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Has anyone else had to deal with a major loss of income? How are you dealing with it?
My husband works in the auto industry, which has been through some hard times in the past few years. This year has been really bad. He was laid off 6 weeks from Thanksgiving till the first of the year, then were laid off 2-3 weeks each month, Jan. through September. He is finally back to work and the company is saying no more layoffs this year.
We are in the hole with every bill you could imagine. Its depressing, you can't buy anything or go out and do anything. My kids had to start school without any new clothes, just new shoes and packpacks with supplies.I have become the queen of penny pinching. It will take at least 2-3 months to get our bills back on track.
Yup, I too am busy relearning how to be poor. I was never rich but always comfortable, at least for the past 25 years or so. I could do what I pleased within reason. I was always a good saver and was willing to wait for things I couldn't afford right away. I just have to wait a lot longer now!
I know I have the basic skills. Poverty hasn't changed. I'm getting back in the swing of things. It's hard and it's a challenge. I've never shied away from a challenge before and I'm not going to start now. I'll adapt. I can change. If it doesn't kill me, it will make me better! And I figure I will appreciate the things and people in my life even more because I have had to go through these hard lessons once again.
I probably sound too Pollyanna. There are days when I rant, rave, and rail against the powers that be. Life is so unfair, etc, etc, whine, whine. But hey, I am still breathing so I might as well make the best of it!
Yes, shortly after my DD was born my DH was laid off along with thousands of others. Our city had a glut of people with exactly the same credentials, so there were no jobs to be had. For a year and a half we lived on my income only. It was tough, but we rode it out. My thoughts and prayers are with all who are in this situation because I know how rough it can be.
Has anyone else had to deal with a major loss of income? How are you dealing with it?
My husband works in the auto industry, which has been through some hard times in the past few years. This year has been really bad. He was laid off 6 weeks from Thanksgiving till the first of the year, then were laid off 2-3 weeks each month, Jan. through September. He is finally back to work and the company is saying no more layoffs this year.
We are in the hole with every bill you could imagine. Its depressing, you can't buy anything or go out and do anything. My kids had to start school without any new clothes, just new shoes and packpacks with supplies.I have become the queen of penny pinching. It will take at least 2-3 months to get our bills back on track.
Is anyone else in a similar situation.
We are in the same boat.
I left my job in March due to an illness that keeps me from working, still. They are still trying to find the cause and all they can do is buffer the pain with pills.
We canceled television. It was hard adjusting to finding my news online and watching shows this way as well, but after a few weeks I got the hang of it.
We are skim on groceries, but we make things last and all have lost a lot of weight, which is good.
The utility companies in our area have been great about letting the community make payments to propane, electric, and other utilities. That has helped tremendously. Last winter, an elderly man didn't pay his electric bill for months (I think he just forgot) and they shut off his electricity. That poor man froze to death. They now allow people to make payments and they come out to speak with you before shutting things off.
We buy gasoline in our lawnmower gas can when its a low price, and use it gas up the pickup truck my husband takes to work. That's helped to save a few pennies.
I buy my winter clothes, hats, mittens, those things at the goodwill and salvation army stores. Since we're all losing weight, we'll be past this size of clothing soon anyway, so we don't waste money on new clothing. We recycle this way.
We actually light candles we recycle for our evening lights in our home, to save electricity. This sounds really silly, but it's just my DH and myself downstairs and we prefer the low candle lights lit when we are just sitting or talking. It's romantic.
My DH will be working from home starting next week. This will save $200 per month in gas. The business is expensing the phone, cable internet, and a few other small things that will save us about $80 more dollars each month. That will help a lot. I think we're going to have television again.
We haven't had cell phones in about 2 years now.....that saves money too.
As far as not being able to afford and shop like we used to, it was very depressing at first.
I felt horrible for quitting my job, especially when the car broke down and my paycheck would have easily made the repairs instantly.
But after my supporting husband just hugged me and told me, "this too shall pass", and he tried to make living frugally as great as he could...I just held my head up again, and found other things to get my mind off our financial aches.
We do outdoor stuff together more. We read books, we talk more. We don't spend the money on entertainment, so the old board games came out and we play cards. Something we haven't found time to do on a weekend since we got married, so this is kind of a nice change.
