Cutting Back...What about you?

[EagleJCS]

I was about three years ahead of the curve on the economic crisis. (Haven't had a full-time job since May 23, 2006! I had a short consulting job last year, but wasn't renewed. )

I have been fortunate that I had a sizable savings, a couple of modest inheritances (I wish I didn't get those - I'd rather have the person who left them to me), and have been extremely frugal in my spending habits. (Fix/replace what's broken, don't get anything you don't HAVE to have.)

However, the money's getting even tighter now, and I still don't see any hope of finding a local full-time position in my line of work - Business Systems Analysis/QA - any time soon. Don't wanna move - family, friends and activities are here.

[Kiltman]

Kilts can wait, but kids can't. Good choice.

[Joseph McLaren]

It's cold comfort I know, but often I find going without something can make the eventual aquisition all the better. Just think, when times are better, when Junior's needs are being taken care of and when you can start treating yourself again (even if it's a year or three), that first kilt purchase is going to be SWEET.

[ChattanCat]

I know this may get lost in the amount of posts:

Impact of Termination and Job Search

The loss of a job is a powerful life event and can affect a person's normal sense of well-being, sense of personal worth and identity. Just as with any kind of loss, losing a job can trigger a variety of emotions. During this time of transition, you may experience any combination of reactions: shock, denial, anger, sadness, guilt, anxiety, fear, relief and maybe even excitement. Any normal person can expect to experience at least a few of these. Some of them are more acute at the beginning of a search; however, it is important to understand that some or all of them may occur throughout your search project.
It is important to remember that recovering from a job loss doesn't happen overnight. Some of our clients have described this as an emotional roller coaster, others as a bungee cord jump. Managing a job loss requires effective coping strategies and a job search strategy. With the right strategies, losing your job might actually be just what you need to move on to an even better and more rewarding career.
Here are some interim strategies:
Stay positive. Do not panic. Your life is changing, not ending. And, that change may just lead to a more satisfying work situation.
Think of yourself as having a new job now rather than as being jobless. You do have a new job - it's managing your job search project, and it is a very important step in your career. It will use all of your skills and experience - and may be an opportunity to develop new ones.
Be easy on yourself. This can happen to anyone - and has happened to almost everyone. Take care of your physical, mental and emotional health. Reward yourself, give yourself permission to do pleasurable things, and do what you need to do to handle the stress.
Do not keep your search a secret - especially from your family and those close to you. The more secretive you are, the harder it will be for anyone to assist you. On the other hand, do not get on the phone immediately and tell all of your professional colleagues about your situation. Give yourself time to get yourself - and your communications strategy - in order so that when you do talk to people, you are prepared and effective.
Refrain from criticizing your former company, boss or colleagues - especially when you are talking to prospective employers or other contacts. This will always work against you because it will call into questions how well (or poorly) you deal with difficult situations.
Stay in the moment, stay busy. Do not isolate yourself. Look around you. How many other people do you know who have in this same situation? Talk to them, share your feelings and ask how they worked through them.

Financial and Family Issues
Income
A job loss - especially a sudden one -- may affect your ability to support yourself or your family. Your income determines your ability to pay bills, buy groceries, pursue your hobbies or enjoy leisure time. Not having enough money to pay bills can add stress to your life. Take time to get an accurate picture of your finances. You might even consider working with a financial planner to develop your financial strategy while you are in job search mode.
Create an austerity budget, one that will allow you to determine the minimum you need to cover basic expenses, such as rent or mortgage payments, utilities, food, transportation and health insurance. Call your state unemployment office and find out how much unemployment you would be entitled to if you were laid off at your current salary. Compare your budget to your anticipated unemployment benefits to determine how much savings you may need or how long you could go without full-time employment.
Family Life
While you're unemployed, your family life may be impacted. Your family may be dealing with concerns and fears of their own about your job situation. Also, sometimes in an attempt to keep things the same or protect family members' feelings, you might be tempted to avoid talking about your feelings, asking for their ideas or taking steps to accommodate this situation. In actuality, it may be an opportunity for all members of your family to lend their support.
Here are some ways you can enlist their support:
· Establish a way to communicate and share your thoughts and feelings.
· Find out what worries them most. Everyone views a job loss differently. Ask your family what his or her greatest concerns or fears are and discuss them as directly and honestly as possible.
· Be optimistic, but realistic with the people closest to you.
· Respect your family members' routines. A job loss can upset a family's usual routine. Make a place where you go to work on your job search, even it means going to the library!
Social Life
Your job situation may affect your social life. A common reaction some people have early in search is: I don't want to ask for help. I'll handle this myself. This approach does not take into account the realties of search, since virtually all experts and formal studies agree that most people find jobs through informal methods, or just people talking to other people.
While your job search is basically an individual project, there are numerous ways people in search can assist each other; they can:
· Help each other monitor productivity and provide support in keeping productivity high.
· Provide advice and guidance. Pooling experience in conversations on methodology can benefit all concerned. Search is an activity where it is sometimes difficult to maintain one's objectivity. Conversations between people in search can help maintain productivity.
· Gather and disseminate information using relationships networks.
· Lighten the work by sharing it. There is a great deal of work to do, especially in gathering and organization information. People working together do it better and faster.

[-B-]

8= months now trying to get a full time job it is difficult given my profession. ( now it is a fall back career) My job is directly related to the economy and the lack of disposable funds most people are not spending. I am a bicycle mechanic a pro for the pros I deal in the upper stratospheres of exotic materials and their culmination into a bicycle. my bread and butter are racers and serious cyclist who demand to have the best they can afford some times not afford but make some sacrifice to have it. it is difficult to not get a job that is seasonal or low wage that only wants production not .002" precision. Even my weekend side job of neutral race support is not looking like it is going to be stable either as races are being pulled off the calendar left and right due to lack of sponsorship money. You do not do the job to become rich but you have to survive with out working a constant 70hrs a week just to get by.

