One Thursday afternoon, a couple weeks before Christmas, I got an instant message from my husband, Paul. “I’m being let go, FYI,” he typed nonchalantly, as is his way.
It wasn’t our first job-loss experience, but it was the first time either of us lost our income as parents. And at this point, we had 2 children in day care. To the degree Paul was unfazed, I was worried, even though we had built up 6 months’ emergency savings for this very possibility. But I wasn’t keen on depleting that stash if it could be helped.
We gave ourselves the holidays to avoid thinking about how we were about to have to sustain our usual mountain of expenses with far less cash. Then in January, Paul got to work applying for new jobs. I got to work too, thinking about ways to cut that mountain of expenses into a molehill—or at least a smaller mountain. Here’s what we did to keep our family of 4 afloat.
1. Paul filed for unemployment immediately. Because it can take some time until that initial check hits, this was our first priority. The checks wouldn’t come close to what his job paid, but that income proved crucial.
2. We put our family on my health insurance plan. Paul’s former plan was less expensive than what my company at the time offered, but continuing coverage was a must, especially with 2 little kids battling day care germs.
3. We went through our expenses carefully. We scoured credit card bills and bank statements to look for incorrect charges (none, luckily) and recurring charges we could lose.
4. We agreed on some services to cancel. Our home alarm system’s monthly service charge was our first to nix. Considering a balloon had triggered a false alarm and an extra bill when the fire department came to check it out, we were on the same page about cutting this expense. We ended our subscription with a satellite radio company too. This saved about $100 per month—not a bad start.
5. We returned Paul’s unused monthly commuter pass. This put more than $300 back in our pockets instantly and allowed us to save that money moving forward. Even though he would have to commute for job interviews, it wouldn’t be enough to justify the high cost of keeping the pass for unlimited trips.
6. We ran the numbers on occasional commuting costs. We figured out whether it’d make more sense for Paul to drive in and pay for parking when he had to meet with hiring managers vs. buying individual daily train passes vs. a slightly discounted 10-ride train pass that we had 6 months to use. We learned the last option was the most cost-effective once we saw how many interviews Paul was (thankfully) getting.
7. We took our baby out of day care twice a week. We wanted to make sure we didn’t lose our coveted spot in our day care’s infant room and for Paul to have time for job searching, applying, and interviewing instead of balancing those tasks with full-time child care. We talked to our center director about having our little guy attend just 3 days a week. We had to find another family to take the other days—and who would agree to forfeit their spot when we were ready to resume 5 days a week. This saved us about $400 a month, our biggest cost-cutter.
8. We told our older son’s tae kwon do teacher about our situation. We asked if there was anything he could do about his prices, so our son could continue attending. He offered to pause our lessons but hold his spot. When we couldn’t return in a few weeks because Paul was still on the hunt, the teacher offered discounted rates—and free birthday party entertainment for our son. This was a win-win because we got a break on what could’ve otherwise cost us about $300, and the teacher got new students out of it.
9. We went from ordering takeout twice a week to special occasions only. Cooking was hard for us when we didn’t walk in the door from our jobs until nearly 7 p.m. With one parent home, meal planning and preparing was easier—and a big money saver. We saved ordering in for special occasions, like our anniversary and Valentine’s Day, so we didn’t totally deprive ourselves.
10. We sold some stuff. We dug up a bunch of CDs, DVDs, and other entertainment we didn’t want anymore and researched sites until we found the one that would pay us the most for what we had. We did the same for my parents, who were too happy to give us a cut of the proceeds for helping them declutter. I wish we had also sold clothes, shoes, video game systems, and formal china we hardly used.
11. I took on a side gig. Because it was cool with my company, I wrote articles outside of my full-time job for a little extra cash. I even started my own website and got some money from letting ads run.
Paul got another job—a better-paying one, in fact—just 2 months later. This is a relatively short amount of time compared to what other unemployed people experience, and we don’t take for granted how lucky we were. But we had no way of knowing how long it’d take for him to get hired and we’re thankful we were able to make these changes to give us some wiggle room without upending our family’s lives. If one of us loses our job in the future, I’ll still worry, but at least I’ll have this playbook for steps to take.
