I never thought it would happen to us, hubby just got laid off...

[Chris in VA]

Hugs to you and your family. I'll hang on to the thought of how wonderful it will be when you will share when your husband finds his new job. :grouphug:

[Alicia64]

:iagree: 

Sign up for unemployment and WIC today. Do your best to get onto your states Medicaid for the kids, too. 

My sister has had to do this twice when her husband has been laid off due to budget cut-backs. 

 

My husband's company is a pretty big IT company with several offices around the US. I'll PM you the information. They almost always have an opening due to growth. :)

 

Heather: Try very HARD not to panic. Six months severance is huge. When my DH was laid off he worked for himself and his largest client let him go. ("Don't put your eggs in one basket" etc.)

 

We couldn't get unemployment. It never occurred to me to get food stamps -- which is now like a credit card. I wish I'd done that. I wished we'd received a basket or two from a church. Within six months DH did find a job and it took him in a better direction. It turned out to be awesome for us.

 

People would always say, "The Chinese character for crisis is also opportunity" which I wanted to stomp on. I hated that saying. What if crisis turned into a total disaster?! But it didn't. Things worked out really well.

 

Go to Indeed.com and SimplyHired.com. Look constantly for jobs for your husband. I did. We were willing to move out of state and did.

 

Also, cut all extras like cable and Smart Phones etc. If you're still on the company's insurance get dental cleanings for everyone, get your yearly pap etc. etc. Get flu shots if you do that. Do everything medical-wise now.

 

Start using your local Good Will for awesome deals if you don't already.

 

This is do-able. Remember when you got married "for better or for worse?" This is the "for worse." You can totally do this. Play the Rocky theme each morning. Or Gloria Gaynor's I will survive. Do everything you can to keep your spirits up.

 

You can do this.

 

Alley

[lllll]

:grouphug:  :grouphug:

[Jenny in Florida]

First of all, hugs! I know this is scary and stressful. 

 

We've been through this a couple of times, too. I'm much less of a worrying type about financial stuff than my husband is, so i found living with his stress level much more challenging and upsetting than the realities of the situation. He tends to panic and hyper-focus on drastic doomsday scenarios, while I tend to get very intentional about attacking the small things over which I actually have control. Between the two approaches, things have usually worked out for us.

 

The first time it happened, I got online the same day and applied for every retail job I could find. I knew what I would earn doing part-time retail would be a drop in the bucket compared to his income, but looking made me feel like I was doing something constructive. As it turned out, I had a job by the end of the week. My paychecks were a pittance, but they were enough to put gas in the car and buy very basic groceries each week. I went to work at a theme park, which also came with some benefits like free admissions for the family that gave us access to fun, recreational stuff we wouldn't otherwise have been able to do on our greatly reduced budget.

 

Meanwhile, I had a second part-time "job" acting as my husband's administrative support person. I helped him write and edit his resume and cover letters, searched for job openings for him, researched companies he applied to, etc. 

 

My other contribution was figuring out how to keep life as normal as possible so that we didn't all feel deprived and miserable.

 

We continued homeschooling, but I did not buy any new materials. We used what we had on hand, what we could get from the library, some workbooks I happened to find at the dollar store and what I could find for free online.

 

I looked for ways to cut back household expenses as much as humanly possible without grinding our collective noses in the fact that we were broke. I began cooking entirely from scratch but made sure to include snacks and treats in the rotation. My kids ate air-popped corn instead of packaged snacks, but I did silly things like add a few drops of food coloring to the margarine I put on so that that popcorn "matched" the DVD they were watching, (They were especially delighted when I made green popcorn while they watched Shrek.) We made weekly trips to the library for free reading materials and entertainment a part of the regular routine, and I swapped out paid activities for the kids with things they could do for free.

 

When summer rolled around, I got together with some other families in our homeschool group and planned a weekly day of "summer camp" instead of signing our kids up for the things they were used to doing during breaks. Each family took a turn having the group to their home and planning typical "camp" activities like craft projects and swimming. Both of my kids had birthdays during the time we were really scrimping, and I managed to throw a party for each of them, spending no more than $30 on each event.

 

We had a family tradition of taking "summer vacation" one week during the summer. We often went to a local hotel or spent a few days at a theme park, both of which were, of course, not possible that year. So, instead, we sat down as a family and brainstormed fun things we could do that would cost little or nothing beyond gas. We packed picnics and went to the beach. We made a big deal of having a family "camp out" in our living room. We used a couple of my free theme park admissions as the grand finale of our week, packing food to take in with us instead of eating in restaurants.

