When Unemployed??
06-07-2011, 06:31 PM
#71
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 324
We have no credit cards in house and haven't had any since 1996. We only have debit cards and a savings account. We try to add to the savings acct. each month, no matter how small, for emergencies. My husband and I drive older cars that have been paid for awhile adn we keep up to date on maintenance of autos to avoid problems. As far as clothes go, we fix it up, wear it out,make it do or do without. I try to sew what I can, and we also do shop at Goodwill when we want something different. Every dollar saved is one less worry we may have in the future. My husband is retired and words a part time job at the golf course, I retired at 62 and I have a part time job also. We are making it, but are not rich. No great extravagances here for us.
06-07-2011, 08:48 PM
#73
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: 53 degrees North
Posts: 1,679
Are any of you ladies babysitting? Decent money where I live- not too physical (I am thinking evenings here, when the kids are sleeping) and you can use someone else's heat and light, TV and teabags for a few hours. Bring some handsewing!
06-07-2011, 09:41 PM
#74
Super Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Northern New Hampshire
Posts: 1,936
Twelve years ago I suffered a life changing medical crisis that left me unable to return to my nursing job or any type of work. My husband died the year before so I know what it's like to live on a very restricted budget. I tightened my belt so tight I almost forgot how to breathe. I cut coupons,called utilities to apply for any discounts that applied, used ceiling and floor fans instead of the AC, as long as I could stand it. Planned all my errands for one day, no back tracking and no unplanned expenditures. Stuck only to the sales at grocery store and like you could not stock up when they had good sales I could only afford to buy what I was going to use, no stocking up the shevles. It took two years for my disablility statis approved but it still wasn't much better. I buy only clearance fabric and what I can find on freecycle.com and from a local group on yahoo. I use the remnants to make quilts for kids in crisis. Life isn't like I had planned, I had to sell my house but I still able to do something worth while, I have a roof over my head, I still cut coupons, buy on sale and who says we have to have meat 7 days a week!
06-07-2011, 09:41 PM
#75
Super Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Northern New Hampshire
Posts: 1,936
Twelve years ago I suffered a life changing medical crisis that left me unable to return to my nursing job or any type of work. My husband died the year before so I know what it's like to live on a very restricted budget. I tightened my belt so tight I almost forgot how to breathe. I cut coupons,called utilities to apply for any discounts that applied, used ceiling and floor fans instead of the AC, as long as I could stand it. Planned all my errands for one day, no back tracking and no unplanned expenditures. Stuck only to the sales at grocery store and like you could not stock up when they had good sales I could only afford to buy what I was going to use, no stocking up the shevles. It took two years for my disablility statis approved but it still wasn't much better. I buy only clearance fabric and what I can find on freecycle.com and from a local group on yahoo. I use the remnants to make quilts for kids in crisis. Life isn't like I had planned, I had to sell my house but I still able to do something worth while, I have a roof over my head, I still cut coupons, buy on sale and who says we have to have meat 7 days a week!
06-08-2011, 02:36 AM
#76
Banned
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: England
Posts: 2,365
Originally Posted by arimuse
I lost my last job in 2001 and had to scrape to save my home! (farm). turned off the dish, got an antenna, stopped buying any kind of fee /subscription service (use the public library extensively now - free internet, free movies, free music! my library joined w/ 14 others including the state library so I have a data base of nearly 3 million items of music/movies/ books/ books on tape. You go online to your library web site, search the base, order what you want and its delivered to your local library, and if youre on a trip and near any library in the group you can return your stuff to the closest library in the group.), Started a garden (I have 18 acres in the country), learned to can, turned down the AC in the summer, put in a wood stove for the winter (I live in SC so dont need that much heat), got a fishing license and caught fish, stopped eating so much any meats - which made me feel a lot better, flossed/brushed teeth, and use a restorative mouthwash twice a day! (still have a cleaning once a yr and the dentist is amazed at how good my teeth are). Never have lites on in the house in more than the rm Im in. Use candles more! Use a treadle machine when practical, hand sew a lot, got a cell phone that uses a prepd card and have it for emergencies, have a house phone cus I needed it for internet connection, but can only call locally, ate ramie noodles once a day (12C a package), and cut out alllll other prepackaged foods -(cooked from scratch), collected cans on the roadways etc, and even dumpsterdived!
Stopped buying fabric and used what I had and cut up clothes no longer good and found clothes thrown away and on the roadway I washed and cut up - now I buy about 4X a yr from fabrics.com so I get cutoff bundles and free shipping - keeps me in more than enough cloth! lol-
I was in my late 50s, widowed, no kids, no one in the family could afford to help, finally I gave my youngest brother, now in his 50s - single no kids, a promise of half my property and the whole thing if I die first for help in the mortgage (he was a trucker at the time). I managed to get by, and now make the bills on SS and a small pension from where I worked for 20 yrs. I also found a new hubs and have moved into town and my bro is on the farm, but we still own it and it is mine, not hubs- he owns the town house and other stuff.
