handling finances when you're between jobs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much do you spend? Where is your savings?

Our monthly expenses right now are 12K, and DH's current take home pay after 401K and HSA stuff is taken out is about $4500/month. We also get $2500 from renting out his house. I was the primary breadwinner, and 12K was reasonable based on what I was making. The 12K includes both mortgages, 401K contributions etc.

No question we were spending too freely online and I'm actually happy to be putting the breaks on that.

I have about 40K in savings account at a bank, and the rest is in index funds.

Severance will last me through the end of September. I applied for unemployment.

As for consulting, getting something part time etc, I will 100% do everything I can to make up some of the difference that way. But I want to get a solid handle on the financial piece first so I know what we're dealing with.

Also, make sure the rent from your husband's house is covering the expenses from his house, otherwise it might be time to sell it. You could use the windfall to bolster your savings until you can get your spending under your income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to say this but you need to plan on this being a long term unemployment, so you need to start from scratch on your budget.

Make a list of all the things you absolutely have to spend on:
Mortgage (PITI)
Utilities
Food (only Aldi. If it doesn't come from ALDI you don't buy it).
ONE streaming service (buy an antenna so you can watch TV over the air. There's a lot of free good stuff there)
Internet (but try to economize there.)
Cell Phones (no new phones until they die and look around to make sure you have the cheapest service).

Cut all the rest. Everything.

Live this way for six months.

Put all of your expenses in a spreadsheet and cut and cut and cut. Examine to make sure you've cut enough.

Once your bills are fully under control, you can start adding more back in.

Clothes: don't buy unless absolutely needed. If you're like me your kids' clothes drawers are over-stuffed. If you need more, shop Target online and thrift stores. There is good stuff in both places. No new clothes for the adult who isn't working. Only new work clothes for workplace adult.

So much fun free stuff in the DC area. Only do that. Lists abound as to what you can do for free. If you live in DC make sure to get the free metro pass for your kids and use that to get around.

If you cut all of this and still can't make ends meet without moving, then you have to move. But this should buy you some time to get your expenses under control before unemployment runs out.

No need to be unduly negative - we have no idea what OP does for a living. There ARE jobs out there. All these steps are good and it’s good to be realistic but at the same time as the cost cutting OP should prioritize reaching out to 1-2 contacts a day for networking calls/coffee and starting to apply for jobs they see on LinkedIn. It might take a while or OP might have a great new job in a month or two (I’d assume August will be slow).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to say this but you need to plan on this being a long term unemployment, so you need to start from scratch on your budget.

Make a list of all the things you absolutely have to spend on:
Mortgage (PITI)
Utilities
Food (only Aldi. If it doesn't come from ALDI you don't buy it).
ONE streaming service (buy an antenna so you can watch TV over the air. There's a lot of free good stuff there)
Internet (but try to economize there.)
Cell Phones (no new phones until they die and look around to make sure you have the cheapest service).

Cut all the rest. Everything.

Live this way for six months.

Put all of your expenses in a spreadsheet and cut and cut and cut. Examine to make sure you've cut enough.

Once your bills are fully under control, you can start adding more back in.

Clothes: don't buy unless absolutely needed. If you're like me your kids' clothes drawers are over-stuffed. If you need more, shop Target online and thrift stores. There is good stuff in both places. No new clothes for the adult who isn't working. Only new work clothes for workplace adult.

So much fun free stuff in the DC area. Only do that. Lists abound as to what you can do for free. If you live in DC make sure to get the free metro pass for your kids and use that to get around.

If you cut all of this and still can't make ends meet without moving, then you have to move. But this should buy you some time to get your expenses under control before unemployment runs out.

No need to be unduly negative - we have no idea what OP does for a living. There ARE jobs out there. All these steps are good and it’s good to be realistic but at the same time as the cost cutting OP should prioritize reaching out to 1-2 contacts a day for networking calls/coffee and starting to apply for jobs they see on LinkedIn. It might take a while or OP might have a great new job in a month or two (I’d assume August will be slow).

You're right, it really depends on the field. But for those of us who have worked in environmental policy, international development, or anything related to foreign anything, we have to face the fact that it's tough out there. My spouse (in one of these fields) was searching hardcore for 7 months as soon as the election happened, and was lucky to take a major paycut and find something eventually. One offer. Worst job hunting environment in decades.

[Anonymous]

OP here, and I'm in a field with a LOT of volatility right now. I'm planning on being unemployed for 6-12 months as well as taking a pay cut. Thankfully we've been saving for years and we're in good shape on a lot of fronts, but it's going to be a stressful time.

