Since the Obama Recession (you know the recession Obama inherited from Bush and then made worse) hit in 2009, a lot of people have been hurting financially. Yahoo’s article this afternoon is a good one. What struck me about this article was the point of it was about pain, it wasn’t about solutions.
The ultimate solution to joblessness is getting a job, but while you are unemployed, there are some common sense things you can do to survive. No, this isn’t going to be as much about bankruptcy as common sense, but sometimes when you are in the middle of the storm, common sense isn’t so common. That’s OK, there will be a litany of people giving you advice, myself included, pick the advice that makes the best sense to you and discard the rest. Don’t worry, I won’t hold a grudge if some of these tips don’t suit your fancy.
Tip #1, figure out your financial situation. If you are newly laid off and collecting unemployment and you have some money saved in the bank, you may not be in a terrible situation at all. Unemployment lasts a while these days, in some areas as long as 99 weeks, and while I would hope you’d find employment before that, at least there is that cushion. If on the other hand you have nothing in the bank and you aren’t able to collect unemployment, you are definitely in some hotter water. It is best to be armed with as much information as possible, and as painful as it may be to look at your account balances dwindle, you need to know where you stand.
Tip #2, coupons. Coupon
s are very high on the list of awesomeness! Companies are giving you discounts on items you probably buy anyway, so clip away. Our local newspaper the Morning Call advertises hundreds of dollars in savings every week. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I know a good deal when I see one and when I can routinely get $50 in savings on things I would buy anyway from a $1.25 Sunday newspaper, that’s a steal.
Tip #3, buying in bulk. One of the best quotes from one of my favorite cult classic movies, Employee of the Month, is “Buying in bulk is our God-given right!”. Well I didn’t see anything like that in a version of the Bible but even so its still a good idea if you can store food. If you can’t and it rots, well you lose money, but if you can, it can be a Godsend, and I promise you I’ve gotten more mileage out of my Sam’s Club membership than what it cost. Think about it. If you spend $8 for 24 rolls of toilet paper, is that a better deal than $19 for 96 rolls of toilet paper? No it isn’t, and since toilet paper doesn’t go bad, it makes perfect sense to buy this sort of thing in bulk. As long as it can be stored safely and bought at a discount and it’s going to be used (bulk purchases of brussels sprouts are not a deal if they aren’t eaten), its worth it to buy more ahead of time.
Tip #4, The Best By Date on the Milk Carton was Created By Lawyers, the Sniff Test by God. God gave you
a nose for a reason. One of the big reasons for the olfactory sense is to know when we are about to eat something we shouldn’t. While I’ve wondered who was the first person to look at a cow and think, “hmm, I bet that tastes great?”, the milk isn’t bad unless it smells bad. You can’t always trust the best by date either. As a teenager I poured some wonderfully sour milk into Cheerios and wow, you don’t forget that. My wife will tell you that I will sniff the milk twice or three times, every time I pour my kids cereal. Yeah, you don’t forget that.
Tip #5, a car burns gas faster with the air conditioner on. It’s true. I don’t know why it works like that but it does. On days where it is 100 degrees out (like today), you probably need to have the air conditioner on (although I had a 1977 Chevy when I was in college and it didn’t have air conditioning and that was Missouri in the summer), but on a day where its in the high 70s to the low 80s, roll the window down, enjoy the fresh air.
Tip #6, when you have less money coming in, prioritize what you spend money on. Power, water and food comes first. Then transportation. Don’t fall too far behind on your car loan, they will repossess it and then you will have to pay the whole balance to get the car back. A mortgage you can fall further behind on, but don’t deliberately do it. If you can’t afford your mortgage, you can usually stay in your house a year before it is foreclosed on in Pennsylvania. Hopefully you will be back to work before then and can work something out with your bank, but if you can’t consider Chapter 13 bankruptcy, I know a lawyer who is pretty good at that. Your credit cards are the last people who get paid. They will hoot and holler and call you all sorts of nasty names, but if its between whether feeding your kid or having someone berate you on the phone, I choose feeding my kid every time. Don’t let these jokers bully you, because if they do, they could find themselves being sued. I stole one of my favorite lines from Dave Ramsey, “I’d sure like to own a collections company.”
Tip #7, cut the fat. I’m not talking about your diet, however if money is scarce going on a diet might make things seem a little less oppressive. I’m talking about the things we can’t live without that we probably can live without. Cable TV is probably the first thing on my list. Cable has become expensive, and frankly not worth it. The cable/internet/phone deal costs almost $150 per month in my area, but you can get internet for $50 a month and Netflix for $8 per month. Couple that with an antenna (used to be called rabbit ears) to get local programming and you will have almost everything you had anyway. Do you really need an extra two food channels? Is your life better because you get MSNBC or FOX News? Do you really need a land line phone when everyone and their child has a cell phone? No, you could cut your entertainment budget in a third and if you really need to see a TV show, most stations are streaming current TV shows on their web-site.
Tip #8, Never Surrender! Don’t gi
ve up. When you get knocked down, get up and try again. We’re Americans, it’s what we do. The West would never have been won if the original settlers gave up the first time they encountered trouble. If you want to live in a country that is going to coddle you from the day you are born until the day you die but you will never really get a chance to be successful, try France. It may take a year, it may take longer to find a job. You may never find another job. When I got laid off , I start
ed this law practice because it was clear that the legal jobs that I was qualified to do were drying up and being sent overseas. You may find something that you have always wanted to try but couldn’t because it would be too much of a pay decrease. Now it won’t be. One day, and maybe not to long from now, I’m going to try something new, something different. For you, that day may be today, so go for it with all the gusto you have. But most of all don’t give up, don’t ever give up.
If you find yourself in a financial position that you can’t handle or you can’t get a handle on and you need to talk to a competent professional, call 610-928-1233 for a free consultation. You don’t have to do this alone, and you may not even need legal advice, just friendly advice. It would be my privilege to provide you with either.