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Lynnae’s post over at Being Frugal about how to make ends meet when you can’t find a good job got me thinking. When I started this blog, I had been out of work for almost 4 months. This was the first time since I was 16 that I wasn’t employed. I was lost.
When something like that happens (to the tune of losing $34,000+ annually), you definitely have to get creative. That’s when I started blogging, figuring out the drugstore “games”, couponing, reading PF blogs, menu planning, and the list goes on and on. I had applied for unemployment which gave me about 1/3 of my old income, but it was better than nothing. And in the meantime, I submitted job apps like a mad woman.
Now, over 7 and a half months since losing my job, I am working part time for minimum wage. But it’s a job. It helps to pay the bills. And with all the frugal life changes we’ve made, we learn to live with what we have. I am still on unemployment (I was granted the 13 week extension for high unemployment states, such as Michigan, which is where I live) — which may confuse some. I have a job but still get unemployment? It’s technically UNDERemployment. They pay some of the difference of what I was making while on unemployment since I’m only working a part time job. And all that’s done towards the end of the year (or first week of the 2009, not exactly sure).
The time I had off from not working was a learning experience. It was a mental health break (and physical health break, as I was going through a lot of health issues since being newly diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disorder just weeks before being fired). The time off gave me the opportunity to get in touch with what we really needed to survive, and not just what we THOUGHT we needed.
Granted, if it weren’t for the fact that my husband makes darn good money for our area, we would’ve been in a sea of trouble. We had no emergency fund (now built up to just over $2,000 and still growing) and nothing to fall back on. So there was that, at least.
I’m still learning. I’m still trying to follow a budget without going over each month. I’m still trying to put money into savings and pay down debt. It’s all a process that will keep evolving. But I never once gave up hope.