I appreciate all the advice!

[Anonymous]

Cut all streaming. Rent movies from library.

Do not cut all of the 401k contributions. Make sure he at least donates enough to get the matching. If you find a new job before the end of the year, I think he should be able to do catch up contributions for the extra. have him do that if so.

[Anonymous]

Why does he still own another house? Now is not a great time to sell a house, but you might want to consider selling.

Also I'm confused, you said you get 2500 a month from the house but it also has a mortgage? What is the math on that? Are you actually netting 2500 a month on the house, after insurance, taxes, mortgage, etc? Or is that just the rent?

[Anonymous]

Make sure you're not paying for unnecessary subscriptions. Tidied up our finances recently and found a few that we could cancel or change so they were cheaper.

Button up your grocery shopping and take advantage of apps like Ibotta.

Really pay attention to sales and deals. You can save a ton of money if you buy/meal plan based on sales.

[Anonymous]

Two tips from when we went through a tough period of unemployment:
1. We started going to the library all the time. It became the thing we did when we needed to get out and go somewhere, because there is no risk of spending money there. You can get movies, music, books and sometimes other stuff like museum passes.

2. Eggs. They’re good and quick on the nights when you are so tired and would’ve otherwise ordered food. Meal planning is great but you also need realistic meals for the nights everyone is too exhausted or busy to cook.

[Anonymous]

Is temporarily taking a lower paying job not an option?

[Anonymous]

Mow other peoples lawns and clean other peoples houses. You and can do one a day 7 days a week.

[Anonymous]

I’d suggest getting a budgeting app—I recommend Copilot Money. Link all your credit card, bank accounts, Venmo, etc. and import at least 6 months of past transactions. Spend a few hours categorizing past expenses so you truly understand your spending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like many in the DC area I'm newly unemployed.

I spent today going through our finances, and until I find another job, we're going to need about 5K / month just to break even.

In looking at the numbers there just isn't a way for us to close the gap without moving, which I don't want to do at this point in time.

Here's my list of things that will help close the gap:

- Stop all house cleaning & gardening help and do it ourselves
- Pulling the kids from summer camp the rest of the summer. (They're happy about this so don't feel sad for them)
- DH can stop contributing to his 401K so we have extra cash coming in. (Is this a bad idea?)
- Cancel our composting service and deal with it ourselves
- Cut out all unnecessary spending on personal stuff (clothes, books etc)
- Shave 20% of our grocery bill (no more prepared foods; buy bulk stuff online)
- No dining out. (We did very little dining out anyway so we don't have much to gain here.)
- Wind down charitable donations. (I feel crappy about this but I have a few recurring donations that are a couple hundred bucks a month that we could use right now.)

The rest of the gap I can fill with savings for a while.

What else am I missing?

I don’t do any of that to begin with! At least you have easy expenses to cut.

+1

Are you making these cuts to avoid drawing down on savings? Or do you literally not have savings? If you have savings, I would hold off on stopping the 401K contributions--they really do grow and you'll need them for retirement.

You didn't mention kid ages, but keep in mind that if they're not in camp and not old enough to entertain themselves it could be hard to job search/do job interviews.

Not sure if you have a lot of expensive kid activities, but those are often a good source of savings). I assume you have already nixed any non-essential home repairs. Also if you have any doctors/dentists who are out of network, replacing them with those in network can be helpful too.

I second those who said they wouldn't rule out moving. It sucks, I know--but if extended unemployment, better to bite the bullet for something sustainable. Those who are conservative with finances try to buy houses that are well below what they can afford to avoid having to sell in case of job less/medical issue etc. so it might be less stress in the long run. Good school districts often have apartment housing that's affordable alongside more expensive houses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does he still own another house? Now is not a great time to sell a house, but you might want to consider selling.

Also I'm confused, you said you get 2500 a month from the house but it also has a mortgage? What is the math on that? Are you actually netting 2500 a month on the house, after insurance, taxes, mortgage, etc? Or is that just the rent?

If we need to sell the house we will, but as you noted it's not a great time to be doing so.

$2500/mo is the rent we receive. The mortgage is $1500/mo. It may not be the best investment but given the housing market we're going to try to hold on to it for now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is temporarily taking a lower paying job not an option?

It's 100% an option and I will start looking asap. But I wanted to get a handle on finances first so I know what I'm up against.

[Anonymous]

OP I’m confused. You said you are something like $5K short a month, but you also said you have a lot of savings. What is it? If you have savings, you don’t need to cut back so dramatically immediately unless it’s 6+ months and you aren’t having any luck finding a new role.