The next steps for us...

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I want to thank you all who stopped by here and left your kind comments. You, guys, are amazing and we are overwhelmed by the concern and care that everyone shows us right now. We feel so loved! Thank you!!

Now, that the idea of unemployment finally sank in, there are a few steps we will be working on in the next few days/weeks. We don't know yet when it's going to happen. So far they told us, some time in June. It could be next week, it could be in a month. This waiting only adds to our gloom approaching the unknown. But there are some steps that we can take now:

Update husband's resume:

His resume is actually pretty close up-to-date but we know that there are always things to improve. Our Church has great support and classes for those looking for a job, and he will take them and work on preparation for interviews and how to improve his resume and adapt it for certain positions. We haven't decided if we want me to start looking for another job too but it's definitely a possibility. In the mean time, Hubby will apply, apply, apply :)

Figure out our budget and finances.

We kind of did it a little over the past couple days but we really need to sit down and do in-depth calculations at what we have, what we owe, what's coming in, and what needs to come out. In the worst case scenario Hubby will get at least one more salary, some sort of a bonus for the last two months of this quarter, gas reimbursement, PTO payout (3 weeks worth of salary) and a severence package (more than likely, two weeks worth). And then some sort of unemployment benefits... All of this will greatly help to stretch our savings.

Then we really need to adjust our budget and cut off all the unnecessary expenses. Yesterday, one of my friends told me that when she and her husband read, on this blog, that we are going to try to become even more frugal, they started laughing because it seemed impossible to them. And it does feel this way at times for us too but I know that if there is a will, there is a way :)

Downgrade cell-phones.

We don't have much to cut off. We don't have cable or a land line, our Internet is very basic and we don't have memberships anywhere (other than Netflix which we'll keep for kids, at least for now). But husband's job required him to have Internet and everything unlimited on his cell phone. They allowed him to keep the cell phone (great plus for us!) but we need to downgrade and get the best plan we can afford right now.  We might have to cut some minutes on both of our cell phones too.

Check our cars. 

 This might not seem like a great time to do the repairs but our main car has more than 100000 miles on it, and we'll need it to last for a while. It's been in need of a transmission flush for a while, and now it's more important than ever to take all the precautionary measures to make it last.

Make doctor's appointments.

 I think the biggest thing that scares me about unemployment is losing health insurance. I've been planning to go to an eye doctor, and I think, there is no better time than now. One thing that I never had a chance to tell you about is that I went and re-checked my thyroid again, and even though it was still in the norm, it was on the border and much worse than last time. So the doctor put me on a low dose of medication. Now I need to figure out how much my visits and refills will cost. I will also transfer one refill that I have right now to a grocery store because they give $25 gift card for transferred prescriptions.

We will also look into CHIP, Medicaid and all the other options available there, especially for the kids.
 
Look into refinancing. 
 
It's not the first thing on our to-do list but it's something we are seriously considering. We don't know yet if it will even be worth it but it's definitely something we need to look into, get more info and weigh in all the pros and cons. We will also keep working on some household projects to make our place more presentable in case we need an appraisal. We won't do anything major (no knocking down walls, lol. But we do need some painting and wall touch ups, etc. We have most of the supplies we need and we will do our best to spend as little as possible. And some of the projects I want to finish just because I will go crazy if I don't have something to do to keep my mind off things. I'm one of those crazy people for whom painting walls does the trick :)

Sell stuff we don't need.
 
We honestly don't have much to sell. In the past two years we downsized quite a bit, and lots of things that we have don't have much value anyway. But at this point, every bit helps. Even if I can sell some candle holders that will allow us to buy an extra gallon of milk, I'll take it! We also have a couple of things we need to return that will also help with our grocery bill.

Continue to live our lives. Just because changes are coming, doesn't mean we will stop living. Yes, we will cut off eating out or vacations but we will look more into free entertainment, exercising at home, reading programs in libraries and being outside more. Life is not going to stop, it will just have to be adjusted! We are going to keep doing things we love on a shoestring budget!

And in June I'm planning to do a 20-days series called "20 ways in 20 days". For twenty days (the whole month minus weekends) I will do a variety of things to improve our life. DO YOU WANT TO JOIN ME??? Do whatever helps you to breath easier. It could be anything from decluttering and making more money to slowing down and pondering your life. Anything that can make you happier and your life more under control. If you want to join me (Please, do! Let's support each other!), think of your own twenty things and come and start sharing with each other starting June 1st. Well, actually June 3rd because the 1st is Saturday :)

Are you up for a challenge?