Looks like I might be loosing my job

[KrisD]

So I found out today that my work is training my replacement. I found out through a friend, management has yet to tell me typical of them. So I need to figure out a way to take care of my family with out the measly $700/month I usually bring in. My husband takes care of the mortgage with the money he makes from his paycheck so at least we won't loose our home. But the money I bring in usually pays for the groceries, animal feeds, and the electric and water. the animals are non negotiable in my book some are pets and some are food producers like the chickens and ducks. Other then the dogs and the cats everyone else grazes most of the time so their feed bill isn't too much.

Obviously I have to pay the electric bill and water bill but we don't use much of either so that shouldn't be an issue. So I have to figure out a way to stretch the groceries. We don't eat meat that often because it is expensive. If we are desperate for some extra meat I could butcher a hen or two. But beyond that I could use some guidance.

I do use coupons as much as possible and I buy stuff on sale when possible. I need some good recipies for stretching the food. We do have a garden but it has been so cold nothing but lettuce is ready yet.

Some advise is welcome

[seedspreader]

Do you have kids?

[ejagno]

I'm so sorry to hear of your job loss. You will be in our prayers. You didn't mention it but if I were in your situation I would definitely start looking for another job NOW. It is true that it's easier to get a job while employed than someone who is not working for some reason. I haven't figured that one out yet. Again, our prayers are with you during this difficult time.

[Harry Chickpea]

Start a course for training people how to have goats. Limit it to three or four people and have about five sessions. Do a great job and let word of mouth spread.

[KrisD]

Harry that does sound like a great idea. I will work on that. I do have a small child ( he doesn't eat much) and am looking for a new job. I am taking to HR tomorrow to see if I can save my job but I am not holding my breath.

I of course can babysit, pet sit, even farm sit for a little extra cash but I have to figure out how to replace the $150 bucks a week on groceries or at least make due with a lot less. I will be selling a lot of stuff we don't need so I have a little cash in case it comes to that. Other then our mortgage we are mostly debt free (still have some student loans and a very small amount on our credit card).

I was thinking of going back to nursing school but I wasn't ready quite yet I was waiting for my son to get into elementary school so I could be in school while he was in school. Looks like maybe that plan needs to be bumped up to next quarter if things to look up.

I haven't told my husband yet because he worries something awful about these things and we are leaving Friday for his mom's house. I don't want him to be stressed out the whole time.

I am nervous to say the least.

[used2bcool13]

Hi KrisD,

I am so sorry to hear about your situation, maybe God is leading you to another job or something new like Harry said.

At least in the meantime you can collect unemployment while you are looking. You may be able to attend nursing school at night, I did and worked full time during the days. I was able to get a scholarship for part of the tuition based on grade point average - which I didn't know about when I started. I am not trying to sound braggy, just saying that check into everything, there are organizations out there that are willing to help people who are trying to help themselves and nothing ventured nothing gained.

The library has great books on economizing, one that comes to mind is the Tightwad Gazette, if you haven't checked it out please do, she talks alot about living on one paycheck and frugal menus.

If you still have a landline phone and you have the internet, you should consider getting magic jack, I have had it over a year now and LOVE it, I just reupped the service for 19.95 for the year.

Any body else have any ideas?
Good luck and keep us posted.

[ronbre]

i would be shopping for a different job before you lose the one you have..

is it possible they are going to promote you and need to replace your current job?

[Cannon_Farms]

Goat milk sells for $10 a gallon here, cheese is a bit more and soap is at min a $1 per oz. I charge $50 for goat husbandry one day 3 hour course per person, start farm consults on better management at $150. Do I know it all, nope, do I do a good job at marketing myself as though I do, darn skimpy, I know more than the average Joe and have education to back it up.
It used to be you could make money on ebay selling things for folks but its not so profitable right now by the time fees get done but if your careful on how to do it you can make a bit of money on the side there.
My baby sitter is dirt cheap because shes lonely and doesnt like to get out of the house, but Im still paying 50-60 a week per kid so Id say bring the little hellions on and stay home with your little one

[Rita]

Sounds like you would be eligible for food stamps or other food programs. We have a Joseph's Storehouse here and church food pantries.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Where are you located?

[Pelenaka]

Here are my suggestions based on our poverty line lifestyle -

1) Network now with coworkers get phone # & address for references. Stay in the loop with them after you have left.

2) If your company has a policy & procedures manual check to see if you can get a copy of your exit interview. Ask how they will handle a work reference for you. Knowing will give you an oppertunity to be prepared when you go on your job search.

