So, have any of you ever felt so overwhelmed that your entire existence felt like it was held together by a mere piece of thread?
Well, sometimes i do. And right now is one of those times. You know, when I first lost my job I actually thought, "well, at least I will be home more and be able to do stuff with the kiddos and do some of the projects I have always wanted to do." But alas, I actually seemed to be busier, you know, looking for a job and doing more cleaning for example.
And now I find myself with a job, even if it is for half of what I was making. So I try to do other little things to make money and now. I work twice as hard as I used to and still don't come close to what we used to make. (BTW, Our ENTIRE household income is now at 50% of what it is.)
So, the cuts get deeper. We are actually thinking of cutting out the home phone line. I know! Crazy! Anyway, the plus side of that is no calls looking for money. hehe
Anyway, we laid out our income and listed all the expenses. Not a fun time to be sure. So now that we are done slashing, at least for now, we are stressing out but at least we are taking turns. As of yet, we have yet to both be stressed out over our lack of income at the same time. Hope that holds out for awhile.
Whew----------------------------let me catch my breath
So, I think a lot about what is really important. I mean, WHAT is REALLY important? I think that is a question that is quite loaded actually. What matters the most to me?
I know for a certainty what my answers are. And while I really want to keep the house and I love our vehicles etc. etc. If my family is happy and healthy and safe, that is all that really matters. There is always a chance at a new house or a new car later on.... but with your family...you only get one shot.
So I DO have a question for you marvelous bloggers out there.
Is there anything you have had to cut back on?
What about ingenious ways to stretch your dollars? I have definitely seen more and more blogs about being thrifty. Awesome!
And since we are all from different parts of the country/world, how are things economically in your community?
As always, thanks for visiting and Have a great day!
16 comments:
finances here have been extremely tight, even before i got laid off but even more now.
we don't have a home phone, just our cell phones. we also cut out cable. we have crappy tv now but it saved us quite a bit of money. we also only have one car, which while it makes juggling transportation issues harder, saves on gas and insurance. we try to be frugal about groceries and only rent movies from redbox instead of spending $4 a movie.
also, for our son, we do thrift store clothing or try to borrow and trade with neighbors/friends who have kids a little older than he is.
good luck....i know how hard it can be to cut down on $$$.
we are even less than 50% of our old income when my hub lost his job. It's stressful but if we make the best of the situation we're in we can still be happy!
I think it's good that neither one of you are stressed at the same time. Even one being stressed can rub off and cause great anxiety to the other one. Hopefully you both can do whatever needs to be done and be as positive as you can about it.
Good luck!
p.s. I have frugal friday tips on my blog. Check 'em out!
uh hello... i just blogged on friday about all of my stress... and my recent emotional/mental breakdown...
we no longer have the Dish. Also, we put sweaters and socks on when it was cold, and the heat was not to be up over 65. and now that the weather is getting warmer... i plan to just sweat it out a little. after all- i didnt grow up with A/C and i lived in Humid indiana. i think we will manage. the reduced lunch program at school has helped. but i had some tickets to a show recently, and decided to sell them as i couldn't justify going (even though i bought the tickets way back in January). also - as i was going thru papers, i realized that i still had some cash sitting in a 401k from a previous job. i never rolled it over, and i am not contributing to it, as i am contributing through my current employer. i debated rolling it over or cashing it out and taking the penalty. it is that big, but it is more than one month's house payment. i decided to cash it out. i should have my moola in about 10 days... i know it will be gone, just like that... but i also feel that finding it has been a blessing. but basically, i am robbing peter to pay paul right now... hate it. also - since my kids are on the reduced lunch program at school, they get reduced breakfast too. so, i figured out that getting to school 20 minutes earlier and eating breakfast there was cheaper for me than me buying the milk and cereal for here. anyway - that is what i have done so far... also, i have applied at some other jobs and am considering a 2nd job on the weekends. here is a thought that i have been hanging onto lately (i can't remember which GA said this)...
"God will make a way where there is no way."
{{hugs}} We were there. I was blessed to find a profit sharing business that has blessed our life beyond measure. I can tell you if you let me know.
Keep the land line and ditch the cell phones.
Land lines are SO overrated. Ditch it...it's freeing.
Things are pretty bad in NC, and I think it's primarily because so many people are moving here because up until recently this WAS where jobs were at. I'm very fortunate that I haven't had any personal setbacks (in fact, I just found out that I'm getting a raise come July), but I have had to cutback given the uncertainties of the times and the balancing act of being completely on my own.
We dropped our land line six months ago, cable, one car and because we are self employed we halved our income! It has been brutal...but we are making it!
So many are so much worse off, without any work at all!
I pray it gets better!
If you really want to be free ditch the teather of the find you anywhere cell phone.
Being in Law Enforcement and Military, we are in a place of job security. But we have had to make cuts. It mostly affects our spoiled (with love) youngest daughter. She has really done well with is a need or a want. Family has gotten together with each other to get Brie and Shane the really needed larger items for the baby. I've never purchased items from DI or a thrift store that I couldn't refinish, but found some really cute baby cloths. I really checked them over. We are also considering cutting the cable on the tv. With Kass gone, I can go from check to check on one fill up in the car. Oh, that's where the money is going. Kass' mission. I was wondering why we were having to make cuts when Steve still had his jobs. We can't cut the mission. We need to cut the lunches out. We don't go to movies or rent them.
We lost a huge chunk of income after my husband's heart bypass last year. Then our expenses increased almost $700 per month with all of his new medications and that is with insurance. His employer kept my husband insured, but cancelled all family insurance so we are now (for the first time ever) without health insurance. I am a huge coupon shopper. We cut
the tv expense and really stick to a tight budget. I do some ebay and craigslist to raise some extra money when I need to. I'm just happy he's still employed at this point!
My hubby is in emergency services and I'm in health care, so I was really hoping we would be safe, but the cuts are going to start coming here. (Alberta Canada)
My job is very dispensible, so I'm a little worried about it. We did just buy a camping trailer, so we may just have to live in it if things get really bad!!!
It has been a while since I have "stalked you".
We are thinking about cutting our home phone to save money.
In two weeks I will be with out a job! Know what you have been going through.
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