I have cut back severallyIi have sold most of my excess tools and other hobbies equipment, and have put off actual purchases of tools that I should have. Just a few week ago I destroyed my hack around Sport Kilt and as of now have no plans or funds to replace it. i have gone into survival mode to keep the coffers ful in the event that this lack of a job continues when the subsidies run out.

[Smayniac]

I'm still employed, but we've cut out overtime. Scooby's mom has been under employed for some time, so most of his expenses fall to me. My boss has said he knows that this will end, but it's pretty tough right now.
I bought a bunch of fabric before things got so tight, and just acquired another batch of "found materials" so I have a backlog of DIY stuff when I choose to pursue them.
Bob

[Makeitstop]

Being a dirt poor college student, I am somewhat insulated from the economy. Grants and loans don't dry up so easily, and the crappy, part time, minimum wage job I have is equally secure. So while I don't have much, I actually have a little bit more than I did last year.

Of course, I still have to be cheap. Very cheap. And it's hard, because I'm getting my first tax refund and I so want to get a new kilt. I just have to keep reminding myself that I will be repaying student loans for then next 80 years or so, and the more I spend the worse it will be.

[McNulty]

Brice
I feel for ya man. Keep a positive attitude as most things turn around, and they will. Cherish the time you can spend with your new family as things tend to slip away from us (time being one of them). My wife and I are being hit by the downturn way out here on the Western Slope. We were planning on a nice vacation (we've not had one since we moved out to Colorado 6 years ago) and my summer school pay was going to foot most of the tab. Due to budget cuts there will be no true summer school (teachers will not be needed)and without that income we will have a STAYCATION again this year.
Like I said before, things WILL turn around. You gotta remain positive!!!
Nulty

[ForresterModern]

I can only extend heartfelt sympathy for Brice and all others who are struggling through these times of economic and employment uncertainty and woe. A year ago I saw myself sliding, not into the unemployed, but into the unhappily employed (okay, lets just say miserable) but putting up with it for lack of a better opportunity. I was ready to leave my fairly well paying day job for a less well paying night job, the only benefit of which was that I had to work fewer overall shifts, and therefore had more time off, while sacrificing sleep and quality family time. I was also stuck in an inhospitable locale with a big mortgage that far outweighed the new valuation of the home after the market for homes crashed. And my wife and I had just had our new son, the miracle of our lives.
Out of the blue comes what could only be considered the offer of a lifetime, the chance to be the boss and run the show, develop some new programs, hire some new people and purchase some much needed new equipment----a place that was itself in its own form of dire straights, but all they needed was someone who knew how to do a lot of different things across the spectrum of my job, someone aggressive and ambitious enough to do it, someone who was willing to relocate-----someone to lead them out of their desperate and dysfunctional situation. There has in my mind never been a better match between a job and my personal and professional skills, and I am so grateful every day to have found this opportunity. Not that life has been easy---I still ahve a lot of work related problems to deal with, but then that was what I was brought in to do--fix them. I sitll have two houses in two very different states in two separate parts of the country, which means two mortgages to carry, and no money left over to put into retirement. But I have a much happier work and life, and my family life couldn't really be better, with a couple minor exceptions. WE are by no means plush, and I am by no means riding on my laurels, but we can eat, make all aour payments and have altittle left over for juat a taste of the good life most of us enjoyed over the last few more fruitful years.

What it does mean is that I have become extremely selective about any discretionary spending, including kilt related purchases, and feel the need to be double and triple careful about finding the best deal for what little I am still buying. I still buy, as I believe that those that still have should do so to help stimulate the economy to help those that do not (trickle down Reagonomics), but it has definitely slowed my sense of need for certain items, especially fluff stuff, and focussed me more on the importance of making the best with what I already have, then filling in carefully the remaining needs. It also makes me oh so much more aware of scot's frugality, getting the most value for your money, and not settling a lesser quality when I know that the better quality somewhat pricier item is really the bargain in the long run. And through this forum have connected up with true artisans who do great work at reasonable prices, and who deserve our patronage becasue of hteir skill and dedication to their craft, if for no other reason than to keep those skills alive and available to future kilt wearing generations.

So I do have one kilt on queue with Barb, fabric sent several months ago, and another on queue with an xmarks newcomer kiltmaker who comes with good background and credentials, and with whom I have bartered a discount on my kilt labor (I provided the fabric) for what I anticipate to be a very favorable review here of the product, once my kilt arrives in the next month or so. Hopefully this will help her garner new business here while simultaneously providing the opportunity for xmarkers to have another reasonably priced high quality kiltmaker be available to make them a more affordable but high quality product, thereby helping more than one person at a time weather the economic storm but still enjoy a little indulgence for their hard work. Other loftier projects have for now been put on hold, like most of you.

I pray for a speedy recovery to the economic, employment and housing crisis, for all those suffering beneath its heavy weight, and can only offer the old adage that" out of our darkest hours comes the dawn of a new day." Keep the faith, and something will come along your way. God Bless.

[kiltedsawyer]

Ya know..........I was just about to blow off X-Marks. Tired of the whining about waste coat buttons and hose for large calves. Largely feeling like an outsider and about to burn the bridge..........then I read this thread. There is a human connection here and more than meets the eye initially. I think I'll stick around a while. My wife and I, like so many others, have had to tighten our belts a bit, my job is stable for the next couple of years, hers could go anytime. So it's nice to hear of the support for one another, even if it's only through the realization that none of us are alone. We all face our own battles, but in some way it helps to know that others are facing them too and if we can share some ideas, support, etc., all the better.
Thank you.
David