3) Explore what your state has to offer in employment counseling/job search. NYS offers resume services & a job data bank. There might also be funds for transportation costs related to job hunting.

4) That list I wrote about in 1) use it for bartering & potential farm produce sales.

5) If haven't already started the enrollment process for nursing school go now. I had to wait for a year after I was accepted for an open slot. Nursing programs need to have postive graduation stats, they tend to accept canidates who have medical training or certs like cpr, emt, nursing assisant. Take a math refresher course before hand or if you can find any online medical terminalogy course.

6) Cold frame/hoop gardening - I can't even begin to guess the $ value from the fancy salad greens I have grown from the cold dh built for next to nothing. Well over 3 grand in 4 years (more if I really used it to it's full potential), about a 1/3 of which I barter for groceries.

7) Glean - start now making contacts for gleanning oppertunities.

8) Rain water collection - I use rainwater for the garden & meat rabbits, in a pinch I would also have us bath in it, flush the toilet, laundry.

9) Electric - conserve, switch to manual (wisk with a fork instead of an electric mixer) Sorry other than those two suggestion I really got nothing as an easy cheap fix.

10) Organize a clothing swap. Great way to get people into the bartering & swaping mode which lead to other transactions & barter freindships.

11) Take this time to learn new or refresh your homesteading skills of food preservation, hunting, fishing, home repair, animal husbandry ect. Teaching classes is a great idea.


Hang in there,

~~ pelenaka ~~
http://thirtyfivebyninety.blogspot.com/

[Tricky Grama]

So sorry to hear this, what has happened since you last posted?
Pretty sure you'd get food stamps, that is what you've 'paid into'.

Also where are you? Any kudzu in your area? You could charge a pretty penny to rid folks of it w/the goats, pack lunches for you & your child, go take some of your herd & let them clear some land. Maybe you'd need a border collie?
Prayers & good thoughts.

Patty

[SFM in KY]

I think the first thing I'd look at would be the grocery bill. It is going to depend on where you live, of course, but for two adults and one small child, your grocery bill should not be a great deal higher than mine for two adults. I do raise rabbits and use that for 90% of the meat we eat, but we are not big meat eaters. The big part of our grocery budget is milk and ice cream. DH is one of those people that isn't a big eater and not a heavy person, so I encourage the milk drinking and the ice cream. That is something you could probably cut back on except the milk for your child, so I'm thinking that my ice cream/ milk expense would offset the meat we don't buy.

I don't have much of a garden because I can't do much outside work in the summer, so that doesn't factor into our grocery 'savings' to any extent. Since we don't go to town often, we don't buy much fresh produce, not the best thing, but for us it's not an option and fresh produce is expensive now. I do stock a lot of frozen vegetables plus those that will keep a month.

I keep track of what I spend at the grocery store. Because we try to do our grocery shopping just once a month, and don't buy one or two items during the week at the local store, it is easy for me to track grocery expense and my monthly grocery bill averages about $200 a month.

I do make all of my own bread and have estimated that cost at about $.50 a loaf. Breakfast is usually a couple of slices of toast, coffee and a dish of oatmeal for DH. Not the quick-cooking, flavored variety, the old fashioned rolled oats kind (which gets cooked in my rice cooker).I do keep cold cereal on hand, corn flakes and shredded wheat, although this is often lunch rather than breakfast.

We rely heavily on one-pot or one-skillet meals without a lot of meat. I have a variety of meals using rice and beans as the 'staple' ingredient, many of them with pretty much the same basic ingredients but different seasonings so they taste different.

As a specific example ... a 'stir fry' skillet supper for us uses two cups of cooked rice (about $.25), one package of "stir fry" frozen vegetables ($1.00 to $1.39 a package depending on if I can get it on sale or not) plus additional fresh onion and celery, seasonings/ soy sauce. This is a meal for two for $2.00 to $2.50 per meal.

I learned to cook like this on the ranch, where we did not go to town often and meals had to be quick and easy as often everyone was outside working and there was very little time for cooking a 'full meal' ... and often not a lot of variety in what you had to work with.

I've been out of the job market too long to have any useful suggestions there, unfortunately but others have had excellent suggestions.

[wy_white_wolf]

Hi KrisD,

How reliable is the friend? Are you sure he/she is right and has the whole story?