Someday I'll finish my degree, and feel better, and I'll be able to provide again for my family, and now that I've practiced frugality and got the hang of it, I'm hoping I can save that extra income towards retirement this time.
We are feeling the pain, I woke this morning to find my van has been repo'd.
Yesterday we got a disconnection notice for our lights.
We are 2 months behind in rent, our cells were shut off a few weeks ago.
Last week was the last pickup week for garbage, we are behind with them as well.
This was going to be a good paycheck week, try to pay a little here and there. Now just about the whole thing has to go to get our vehicle back.
I know very well about stretching groceries. I shop Aldi and Walmart for almost everything, only buy meat when its BOGO or on sale.
I was "poor" before I can do "poor" again. its just a little harder "mentally" this time around. We have lived comfortably for several years, its an adjustment. Little things like buying pop, I only buy Walmarts 2 liter generic 78 cents, pop.
I am not whining, just feeling it.
We have been going to parks and bike rides, board games and every free activity I can find.
The library has coupons for free admission to museums. Target sponsers free admission nights to a few museums and theaters once a month. I knew we were going to have layoffs coming, so I bought a season pass with a discount coupon to the zoo. Now if we have nothing to do we go to the zoo.
We are going to a "free night of theater" this Thursday with the kids, Bert and Ernie. live. The tickets were free.
Yes, I have been unemployed since August 08.
It's the longest I have ever been 'involuntarily unemployed.' I've ALWAYS been able to find something but here it is so hard to uncover jobs and the recession has been horrendous in this area.
I'm used to being somewhat frugal because I was a stay at home mom for ten or so years but this is just horribly frustrating because I am not happy and I have a lot of education and my goals in life never included 'feeling useless.'
It's just like being in a pit. I have done everything I can think of to get a job, including volunteering and 'networking' but I can't get anywhere.
We pay yearly to belong to a library near us (but in another state). It is our only 'real' entertainment...dvds, videos, books, magazines.
We only have one car and have lived with one car since 1995.
Our collective dream is to own our own house again so our son and dog can enjoy it. Besides that, we just want a normal life...2 jobs, save some money, and so on. It's very sad the "American dream' is an unreality. I could see if I never did anything to advance myself but I have 6 years of college (BA and Masters) and a lot of experience in business. It's just difficult to be 'aggressively pursuing work' every day when after 2 years it is pointless (no feedback or I get the jerkaround).
I have my own business, so you can imagine the ups and downs we have faced. For example, in 2007, there was a client check every time I strolled out to the mailbox. In 2008, despite bringing on board 3 new clients and losing none, my income was slashed by 50%, and the first part of 2009 was even worse. So when times are good, things are really great, and when times are bad, things can be really lousy. Thank God things have picked up for me. Now, I'm working almost around the clock on client projects and couldn't be happier.
However, we have always been very conservative with our money. When we bought a new house in 2006, we bought something that we could live in with one salary. We clipped coupons and bought things on sale even when things were great. We typically ask, "Is this purchase necessary?" every time we buy anything. When things were rolling, we banked most of my income, and those savings have come in handy a time or two.
I think the one positive of this economy is that you learn what's necessary in your life and what is not. Food, clothing, and shelter come first. Everything else is a luxury.
But, speaking to relationships, times like these tend to test the mettle of most marriages. It's easy to be happy when the money's flowing in. It's a bit more tricky when you haven't gone out to eat in three months, the kids need clothes, and the car needs tires.
But, speaking to relationships, times like these tend to test the mettle of most marriages. It's easy to be happy when the money's flowing in. It's a bit more tricky when you haven't gone out to eat in three months, the kids need clothes, and the car needs tires.[/quote]
I totally agree. 99.9% of our 'discussions' are about bills and lack of money. We're both savers (how we have gotten this far on one income). But I am so tired of penny pinching, and worrying over 'an extra bill'...
We recently moved apartments (due to a bad situation with the tenant above us) and had @$300 extra bills due to it we had to 'swallow.' It's made a bad dent in my bank account this month.
Today my son kept saying, "Mom, you have to buy me snow boots." (it snowed a bit today in VT). I said, "I know." I just can't afford it right now but I am tired of explaining it to him.
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