For those of you who are unemployed...

How on earth do you support yourself(and your family)?

And no, I am not here to judge. I am genuinely curious.

 

it's a mystery to me. i'm gonna stick around and see. i've always been fascinated by people with no job who pay rent.

 

we are living on my whopping 277 dollar a week unemployment check at the moment.
if i dont find anything by the time it runs out i have savings enough to go another couple years if i have too.

we saw this coming in 2007 (i made 48K in 2007) and drastically started getting our ducks in a row,payed down debt,stockpiled necessities,expanded our gardens,cut our utility bills through conservation etc.

we are actually living quite comfortably on what i am getting from unemployment even though its about a third of what i brought home when things were going well.

i am not sure where we would be had i not seen it coming so far in advance,but its my nature to look ahead and plan for the worst and it has really paid off this time so thankfully i dont have to visit that scenario.

 

I do odd jobs for people. I might be helping out a lady with bone cancer soon. She is a friend of the family and she doesn't want to feel like she is helpless. My gramps and grandmother offered for her to stay here knowing that I can keep a conversation while doing things for people. *shrugs* Of course I still live at home sadly.

My sister, however, was just sent packing because the plant she worked for shut down. She and my brother-n-law are jobless but will be getting unemployment for a year and a half if the money doesn't dry up from all the jobless people here.

 

I still have my job, thankfully, but I know a couple with kids that are recently unemployed and they are doing ok. Living off unemployment checks and WIC. Since they lost their jobs they are also eligible for reduced rent (it down to 1/3 of what they were paying.)

 

I get JSA from the gov, and I still got some money saved from my last job.

 

Oh to add to my post...I may live at home but I help out the household financially where I can. My mom can't work so my dad and I pay the bills....him more so than me - but like I said I help where I can. I've never been that kind of person to stay at my parents and waste my money because I don't have bills.

 

I'm very thankful to have my job. It seems that more and more people are getting laid off in this area...especially state workers-which both my parents are.

In this area...even BEFORE the recession, people have been moving up here and sucking the system dry with their welfare and foodstamps. I'm not knockin welfare and food stamps...when I was yonger, my mother was on both for a while...but these people are different...my mother was sick...they're just lazy

 

My husband works full-time, I stay home. It would actually be not worth it for me to work, considering the amount we'd be spending on daycare for three children, especially in the summer months. Plus, it's what we both agreed on before we ever had the kids, that I would stay home and care for them...and really, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I would have missed out on sooo much with my kids!

I also have a small home-based baking business with my SIL, which we have hopes of expanding later on down the line when our kids are a bit older. The income from that is hit and miss. We're not full-time, we simply take orders as they come, the holidays bringing the most profit. But we show a lot of promise, and the schedule is perfect for two SAHMs.

Anyway, we do just fine on one income, and it's not like my husband makes a ton. We simply budget our money and don't spend more than we can afford; we even take 10% of my husband's income every week and put it into savings. By today's materialist standards, we'd be considered quite frugal, but you know, that's okay. Wanting more and more of what you don't need is what makes it harder and harder to make your bills.

 

we talk about this a lot actually,and we have no idea what people with typical bills are doing, or will do around here..

example, i am receiving the maximum unemployment that this state allows,320 bucks before taxes.

the average mortgage or rent on a typical 1200 to 1500 square foot house,condo or apartment around here is between 800 to 1200 bucks a month plus utilities.

so looking at the bottom line,your average joe around here would be paying out his entire unemployment check(IF he got the maximum allowed ) to pay his rent,power and phone bill.

worst part is MOST people have car payments,credit card payments and god knows what else on top of those.

so it is indeed a good question when i see the reality of it for most..

 

lol. being a stay at home mom married to a breadwinner doesn't make you unemployed.

 

Oh, don't mind me, I always get sensitive when the subject comes up. Most of the women around here all work and look at me like I'm the scum of the Earth because I don't work outside of the home. I hear "Oh, so you don't work? Must be nice."

And then I see how their children are dressed in ultra trendy designer clothing, they're driving brand new vehicles, got gadgets out the wazoo, big fancy McMansions, and I think, well, if I lived like you, I'd have to work too.

 

that's ridiculous...taking care of 3 kids and a household is work enough!

 

True enough, but many don't see it that way. Funny thing is though, they'll pay someone else to do what I do every day, yet I don't see a cent. So why should I get less respect? Right?

 

*nods* mothering is the world's oldest RESPECTED female occupation.

 

it could be a bit of envy, you know.

 

Agreed. 100%.

In fact, to somebody like me, that pretty much makes you the perfect mother.

 

Maybe...but you know, some of them have just point blank said to me that they'd go crazy if they had to stay at home with the kids all day, or that they don't think it's right for their husband to be the only one contributing financially.

Sure, I've dealt with many feelings of guilt over the years that I'm not providing financially like my husband does. Then again, I'm providing to our family in a different way. I'm making a long term investment for the future.

 

Well thankyou, although perfect I am certainly not. I do try hard though. My kids are the world to me. I love those little buggers.

 

yes. you are being paid by your husband for your efforts. he's, in effect, in all practicality, paying you to be a mother. that's a pretty darned good job to have, i think.