Surviving Downsizing

Sorry to hear the sad news, but I always figured that if I don't get something I wanted it's because something better is coming!

Saving money can turn into an enjoyable puzzle if you make it so. Where are you wasting it? Turn off the unused lights. Food shop just once a week with a grocery list and only buy what's on that list. Use a LOT of coupons to plan your meals FOR THE WEEK! Our immigrant ancestors ate some fantastic meals made from simple staples, just by following old recipes. Do you hunt? Fish? (These aren't just enjoyable pastimes! The money adds up!) How about gardening? Have the room for a good kitchen garden. These three can really go far to supplement a food budget. I grown many of my own herbs on my apartment's veranda and freeze them for winter use.

We don't own a TV... These days our computers are much more valued uses for the electricity and we can see the same things! Movies for free, TV shows for free (Torrents are your friends!) radio stations, and there is always 24h news, so instead of TV we use our large screen monitor.

Put on a sweater instead of turning up the heat. I wear a hat and fingerless gloves indoors when it's cold. Buying batteries can really add up for some families too. Use rechargeable ones if you can.

One of the biggest budget busters is alcohol... cut back or cut out. Besides being healthier, you'll lose some excess weight and save a lot of money. Same with cigarettes. Now is as good a time as any to quit. The average smoker burns up about $4,000.00 a year! (Hey... nobody said this was easy... but it's do-able!)

And finally, take a serious look at your hobbies... Lost of hobbyists make a good extra income from theirs. Can you play guitar in a local ski lodge on the weekends? How about teaching your hobby in an Adult-Ed program in your local school. Sell your woodworking, electrical, or leather crafting projects. Find one project that people have told you "Hey, I wish I could make/have something like that" and make up several to sell at the farmer's market.

And most importantly, keep a good positive mental attitude. Don't give up. Keep on trying to find a new good position, and don't let the negative energies or depression keep you from seeing that things are not all bad. They just aren't the same as they were last month! Good luck!

Stitchawl
 
Sorry about the bad news, that just plain sucks!!!!!

Looks like your getting some good advice and I think I will tke some if also.

Good luck bro!
 
I am very sorry to hear about your job loss. I work for a newspaper, and I'm sweating bullets if I'm going to make it through the year employed.

I'd start E-Baying stuff. My wife and I already live on low salaries. For a few months, I might be able to make my salary on selling... stuff.

Clint H
The Wandering Ones webcomic
http://www.wanderingones.com
 
Sign up for unemployment and take side job paying cash. I have friends who did this and no one was the wiser. Some might criticize this behavior, but our bought and paid for congress bailed out the scum of wall street with our money. At least you will WORK for money.
 
Sounds like very good advise from all the previous posts. I would also add that you shouldn't think any job is beneath you. Don't let your ego get in your way as many people do. Any job is better than no job at all and the income from it will help a lot. I've been let go before, but found a job doing construction the next day and eventually found a better job in the profession I was in. My brother lost his job as an electrical engineer, thought most other jobs were beneath him, and almost lost everything as a result. In the long run, 3 years later, he did get an even better job but it took a long time to get out of the financial hole. He was depressed and the whole experience changed him. Good luck to you.
 
that sucks to hear..I am sorry. I would say that using second hand stores is one way to save alot of money.....its not about being prideful, its just good sense to pay the least amount for what you need.
 
All I can say is you guys are awesome. Your kind words and sound advice a much appreciated.

Thank you.

I'm planning to start moving on first thing tomorrow. Made sure my suit still fits, so I am ready to go if anyone bites when I put my resume out there!
 
Much has already been said, but here are a couple.

Get rid of any payment you can. Get rid of any excess service on your phone bill.

Can you haul your own garbage? Mine got cheaper by buying my own can, and if you only fill the can every couple weeks, you may be able to fit a trip to the dump in along with your other stops.

Don't overspend your account to avoid fees. Pay bills on time to avoid fees.

Buy bulk foods. Your costs will go down, AND you will accumulate a lot less garbage.

Sell some gear/toys now. It is easier to get rid of things now when you are not in a serious crunch. Save the money for later, don't just buy more stuff.

Get any unemployment rolling immediately. Guys in the union will do it when they walk in the door from their last day of work. Or on the drive home!

Don't keep much cash on you when you are on the town and have nothing to do. If you don't have a destination, don't go to town.

Skip the 5 shot 20oz mocha. Not only do you save the 4.25, you also save the .75 to the gal that made it.:D

If you can get compact flourescent bulbs at the dollar store, it may save you a bundle.

I guess that's all for now. I'm out of ideas.
 