But, I learned, you can do it on your own if you dont panic and think things thru, you can live with a LOT less and still be very happy, and your health is something you have a lot of control over if you are willing to "own" your body, your health issues and do what needs to be done to keep it healthy - read up on everything about it.
on the farm we had many strays cats and dogs, and still do. My brother started picking up dead deer (only fresh ones) there are so many down here and dressing them out and freezing the meat, we cook deer for all the animals (he still does - never raw, always very well done to kill any bad germs) every 3 days to supplement dry food.
sharet
hope you find something soon, am glad you have a hubs to help out and be supportive of each other
Stopped buying fabric and used what I had and cut up clothes no longer good and found clothes thrown away and on the roadway I washed and cut up - now I buy about 4X a yr from fabrics.com so I get cutoff bundles and free shipping - keeps me in more than enough cloth! lol-
I was in my late 50s, widowed, no kids, no one in the family could afford to help, finally I gave my youngest brother, now in his 50s - single no kids, a promise of half my property and the whole thing if I die first for help in the mortgage (he was a trucker at the time). I managed to get by, and now make the bills on SS and a small pension from where I worked for 20 yrs. I also found a new hubs and have moved into town and my bro is on the farm, but we still own it and it is mine, not hubs- he owns the town house and other stuff.
But, I learned, you can do it on your own if you dont panic and think things thru, you can live with a LOT less and still be very happy, and your health is something you have a lot of control over if you are willing to "own" your body, your health issues and do what needs to be done to keep it healthy - read up on everything about it.
on the farm we had many strays cats and dogs, and still do. My brother started picking up dead deer (only fresh ones) there are so many down here and dressing them out and freezing the meat, we cook deer for all the animals (he still does - never raw, always very well done to kill any bad germs) every 3 days to supplement dry food.
sharet
hope you find something soon, am glad you have a hubs to help out and be supportive of each other
06-08-2011, 03:32 AM
#77
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Westerville, Ohio
Posts: 711
Well, it ain't easy!!! DH has been out of work for 2 years now--fortunately, we still have unemployment checks for 17 more weeks--than we have to dip into our retirement. We have given up going out to eat, I buy only what I need for a specific project in fabric, etc and then only after going through my stash. We try not to run the air conditioning, but the last 2 weeks, we had to. We make lists when we shop and have cut back on what we eat. Except for underwear we wear things more than once to cut down on laundry. We are cutting our own grass now instead of paying someone. We dropped our alarm services, only get the Sunday paper, cut our phone bill down with no long distance and will go with Magic Jack next month instead of AT & T. Except for Elm Creek Quilters, I either go to the library or buy my books from Thrift Stores. Most of my clothes, I make or buy at Thrift Stores. We did keep cable---that is our one luxury. We only drive when necessary and then combine trips After money from unemployment ends, he is going to find a job at a parts store or something, and I will probably take part time job at Jo Anns. I never thought we would be in this position, but we are and in some ways we are luckier than other people. We cut coupons and my DH is great at getting deals on meat in what the store calls the reduced sales section(we call it the used meat section)We do not shop at just one grocery store, we go to the one with the best deals that week. Hang in there, you have a lot of company out here.
06-08-2011, 06:19 AM
#78
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Ohio
Posts: 2,077
We have cut back on a lot of 'things'. I hang our clothes on a clothesline to dry, etc. to save electric. Have cancelled part of our cable, grow our own garden, etc. I longarm on the side and have a website, but if they weren't paying for themselves, I would cut that, too. I actually blogged about going green yesterday, which also knocked our huge electric bill in half! :)
06-08-2011, 06:27 AM
#79
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 697
Oh, and also, if a lot of people you know have computers and are computer savvy use Skype! Its free computer to computer, and you can see the person on the other end of the call if you have a webcam - so Dicky Tracy, lol. sharet
(its great if your kids live far away cus you get to see your grands)
(its great if your kids live far away cus you get to see your grands)
06-08-2011, 08:12 AM
#80
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Hawaii
Posts: 833
How is your health? I am not sure of all of the requirements but you could always donate plasma for some extra cash. My aunt did it for 6 months or so when she got phased out of her job. It does take a couple hours each time that you go in. And you have to go twice a week. I think if you only go the first time they can't use it or something. So you have to go twice. And you get paid a lot more the second time for that week. It's not a ton of money but definitely helps.
She used her plasma money to feed her family of 5. She said the money that she got from donating was all that she used on groceries. She went once a week with cash in hand and only bought what she had the cash for. This was a couple of years ago.
She also liked the idea of donating plasma because she felt that she was helping out someone else. She was healthy and able. So it was a double bonus for her.
She used her plasma money to feed her family of 5. She said the money that she got from donating was all that she used on groceries. She went once a week with cash in hand and only bought what she had the cash for. This was a couple of years ago.
She also liked the idea of donating plasma because she felt that she was helping out someone else. She was healthy and able. So it was a double bonus for her.
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