 

Over the summer, I started looking ahead and realized that things weren't likely to improve significantly before Christmas. So, I made lists of all of the craft and sewing supplies I had on hand and figured out things I could make to give our own kids and as gifts for friends and family. From July through November, I crafted and sewed and baked and spent occasional small amounts when I could do so to supplement my supplies. I watched sales and set aside a few bucks when I could so that I could get each kid one of the items I knew would make for shining eyes on Christmas morning, but pretty much everything else that year was home-made.

 

After a couple of months, my husband ended up taking a different job with the same company at a drastic pay cut. (I think it came to about 60% of his former salary.) Rather than the normal office hours we were used to, the new job also required him to work a rotating schedule of early mornings, late nights and weekends. It was an adjustment, to say the least. After about six months, he was offered an opportunity to start moving back up the ladder. It took time to recover, though. I ended up keeping my part-time job for three years, even after my husband was getting back to his previous salary, because I liked the benefits and feeling like we had a little safety net just in case something similar happened again.

 

The next time he was laid off, he had more warning. This was just about a year ago, and he knew three months ahead that it was coming. By that time, I was already working a different job with higher pay and more hours, although still not nearly enough to keep us fed and housed without drastic measures. We started cutting back where we could and preparing as best we could, just in case. However, I refused to panic, knowing we'd already survived this kind of thing before. And with that much lead time, my husband was able to start networking and papering the town with resumes well before the ax actually fell. Things got a little tense as the first two months passed, but he ended up with two different job offers and hints of a third possibility before his time was up and was able to transition into the job he has now with no break in salary or benefits.

 

Anyway, I hope that maybe something I've said here will be useful in some way. And I hope that your husband finds a wonderful opportunity very soon!

[SereneHome]

You guys have 8 months of guaranteed income and if your husband gets a job while getting severance - you'll get double income - that's huge!  Try concentrating on that and not panic too much.

 

Also, since it sounds that the company is being very generous - they might be paying for health insurance for some time as well.  Check into that.

 

 

 

[cjzimmer1]

It is extremely unlikely that she is eligible for WIC or any other program while he is getting severance pay. Severance pay still counts as income and unless it causes a drop in income that puts them below the eligibility numbers, they won't be eligible for that six months. Also, at least in my state, unemployment won't pay while a person is getting severance.

 

But it also depends on how they pay out the severance.  When my DH got severance it wasn't strung across the number of months it was one large payment at the front. So the first month we weren't eligible but the second month we were.  I also know that WIC isn't as stringent as food stamps and at one point (I think it was a different layout, we've been through many), that when I could prove to WIC, that the payment wasn't an ongoing thing, they were able to start me sooner.

 

But I would second and third that look into government benefits as soon as possible, they don't backdate things (well maybe insurance) but the other stuff they start when you apply, if you wait two months, well you lose two months of help.  Anyways, I found when I cut everything possible and had food stamps and WIC, we were still able to survive, we didn't lose the house, we didn't have to sell a vehicle, things weren't cushy but we could make it day to day.

 

The biggest thing that helped me was prayer.  During one of these layoffs, God very clearly spoke to me and said "Do you have enough for today?"  I reminded myself of that every single day (sometimes many times a day as the worry tried to rear its ugly head), Every day, I could truthfully say, yes I have what I NEED for today.  It meant not stockpiling when I found a good sale (which is my normal tendancy), it meant truly buying only absolute NEEDS, it meant ignoring my WANTS.  But really and truly my NEEDS were provided for everyday.  And as I learned to trust them, my life was more peaceful, the stress was there but the "what ifs" no longer ruled my thoughts and I learned to trust the process (and DH ended up with a significantly better job in the end).

 

[applethyme]

:grouphug:  :grouphug: :grouphug: 

 

Food for thought - when applying for any kid of assistance, agencies will look at your income.  They never look at how full your freezer is or how much basic cooking ingredients are on hand.  Since your husband is still working,  now is also a good time to purchase things like extra laundry soap, dish soap, toilet paper and such these are all items that can add up when you are on a limited budget.   Make sure everyone has socks and underwear that fit and are in good shape, life is better with a good foundation.

[Alessandra]

I have a friend in IT who was in a similar situation a few years ago. One thing that helped was starting his own consulting business. His client list looked good on resumes and LinkedIn. In reality, it was just a few small jobs, but he did not 'look' unemployed. So a psychological booster more than an income booster.

 

He also kept current with new technology, platforms, etc, and eventually got a great job working with cloud computing, which he had never done before.

 

The fact that you have a current teaching cert is helpful. Please don't rule out going back to work, even if that was not your plan. Health benefits could be a real lifesaver. (I hate that that even has to be a consideration in this country.) Meanwhile, check out health insurance, COBRA vs other options.

 

((Hugs))