Ditto on not carrying much cash. I have a couple of bucks on me at best.

We skip the enormously profitable soft drinks and fries when eating out and go for the loss leader $1 menu. We also cook more at home and raise some vegetables. Look for the coupons in the weekly flyers. Do not be ashamed about the situation, it's very difficult for everyone in the family and a lot of us are in the same situation.
 
I've been laid off twice from large corporations, and was able to get back on my feet long before the meager severance ran out both times. If you live in a strong job market (I'm in the Atlanta area), it's very easy. If you live in a small rural town, it's much more difficult, especially if you have a very specialized skill set. Apply for jobs that you think you might like or be good at, even if you don't think you have the skills. Unless you are doing something very specialized, like another engineering job, you can pick up most of what you need in a month or two on the job if you are a fast learner. I worked for a very large company in Internal Audit for a while and we had PHDs, engineers, CPAs, and all kinds of other walks of life in there. You'd be surprised what you can excel at.

On the money saving front, there are some good tips in here. I recently started doing some work for a company that sells resource saving (energy, water, etc.) items like CFL bulbs, low flow showerheads, etc. I started up a blog called Conservation Life where I try to focus on money saving tips and the products we sell. Maybe it will help you out a bit. Feel free to ask me questions. My brother owns the top green construction company in Atlanta, so I am around the energy efficiency stuff a lot, and my teeny brain has managed to pick up a tip or two.
 
Making 1/2 of what I was making nine years ago but been working steady for the past six years, at the same job.

No car, rent one when I need one, walk to work as long as its not raining.

Don't have to worry about the wench, I mean the wife any more. She left when she started making more money then me.

Youngest kid move out a couple of months ago, now the utilities are about 1/2 or less then they were.

Keep the heat on 60, keep the lights off, eat 2 meals a day, drop cable TV and get a converter for $20 and some rabbit ears.

Try to smoke only one cigar/day. Don't throw tobacco away. Pick up some cigarette papers (I like the look on the cashers face).

Hardest part is cutting back on new toys.
 
Great ideas in here. Sorry about the loss of job. I feel ya, been there myself. I am in a job that I am overeducated and overqualified for, I make ok money and I suppliment by doing painting and landscaping/lawn service. I get to do stuff I actually like to do and get paid in CASH. I have learned to live on much less, I eat out very rarely, and I use and reuse as much as possible. If I can do these things, you sure can too!
I'm going to start a garden this year, dehydrate food for longer term storage, etc. Keep your chin up brother!!!
 
Chewbacca,

There is a big demand for engineers in the states right now (I am presuming that you are in Canada or Iceland). I think some of the characteristics may apply broadly from what I have observed, and fellow engineers have shared.

A. More than half of new hires come from staffing agencies, or worked as temps at the employer. Where I'm at, temps make more $$ but get no benefits; and the temps get the cruddy work.

B. Direct hiring is usually at least a 60 day process, as the loaded cost for an engineer means they will be conducting a back ground check on you.

C. There is an international demand for U.S. engineers and mining / construction professionals. More danger = more pay! I don't know what your family situation is like, thus I don't even know if this applies.

I understand your plight as having the least "seniority" at 14 years. The campus where I work has hundreds of engineers, and the median age a couple years ago was over 55. Because of the pending flood of retirements, we are having a hiring fair on campus some Saturday this month. Here in the Phoenix metro area, employers are even more desperate for nurses.

In short, the prospects should be sunny but the wait may be uncomfortable.
 
I'm very sorry to hear about your job situation.

As an engineer with 14 years of experience with a single company you have a very good resume right there :thumbup:

You already sound like you're on the right track. Send in your resume to EVERYBODY and it helps to take it in person too. It shows a little more effort and don't be afraid to check back in with a phone call every couple of days. The worst they can say is, "no." Look for places where you'd least expect an engineer to be hired. You can work for a city, refinery, oil company, engineering firm, offshore platforms, ya never know....NASA was always my dream job that I'm working towards. I'm in school for electrical engineering, so these are places that I would check myself. Being from Texas there's tons of oil companies to look into that also have work worldwide.

As for saving the money that you have, keep your essentials and cut off the rest. So far it seems that none of us knows your home-life situation, example: family, wife, kids.....etc.....House, apartment, own, rent, stuff like that.

Cable is the first thing that would be cut off, except the internet of course, you'll need that for bladeforums and finding jobs :D Your cell phone/s, not sure how many people your paycheck was supporting, but cutting off any extra features or lines would save a lot of money. I live by my blackberry for my business, but it would be one of the things to cut down if I really needed to save money.

Assuming you're about 36-38 (18 from HS + 4-6 years college + 14 years at job), and may have kids, not all of them need a phone to stay in touch. Do it the old fashioned way and just figure out where they are at and who they will be with. I'm sure their friends will have a phone among them to lend a call.

Cook all of your meals and go fishing on the weekends. Make a campout of it, camping only takes a small amount of food and water, which if you go fishing in/near freshwater you will have both for free :thumbup: This will make a fun and free weekend to kill some time off.

Expect it to take at least 2-3 weeks for a real bite on your resume. You could make stuff as a hobby and sell it to family, friends, even to us here :thumbup:

Well, once everything is covered, file for unemployment and think of it as an extended holiday.
 
Chewbacca is an engineer, so he studied hard at school and got into college.

Then in college, he picked the "right" major that gave him practical, technical skills -- no Marxist/Feminist theory of Basketweaving here.

Then he went to work. No youthful indiscretions, no profligate wanderings to "find himself..." Nope, Chewbacca went to work for a company large enough to employ him for fourteen years in a row.

Such a reasonable, practical man certainly hasn't gambled his money away, hasn't drank it away, hasn't shot it up his arm. Chewbacca has done everything we could reasonably expect of him. He's worked hard and made the right choices.

Yet after sixteen years of study and fourteen years of labor, Chewbacca is now so worried about feeding his family he's asking how to survive using all the subsistence farming tricks my possum-eating parents used in the hills of Missourri.

Not that there's anything wrong with eating possums. Them's good eating.

But does anyone else think that maybe, just maybe, there's something wrong with studying and working for 30 years and having precious little to show for it? Now, hold on, I'm not here to deliver some Suze Orman sermon on saving. I don't think Chewbacca had much left over each month to save.

No, what I mean is, do you think it's possible, just perhaps, that Chewbacca didn't get a fair cut? Perhaps, just maybe, that Chewbacca's been getting horrifically screwed just like the rest of the hard-working people on this board?

Just a thought...

Chewbacca, my prayers truly go with you.
 
depending on your family situation, there will always be jobs for those willing to accept "hardship" pay. northern oil fields, government work in the northern regions. I know a guy who works on the early warning radar stations in the far north. money to be made if you can be a away from home. maybe offshore? heck those guys in Dubai still have more money than they know what to do with.
I freelance so each scheduled work day is a blessing.
 
I'm really sorry to hear this. I have cut all my projects for '09 that we had planned (building a deck, landscaping, etc) because in my field it's REALLY tough right now. Raises were cut this year and we still don't know about bonuses yet.

I've cut the projects and we are looking at ways to save as much as humanly possible in these times.

There have been a lot of good suggestions here - the best one probably is staying focused and keep your mind occupied so you don't go crazy and get too depressed.

Best of luck to you in the future.
 
J's Knives-N-More said:
As for saving the money that you have, keep your essentials and cut off the rest. So far it seems that none of us knows your home-life situation, example: family, wife, kids.....etc.....House, apartment, own, rent, stuff like that.
Click to expand...

Since you asked, my wife has a pretty good job, and we have two little ones that are soon going to be taken out of daycare and home with me. We have a mortgage, and saved some money for an event like this, but I thought it would be a wise idea to start making cuts, and get my butt in gear sooner rather than later when the savings is all gone.

BTW, I will be updating my profile, my location is Northern Wisconsin.

Sure, I think there were other heads that should have been chopped before mine, and sure I think the big wigs are short sighted, removing a job that usually revolves around reducing costs and increasing throughput, but that's done. I bet some of my friends at work, although sympathetic, are glad it was me instead of them.

Time to move on.

Again, thanks for the advice and the brotherhood, I appreciate it.

Some advice from me to others in the same boat - One thing I never really looked at in the past, a lot of stores are doing double coupon days again. I guess I know what day of the week I'll be grocery shopping on...Double Coupon Wednesday!
 
Obviously its important to implement some money saving measures whilst you're not working, but the critical thing here is to make looking for another job your full-time job. Its very easy to get distracted from this task, because all of a sudden you're home all day with kids to look after, errands to run etc. Don't let that happen.

Also, the last thing I'd do in your situation is start investing large amounts of time and energy into "self-sufficiency projects", growing your own vegies etc. The opportunity cost of these activities will inevitably be the proper paying job that you need.
 
J's Knives-N-More said:
Send in your resume to EVERYBODY
Click to expand...

This. Do not just surf job sites looking for openings (though this is a good first step). Send a resume to every single company that employs engineers in your area, regardless of whether they are advertising that they're looking to hire. Also send resumes to people you worked with in the past, regardless of where they work now. Flood the market.
 
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