Hello everyone, you're welcome to my blog today.
Today I'm going to be talking about receipts. Some of us live in homes where receipts are very important. Some of our parents are shop owners or run businesses that involve giving receipts to people. When they go to restock their goods, they are also given receipts.
A receipt is evidence of payment made. Even in our school system, receipts are always required, both in secondary schools, primary schools, and tertiary institutions. You should always have your receipts; if not, you won't be able to account for any payment you made if you don't have the written down receipt or online receipts, as we have in the modern age now.
Coming across this prompt today made me remember something that happened to me in school. It was indeed a very terrible experience for me because I was always warned about keeping my receipts. For school fees and little payments that I made in school, my mom would even go as far as saying, "Make sure you laminate your receipts," but I wouldn't listen to her.
Until I learned the hard way. I entered school at the age of 16. I was still very tender; I mean, I was a very small girl back then in school. My mom and my sisters would always tell me to make sure I kept my receipt safe. Did I listen to them? Yes, I tried my best, but I actually lost one of my invoices—not even the receipt. I lost the invoice for my school fees payment for the whole hundred level, and I didn't know until it was almost time for exams when we were asked to come to the exam hall with our receipts. I started looking for my receipt, and that was when I realized that the invoice I was supposed to use to print the receipts, I couldn't find it anymore.
Fortunately for me, I opened up to my roommate and told her what happened. She told me that I needed to inform my family. I asked her if there was nothing we could do about it because I knew that the moment I called my mom and told her that I was looking for my receipt, she might disown me. It was that serious because she always warned me to make sure that I laminated my receipts.
So I had to call my sister and inform her without telling my mom. My sister, who promised to come to the school to bring my kerosene stove for me—because when I started school I packed into the hostel with a gas cylinder hoping that I would be able to cook with gas, but they stopped me at the school gate and told me that I could not take my gas cylinder into the school and that I was only permitted to cook with a kerosene stove. I had to tell my sister to bring my stove for me.
So when she came, I told her about the invoice and the whole receipt situation. She decided to follow me to the registration office to plead on my behalf so I would be able to get my receipt. When we got there, the woman asked me to explain what happened. In the process of explaining, she got angry and said that all the 100 level students are very unserious. She asked me why I couldn't just keep my first receipt safe and how I was going to scale through school if I was already losing my receipt. At this point, my sister looked disappointed, and I felt bad because it was all my fault.
Finally, the woman agreed to generate another invoice for me and print my receipt so I could write my exams the following week. She complained a lot and cautioned me a lot and told me that no matter what I was doing, I should make sure I always laminated my receipts immediately after they were given to me. I told her yes, that I would do so, and then she asked us to give her the sum of 2,000 Naira so that she could help us. We did not have a choice but to give her the money. I was so broke then, so I was glad that my sister came, and she paid, and I got my receipts.
My sister took me to a cyber café where I printed out the receipt and laminated it, then I went back to my hostel. That was a very close call to danger because I didn't know how to handle it on my own, and I'm glad I had people around me that helped me to navigate it.
That particular incident made me take time to laminate all my receipts. I am someone who is very, very careful right now with anything that has to do with receipts because I found out that they are actually very important. Even when I was doing my clearance in school, I printed out my clearance form and found that some of the things there I had already paid for. It was only because I went with my receipts that they were able to waive those payments. If I were someone who did not keep my receipts well, I would not have been able to show them that receipt and I would have to make payments twice. So it is always good to keep track of our receipts.
I would make sure to build a family where I will keep my children's receipts safe. I would even collect my husband's receipts and keep them safe for him because they always come in handy when we least expect.
Thank you everyone for stopping by my blog.