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 awesome 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 use 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:
  
  1. 25 Ways I save Money
     
  2. 91 Ways to Save on Almost Anything
  3. Ways to Save Money
  4. 50 Ways to Save Money
  5. How to Save Money

The key to surviving unemployment is having a plan. By having a plan for "what if" you keep yourself calm in case you do get laid off.

Off to the job fair

Going to be a busy day today. My mom is coming up to watch the kids for a while so hubby and I can go to the job fair in Elmira. We will probably go grab a bite to eat afterwards, alone! lol. I am hoping that maybe this job fair will lead to at least an interview or two for one of us. From the list that was in the paper, there might be employers that I could work for, but maybe none for hubby. I am keeping my fingers crossed and I have printed out a bunch of resumes and reference sheets to hand out. I was thinking about maybe printing resumes on pink paper. What do you think? Would that get it noticed? lol.

Wish us luck!

Trying to cut back

I was not too happy today when I figured and paid bills. Our checking account is down near $100. Now, keep in mind that the checks for rent and water were just paid and they were well over $600. We don't have anymore bills going out for a week and a half so we will be fine. We also have about $800 in our savings accounts, but I am holding out on transferring those to our checking until I absolutely have to.

Hubby is going to put some tools on Ebay, along with a broken saw that someone could use for parts. He also wants to get the Bowflex on Craig's List. I need to re-list the clothing I put on Craig's List two weeks ago (summer clothes - boys' sizes 6-9 month and 12 months, and girls size 18 months). We could have a rummage sale, but with two little ones, it makes it even more work to have one.

We have about $60 left to spend for the month on food. We do have more than enough in our stockpile, it will just take some planning. We definitely have enough vegetables - I would say there is about 50 bags of veggies in our freezer, plus we do have a few canned. We also have TONS of pasta and rice. I have several bags of flour and sugar so I can make quite a few things that we would normally buy. I can even make our bread, either in the bread machine or by hand. So, we will definitely not starve. It is instances like this, when I am glad that we have a stockpile!

We have $60 for miscellaneous spending for the rest of the month and $120 budgeted for 3 weeks of gas (although we don't usually go through a full tank a week I always budget for extra). So, any extra from those two expenses can go into the food budget at the end of the month to replenish our stockpile.

We are trying to come up with as many ways as we can to save money. As mentioned in yesterday's post, we had our cable reduced today, so that will save us $50 a month. We already had our Verizon cell phones canceled and we got Net10 prepaid cell phones. This saves us $46 a month! We haven't used the air conditioning yet and will hold out as long as possible, by opening windows up at night and closing windows and blinds during the day.

I am open to any other money saving ideas that you would like to share. Please leave me your tips in the comments.

Random Tuesday Thoughts (Frugal Edition)

I have decided to partake in the UnMom's weekly Random Tuesday Thoughts. I will try to keep my thoughts about frugality or coupons, but you never know where these random thoughts will lead me once I start.

1. Have you ever noticed that when you don't have any extra money to spare, that is when Murphy comes and visits? We are trying to save every little penny because hubby was laid off and then we get a bill that we didn't know about. Isn't that the way it always is.

2. Ummmm. How does that work???????

3. Tomorrow is Earth Day. Our family will not be doing anything special, because we already take steps to help the earth. Earth Day is everyday here. My college on the other hand decided they wanted to be earth conscious all of a sudden. Previously, they had a trash can and a can for deposit cans and bottles. Last week they decided that they wanted a bin for aluminum, plastic, etc. But the plastic bin says you can't put deposit cans in there and they removed the bin for deposit. So, what do they want us to do with them now? Throw them in the garbage? Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking?

I guess I have no more random thoughts today. This was actually tricky because I am so used to writing about one particular thing. I am sure it will get easier though.