Coupon Queen of Corning: Are you Prepared for Unemployment?

The economy is just scary right now. Although there are glimpses of the economy turning around, the fact is, we just don't know how long that will take. In the last month another major company, not far from here, laid off 225 people, and are now going to be laying off another 750. Hopefully you have a job that is secure and you do not have to worry about being laid off. Many people are not in that situation though. Even if your job is secure, being prepared for a possible lay off is a good idea. The boy scouts don't say "be prepared" for nothing, you know.

In December of last year, I decided we needed to be prepared "just in case" and I'm glad we did all the preparing and planning that we did. In March, my husband was laid off and we went from being a single income family to a family living on unemployment. Luckily we did have several hundred in savings and our tax return helped out a lot. Here are several of the things we did in order to prepare for unemployment:

Stockpiling - My stockpile allows me to wait for sales to buy items.By combining sales and coupons to get things cheap, I can increase my stockpile. Having a good stockpile is like money in the bank. A good stockpile can feed your family for months when money is tight. Letting you use that money to pay for necessities like rent and utilities. Go check out The Prudent Homemaker for pictures of her awesom e stockpile, tips on stockpiling and recipes that use your stockpile.
Devising an Unemployment Budget - If you don't already have a regular budget, you need to have one. You can check out Budgeting Basics, to find out how to make a budget. An unemployment budget is similar to a regular budget but you base it in how you would live if you were to get laid off.

The first step is to figure out how much you would get from unemployment if you were to be laid off. You can check this out at your state's unemployment site. In New York state, the maximum a person can get is $405 a week. They also get an extra $25 a week right now due to the stimulus package that was approved earlier this year.

Next, you will need to figure out what expenses you can eliminate if you were to get laid off. Things like cell phones, cable, Internet and other expenses. What other areas can you cut? You may have to stop eating out, going out with friends and other things that can be expensive. Find free or cheap ways to entertain your family. Learn to us e coupons and learn how to meal plan to save money.

If your expenses are more than your income, then you need to cut back even more. If credit cards are a problem, pay them off now while you are working. Look into debt snowballing for the most efficient way to do this. A debt snowball calculator can help you see how long it will take you to pay off your debt. Also, know what your priorities are. The top priorities are food, shelter, and utilities. Next would be expenses such as car payment and insurances. You need to have a vehicle in order to get to employment interviews and look for jobs. Debt that you owe to the government can be deferred, so look into that if you have a school loan or owe taxes and are laid off. The lowest priority would be credit card debt.
Savings - Automatically have a certain amount each week transferred into savings. This is the way we did it. We transferred $45 a week into our high-yield online savings account and it really added up quickly. Even if it is only $10 a week, at least you are putting something into savings.

Another way to get more money into your savings account, is to roll those pennies. I mean it. Use only cash when you go to the store and put any coins in a piggy bank. This not only helps you save money in your bank, it also helps you stay within your budget, because the amount you bring is the limit. You are forced to keep track of how much you are spending as you place those groceries in the cart.

Here are some sites to help you save money, to get you started: