Part time job - Stumble Forward

laid-off Lately, like everyone else I’ve been taking note of all the job losses over the last few months. Here in Ohio is no exception. In Dayton we recently lost the NCR corporate headquarters to Duluth, Georgia and in Wilmington, Ohio we the DHL hub.

This all resulted in thousands of job losses over the past few months in Ohio alone. This also got me thinking, what if I was to lose my job? What action would I take to maintain the survival of my family and me?

This prompted me to put a plan in place to help me deal with all the financial pressure I would face if I were to lose my job. The list that proceeds is just that, ten finances I would change immediately if I were to be laid off tomorrow.

The numbers I am about to present in this article may not be like yours because everyone’s situation is different but once your done pick five or six off the list I mention and plug your numbers into them and see how much money you could save. If you do all ten great, but focus on at least five of them.

At the end leave a comment and let me know how much could save.

10 Finances You Should Change When You Get Laid Off

Cut the cable television. While cable TV may be a standard in most American homes these days it’s still considered a luxury in my book. If you still crave the need to watch a favorite show of sports event consider going to a friend’s house or local pub or restaurant. Cutting this expense would save me $40 a month.
Cut the cell phones. Everyone has a cell phone these days. We have become a society dependent on communication. However, 30 years ago no one had a cell phone and we survived just fine didn’t we. We were still able to communicate with all of our friends and family just fine. Instead of a cell phone consider sticking with a LAN line phone. You know the one that has the cord attach to the wall. Cutting this expense would save me $80 a month.
Cut the internet. Again, just like the last 2 the internet is something we can survive without. With all the things we do today from tweeting to checking our facebook account it’s hard to imagine life without the internet again. The thing you should remember though is that once you do get your job back that all of these things are reversible. This expense would save me $40 a month.
Pay the minimum payments on your credit cards. I know we’ve all been told never to pay the minimum payments on are credit cards. However, in the event you do get laid off that all goes out the window. Once the cash flow stops coming in it’s all about survival. You will also want to stop adding money to those cards to keep the balances from going up. Doing this would save me right a $400 month.
Take up a part time job. If you just got laid off consider taking on a part time job. You might be thinking I use to get paid big dollars at my previous job and now I have to resort to less money. No, I’m just merely saying that something is better than nothing at this point. If it comes down to running a paper route or getting a job and Wal-Mart do it. Remember, this isn’t long term this is merely a bridge to your next full time job. In my area I could get a part time job earning an extra $200 a month easy.
Stop eating out. Eating out is one of Americans favorite pass times, but by just eating at home you will save some big bucks. In my personal situation this is where about 90% of my spending cash goes in a week. By not eating out every week I could save $100 a month.
Cut your addictions. Everyone has an addiction to something. For some it’s smoking and drinking, others it’s chocolate, for me its coffee and beef jerky. I know what you’re thinking this is a tough one. I agree, but if I had to decide between coffee and beef jerky and the survival of my family I would choose my family any day. By cutting my addictions I would save myself $50 a month.
Cut down car and home insurance. I did this one a few years back. I was approach by a neighbor of mine who dealt with car and home owners insurance. So I gave him a shot and told him if he could beat my current rate by $10 a month I would switch. When he showed me the quote I was able to have the same coverage I currently had but I was also able to add an umbrella policy on top of it all. This saved me $25 a month.
Cut down on frivolous driving. In my younger years I use to drive everywhere. Gas was around a buck it didn’t cost much to fill up. Today that is entirely different story. Gas prices can change in the blink of an eye and cost you a few hundred bucks a week. Instead, only drive when you need to and if you need to drive make sure there is a purpose for doing so. Also try combining car trips instead of several trips. Finally, try walking or riding a bike. These are also great ways to exercise and save gas all at the same time. This saved me $125 a month.
Cut off the daycare. If you have no job why send your kids to daycare or spend hundreds of dollars paying for child care while you are at home. If you have kids you know how much this cost you. In my case I would save an extra $400 a month.

How Much Did I Save

In the end when you total it all up I would save around $1460 a month. That’s nearly 80% of the total money I earn from job in a month. Now how much can you save? Don’t wait put your plan in place now. Who knows you might be next in line to be laid off.

Chris

In are last post we talked about some simple things you could do right now to get out of debt. In this post I’m going focus on some more advanced ways. However some of these tactics should only be done after you have completed some of the basic task first.

You can review the last article here.

Call The Mortgage Company

If the bills are getting to be to much and the cash is getting to be a bit tight you may want to think about calling your mortgage company. Why?

If your facing a lot of issues with keeping up on your bills sometimes just calling your mortgage company and talking to them about your situation could be all that you may need to do get a little breathing room.

If you wait until it’s to late the mortgage company won’t be so kind. In fact you may want to call them before you start having any major issues with your debt or credit. This way you may be able to refinance at a lower rate.

Even if you are have issues paying your mortgage payment give them a call who knows they may have a program that could help you out. The last thing a mortgage company wants to do is go through another foreclosure again. So give them a call.

Negotiate A Deal With Your Credit Card Company

Want to pay less on your credit card payments? Call your credit card company and ask them. You heard me call them. You might think they would just say no but that is the worst thing they would say.

So how do you do this?

Simple call them and explain that you can’t get ahead on your payments and will be forced to miss payments on your credit card. Tell them you need a lower rate and if they don’t like that idea ask to talk to their supervisor. If the supervisor won’t do it, hang up and call them back tommarrow.

The chances of you getting the same customer support person on the phone is slim. Again ask them to lower your interst rates. Do this everyday until they lower your rates.

Get A Part Time Job

If time allows a part time job will help you bring in a few bucks to put toward helping you pay off that debt. Even if it were just an extra $100 think of how much stress that could eleviate from your life.

The great thing about part time jobs is they are a lot easier to come by then full time jobs. I once new a guy who took up a paper route to pay off his debt. Just something that simple got him back in control of his finances

If you are interested in a part time job here is one I’ve been recommending to people latley about working with the census bureau. Check it out here.

Sell Something You Own

This idea right here is how I built up my entire emergency fund from scratch. So how did I do it. First off, I put my mind to it. I decided that enough was enough and decided to sell my snowmobile I had owned for several years.

It was tough at first because I really didn’t want to sell it but I knew if I did the pressure I was facing with my finances would go a lot smoother. So I put my mind to it and started talking to people who would like to by my snowmobile and in one day I had it sold and $1000 in the bank.

I thought it worked so well selling my snowmobile so I decided to give it a shot and sell my timeshare while I was at it. A few weeks later I had it sold and money in the bank.

Now, I know not everyone has big items to sell around their house but it really doesn’t matter if you make $5 or $5000 from selling something you own. The point is to use that money to cut down your debt and stear yourself in a better financial direction. So go ahead find something around you house and sell it.

Start A Part Time Business

Have you ever heard the phrase…

If you feed a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if teach a man to fish you feed a man for life.

If I teach you how to get out of debt I’ve really only done half of the job for you here at Stumble Forward. Just getting out of debt is not enough. You also need to learn how to prevent yourself for falling back into debt, and the best way I can teach that is by teaching you how to start a business of your own.

I’m not going to go into detail about why you need to start a part time business but if you would like to learn more about this option you can learn more here. Also if are looking for some ideas of what kind of part time businesses you can start by checking out these options.