A co-worker once told me they were hiring my replacement. Yes, I ended training my replacement but that was because they planned to promote me. Do what you can to find out the full story from management. But I would still plan for the worst and keep as many options open as possible.

WWW

[nadja]

Six years ago, I realized that I could no longer continue as a framer. I was getting too da.. old ! LOL I started building my web site which I sell rocks from (my hobby) I was doing pretty well as it was all new to me. The economy being bad, it is not doing so good, but still make about that a month which along with my ss , pays the bills pretty much. Maybe you could start a web site which deals with a unique type of survival , such as goat cheese etc. Do you have any hobbies that could be turned into a small profit ? At least to start. Not to tell you to quit working, as once you've spend the time to build you site, it works for you whether your home or not. Give it some thought and maybe it is for you. If you decide to do it, you may look at yahoo small business as they are about the easiest to use and also one of the cheapest. You can pm me if you want to and we can talk about it more. Nadja

[KrisD]

Well my Operations Manager defriended me on Facebook so i am pretty sure my co-worker is right. There are no other positions at my work that are open so I am not getting promoted. And a few weeks ago when my baby goat got sick and i called in to stay home with her (I have only called in 3 times in 3 years and once I was in the hospital) my boss made the comment to a different co-worker that If I can't come in then she will have to hire someone else.

I am doing the research to make our mini farm (3 acres) more self sustainable. I am also looking for work now. We are not eligible for food stamps here in Washington so I have to figure out how to make the best of it.

Luckily we have a good size garden that will be ready soon, my family loves vegetables and fruit and we have both. I could sell the blueberries, raspberries and strawberries on CL along with Veggies. I would love to have a road side farm stand. My husband is NOT good at building but I could probably make something. I could sell veggies, fruit, cheese and eggs and fresh bread. It would supplement our income a little. Classes would be fairly easy. I will start working on marketing myself. Funny I always wanted a sustainable farm and now It looks like I will have to make it work.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, it is a terrible feeling to loose your job when you have a family to support.

Kris

[ldc]

K, from the practical side, I'd wait til someone spoke to me about a layoff; I wouldn't want to precipitate anything and thus lose a last paycheck or two. Don't give them any ideas! Yes, it's horrible to live thru uncertainty, but it might buy you more time. Also, please know that if they lay you off, you are legally entitled to unemployment; if they fire you, please go thru the hearing process. I have done this 4 times when employers "fired" me for no reason, and each time the employers not only failed to show up, they were already infamous in the unemployment office for "firing" the laid off staff! Best of luck to you! ldc

[PNP Katahdins]

Maybe someone has said these things before but they bear repeating. In the event you do lose your job, do not quit, let them lay you off (even if they call it a termination or firing) so you can get your unemployment benefits. You have earned them, it's not a handout. Get a copy of anything you sign so they can't make changes after it leaves your hands.

In this economy, being laid off is not a black mark on your record. They may try to get you to quit, which gets them out of paying unemployment. Don't fall for that like my mom almost did. Even if they would say you are being fired, they would have to defend that decision in a hearing and most employers don't show up for hearings. LDC said that also.

Do your best and your co-workers will know what's going on. There may be a sympathetic supervisor there who would be willing to be a good reference for you is needed.

I went through something similar and it forced me to do something positive about my future, instead of just trying to get by.



Peg

[Joshie]

Unless you're way out in the country, and maybe even then, you could make more than $700/month babysitting. You could charge $125/week babysitting an infant. The saved transportation and food costs should bring in at least close to $25/week. Heck, if you babysat a couple of kids you could make more than you make now.

[wogglebug]

Plan to make the most of what you've got - savings are better than earnings, because savings are tax-free. You said groceries $150 a week for two adults and a littlie, and very little meat? I can't quite see that - look carefully and you may be able to make major savings.

You make cheese. What do you make with the whey? You could make various whey cheeses, like ricotta. I'm not necessarily suggesting that, but it shows that whey is a decent food. You could make use of it by cooking grains or legumes in whey or buttermilk rather than water. At the very least soak grain in it for the livestock and poultry.

Grow Asian greens, Daikon radishes, and zucchini, squash, gourds or cucumber. Plant new each week. You can produce a huge amount of food in 4-6 weeks.

And people were right - it's much easier to get a job if you've got a job. Much harder to get employment if you aren't already employed. So look now, rather than next week. Seriously.

ETA: if you are going to lose your accumulated sick leave when you go, and being sick is the false reason someone is using to dispense with you, you might consider taking some sick days now - particularly if you have interviews to go to.