With the current recession, you may be facing the reality that you or your partner may soon be laid off. It’s something we all have to worry about. The prospect of having your partner lose his or her job is a scary one; your income will suddenly be drastically reduced and the future may be uncertain.
If your partner gets laid off from work, it’s important to be as supportive as possible. Remember that even though the situation may look grim, it’s better than both of you getting laid off from work at the same time – at least you still have some level of income coming in. However, the reality of the situation is that you won’t be able to maintain the same standard of living you were used to before your partner became unemployed.
If your combined income level has been reduced due to your partner’s unemployment, you will need to develop and live by a realistic budget as soon as possible. If you try to continue living as you were, you’re eventually going to run into problems with bounced checks for bills or having to dip into your savings. Since getting laid off is a temporary concern, it’s better to simply tighten your belts for a few months rather than dip into your savings, as beginning to pay everything from savings is also unmaintainable – they’ll run out eventually!
Develop a budget and track every dollar that you spend. This works similarly to counting calories when dieting; it’s easy to cheat on a diet when you don’t quantify and account for anything and only have a vague sense of “over-eating would be a bad idea” when deciding to eat an entire bag of chips. Your budget allows you to see the real effects of careless spending – is going out to eat at a restaurant because you don’t feel like cooking worth it when you won’t be able to pay your power bill at the end of the month?
Encourage your partner to go out and look for a job, but be patient. Sometimes opportunities just don’t come through, and businesses just won’t be hiring. As long as your partner is actively trying to find a job, don’t worry about how long it takes, since with a restricted budget you will be able to hold out for as long as you need to.