In Love with Decay
Monday Hubby took a vacation day and we decided to use the gifts cards that we had gotten from the holidays and make a day out of it. We went to the movies and then shopping. In my stocking he had given me a gift card to Saphora because he knew I wanted to get some new eye shadow. I ended up getting the set above from Urban Decay (The Show Pony Shadow Box). I have been in love with UD’s shadows for a few years now but this case came with something of theirs that I had never tried before… Continue reading this entry »
More Positive Employment Happenings
Hubby had an interview today for a new position within the company he already works for. He says that he rocked it and the interviewer/hopefully soon to be his manager told him he was one of two out of 40 applicants that he really likes and that he was the ONLY person that was interviewed that did not show up in jeans! There were a lot of other details that seem to scream that he will be offered the job… we shall have to wait until Monday/Tuesday so our fingers will be crossed all weekend!
This position would be such a huge step forward in his career. It pays $2 more an hour plus a very large monthly car allowance and mileage and the possibility of quarterly bonuses. He would also get to dramatically increase his knowledge of the industry and he would be a step away from either a management or sales position.
He has a great feeling about this job so everyone please send positive thoughts his way over the weekend!
UPDATE:
Hubby got back from the interview and he said it went VERY well. This was later confirmed by an e-mail from HR telling him he is 1 of 2 finalists and has a second interview on the 9th! So keep those positive thoughts coming!
Warm Weather
We have been having some very unseasonably warm weather here in Boston the last few days (high 40′s to mid 50′s) and because of that my instinct to start Spring Cleaning has hit me like a ton of bricks today. Finishing art projects, cleaning out the filing cabinet, cleaning out closets and just general tidying up. My next big projects are some major digital cleaning (all of my job search stuff on the computer needs to get filed away so I can have my desktop back!) and some major laundry folding!
In general I am always in a better mood in a clean and organized house. I like everything to have a place and to be in it and to not have to worry about having people over with little to no notice!
Going debt-free
I will admit that during my unemployment one of the most stressful aspects was our car loan and insurance. If had had more debt to deal with the stress would have been even greater. Unlike all of our other bills, there is no way to get rid of the loan without paying it off (everything else is attached to our apartment, and if needed, we could have moved in with parents or something). During my unemployment I came to realize how paralyzing debt can make life. Debt seems to be an anchor, we cannot just up and leave if we wanted (or needed) to and not have a care in the world if we have bills that would need to be paid.
About 2 years ago when our car loan was new and I had student loans and credit cards to pay off, my total debt was just shy of $25,000. Fast forward those 2 years and all of my creadit card and student loan debt is paid off and all I have left is he car loan. I was laid off when I was about to start doubling up on car payments every month so that plan had to be put on hold for a few months.
Unemployment: The 50% Paycheck
With my unemployment days coming to an end I am proud to say that we made it through without increasing the amount of our debt, without touching our emergency fund and without falling behind on any of our bills. This was definitely not an easy thing to do. We had to make a lot of cut backs, some were more uncomfortable than others. Things could have been much,much worse than they were (and if they had gotten that bad we did have a bail plan). Thankfully, our household still had one full paycheck to go along with my half of a check and our insurance was with the person who was still working.
(A Side note, my husband was laid off Dec. 2008 and thankfully was hired back within a month… long story.. but we did get a taste of what would have happened with our health insurance and how much COBRA would have cost us…. HIS ENTIRE UI BENEFITS FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH! We would have never been able to live off just my check while his UI benefits went to just our health insurance. My check would have just covered rent, a car loan and car insurance… say nothing about utilities, phone, internet and food.. we already do not have cable)
Anyway. Here is how we survived on 1 1/2 incomes in Boston. We cut out everything that was not a necessity and kept a couple small comforts:
- Our (gas) heat is set at 62°F in our apartment. Yes, it is a little cold but we just wear warm socks and sweaters and deal with it. I have found that as long as it is above freezing outside our heat does not even need to come on and will stay around 65° inside.
- We do not have cable.. at all. We do have a Netflix account and used to get 7-At-A-Time but when I was laid-off we cut back to 5-At-A-Time. This is one of our small comforts and is a much cheaper form of entertainment than going out to the movies or watching cable.
- I cancelled our texting and Internet on our cell phone plan. This one step alone saved us just over $90 a month.
- We stopped eating out. We were the kind of people who would like to go out a couple of times a week and try new food but that equated to about $400 a month.. ouch. And this does not even include buying lunch instead of brown bagging it.
- We went grocery shopping with a list. And only bought what was on the list… and we no longer buy brand name anything. 5 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill & 7 Tips for Streamlining Your List
- I made all of our Christmas gifts. I hand-stitched blankets for all the children in our families and framed photos I took for all the adults. The blankets worked out to $8.50 each and the photos were about $16.00 each.
- Cut back on travel. About once a month we would drive to Vermont to visit my family but we cut this and only drove up once in 6 months.. For Christmas. Also, we stopped hoping on the T just to walk around Boston for the afternoon. Even with the CharlieCards it would cost us $6.80 round trip.
- Make our own coffee/tea. As opposed to going to a coffee shop every morning and spending $3-4 per cup. This saves about $100 per month.
- Create and stick to a budget. This was the most important aspect of making it out of unemployment alive. I will go into more detail about our budget later but I will say that I have a pretty decent spreadsheet working for us to track everything from our goals, debt, bills, income and more. Allotting a specific amount of money to certain things every month and then tracking those expenses was the key to our success.
I understand that living on UI benefits is not supposed to be comfortable. To me, they definitely were not but at the same time I think it was actually a really good experience and I learned how to better manage our accounts. Once I have started my new job I am eager to see how much money we are going to bank and how quickly we are going to pay off our only remaining debt: out car loan.
Quotes: Nickelback
My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each day’s a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind
And try to take the path less traveled by
That first step you take is the longest stride Continue reading this entry »
Gaining the job of my dreams in a crappy market
First, I have to say I think my biggest accomplishment of everything is that I made it through being unemployed without having to file for a single, federally funded extension. I was getting very close to the end of my regular UI benefits (26 weeks), but none the less I made it through without federal assistance and I am very proud of myself for that. Also, I am very happy that I managed to become employed somewhere that I consider my dream industry. I made the jump from sitting at a desk all day and being miserable to a job in the healthcare industry. It is fast paced and I am going to be making a difference in people’s lives. I used my lay-off as a chance to go after what I really wanted in life and I got it.
