For two lucky Natchez residents, money has indeed fallen from the sky lately.

Last month, Plezetta West spun the big wheel and used her brain to find missing letters as she took home big money on the TV game show, Wheel of Fortune.

Last week Christopher Stephens scratched his way to a $100,000 lottery jackpot.

We’re thrilled for each of their personal windfalls.

But, believe it or not, the nearly one-quarter million dollars that those two won pales in comparison to what local businesses could win each month — with your help.

And what’s best is that absolutely no luck or skill is really necessary.

It’s just a matter of using a little common sense.

Shopping at home is a drum that gets beaten a good bit, particularly around the holidays.

But as much as it may seem to be common sense and not worth continued repeating, it’s a subject that means a great deal to our community, so we’re going to keep reminding people of it’s importance.

But, perhaps, a more correct way to refer to spending money locally is to say, “investing in ourselves.”

Because the reality is that your spending with local businesses is not the nice, civic thing to do; it really is investing in our community.

And there’s no time to begin investing in our future than right now. The “jackpot” is ours to win, but it takes all of us working together.