My Whole World Shattered when I got laid-off

That's what it felt like the day I was called into our company office and given a nice letter stating that my job was eliminated and that I was No Longer Needed.  There had been some talk of a lay-off out in the plant but I felt secure because I worked in the cafeteria and they would always have to eat, right?  Well the end of eleven years hard work on Nov.13,2008 proved me wrong.  Job loss can happen to anyone and I started a new kind of education that day.

Coping With Unemployment-101

This Hub is part how-to and part my own story.  I did all the things I was told I should do. I applied for Unemployment Benefits and then swallowed my pride and went to Human Services and got my $111.00 per month of food stamps. That gave me a grand total of $275.00 +$28.00 per week in Food Stamps to replace a $30k per year salary from my job.

It Was Time for Some Drastic Changes

My family went through a period of harsh reality check at the time I got laid-off. Financially it was and is a disaster. So many things we had taken for granted just had to go. My kid's allowance-gone. Cable TV and our frequent outings to restaurants or concerts-gone. It was crunch time cause there just was no money.

What I Did

I'm going to list some of the things we changed in order to try and live within our means. We changed the ways in which we lived by changing how we shopped for food and necessities and did some things to try and lower our household expense. It's been hard and I'm slipping behind on some bills but we're managing.

ON Food

The first way that I lowered the food bill was by making a menu and tailoring the shopping list to it. The menu was flexible in that I could take out a frozen chicken, say on Monday to make fried chicken and mashed potatoes. The leftovers could be used on Wednesday as chicken pot pie or chicken & dumplings. Left over mashed potatoes make a good thickener for pot pie filling or you can make really good potato pancakes with them. Doing this will really help stretch your food dollars.

Another Savings comes from not buying pre-packaged food. Buy whole and bulk foods and you will get more meals out of them. Buy a bag of brown rice, not boxed rice dishes. Buy a whole chicken and cut it yourself. You will get more portions and the back, neck and wings makes good stock for soups and casseroles.

Look for discount or co-op grocery stores. The brands may not be what you recognize but the products are just as good. Buy staples like flour, rice, oatmeal and beans in bulk when you can. Sam's Club is a good place for this. That applies to household items like bathroom tissue and cleaners, laundry soap as well.

If you are really hard pressed for food go to the church food banks or community food banks. There is no shame in asking for help when you need it and when you get back on your feet don't forget to support these causes.They were there when you needed them.

Cutting Your Power Bill

Here are some ways you can lower the horrible monthly power bill ( I Hate It)

• use washer and dryers at non-peak load times ex: at night
• change all your bulb to energy efficient fluorescents- not only are they cheaper to use, they last many times longer than incandescent bulbs
• Turn off stereos, TV's and computers when not in use and unolug them. If you just turn them off they are still drawing power. Do this for table lamps as well.
• Reduce the water bill by using left over dish and bath water to water your plants. The plants love it and it saves you money.

Entertainment Savings

Cancel your cable and watch on air broadcast TV. There are tons of digital quality channels available and best of all, free. Don't rent movies at the video store or go to the cinema. You can rent a video in a Redbox for only .99!

Gasoline Savings

Try to schedule trips in the car so that you are doing more than one task when you are out and about. This will save you a considerable amount in gasoline costs.

One More Thing

Take care not to get depressed and let yourself go. I can tell you from experience that it's easy to do. You decide not to shave today, and then it's three days and" Did I bathe today?" Get the gist of it? It's a gradual thing and can creep up on you. You should:

• follow the same routine each day
• stay active and get as much exercise as you can
• other than job searching, find things that make you use your mind- Like hub Pages. Finding Hub Pages literally saved my sanity and helped me to refocus on positive things like my writing career.
• Don't give up- you are a good person and God will bless you with the job or security that we all need if only you ask Him.