that you wanted already to give to another project.
Said all this, I could never have done all this without the help of all of you scattered around the whole world. So a huge MUCHAS GRACIAS to all of you!
And a last, big Mea Culpa: I know I am horribly bad in keeping up with my email inbox, so if I haven’t acknowledged your donation, please drop me a note in the comments here and I will get to it ASAP.
Also, if you have any questions and/or need clarification about anything, just do the same.
Big abrazos (hugs) from Santiago, SY