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Going into Budget Lockdown
The courts have to cut 10% of their budget, and layoffs are guaranteed. Thom isn't the last one hired, but he has the least seniority. Notices go out in a month, to take effect June 1. He took the job with the understanding that he would be working on computer programming as well as legal editing, but he only had a few months doing tech before they had retirement incentives and a hiring freeze that shrunk the number of legal editors. So, a job that was once 9-5, "secure," and allowed him to develop his programming skills has turned into a stressful job that requires him to work late at least once a week, without any tech work. Needless to say, he's been interested in other opportunities and I am so restless to move to Massachusetts, but we've both been too scared to pull the plug on a steady salary and great health insurance.
I'm calling this layoff Operation Band-Aid -- it's going to hurt when it gets pulled off, but in the end we think it's for the better.
So I've spent the past 24 hours getting our financial house in order and stripping things down, cutting out the things I've been meaning to cut out for a while, and kissing any idea of getting a housekeeper goodbye 
I hope we'll come out the other end of this in a good place! I really hope our marriage doesn't die by nagging.
And for you MM ladies ... we're keeping cable, g-d@mnit! Just cutting down the bill to $95/month for cable/internet/phone.
Re: Going into Budget Lockdown
OH no that stinks!! You guys seem very responsible so I am sure you will come out on top Operation Band Aid sounds like a good name for it. LOL
Since starting mint, which I actually do prefer as far as trending our spending goes, we have done major cut backs, with one exception cable (we cut back a litte but even with the baby coming, daycare, life insurance, possible 529, and baby savings we are not going to get rid of it gosh darn it).
I want to say that sucks! But it sounds like it will just suck for awhile... not permanently? GL with it all.
Would you recommend mint? I've heard a lot about it and now that we'll be making some budget reductions - maybe it would be a good idea.
Welcome to the dark side
You have a plan, and know what you need to do. Sounds like you've got it under control and are thinking ahead of the game.
And with us being avid football people, cutting cable would be a "I have to live on ramen or cable" type of scenario.
Em-A lot of people really like mint and its features. We did it for a while, but I think we need to sign back up after the bathroom reno to get things in line for when there's a baby.
Wives Unscripted
As of right now I like it strictly for the trending of our spending (but like it LOT), and am not fully submerged into the budgeting function for settting up goals. Our goals are not very lofty at the moment and we bascially dump as much as we can into savings. LOL The reason I like the trending is because we are basically evenly splitting our spending across our two CC (for points) and our checking account and it keeps it nice and clean for me, and we can see with little work where we may be getting a little to overzealous with our spending. (ETA we pay off our CC balances monthly, sometimes sooner if we start to feel itchy about them, we are still getting use to using them a bit more)
I know some girls that don't like to use the budget function for paying down debt because of how it ends up looking. Our debt is just the cars and house so I can't necessary identify with what they mean though.
Brie's Blog 10.11.08 The Top Shelf Bookshelf
my read shelf:
So sorry to hear that Rebecca
I'll keep my fingers crossed that Thom is safe in his spot.
I think it's great that you all are preparing like that just in case.
I am sorry Rebecca! That sucks but at least you have a plan.
Just for the record, we cut cable almost 2 years ago and it has not been that bad.
October 11, 2008
Trusty Gal blog|Trusty Tales
Until I married dh I didn't have cable and your right totally not bad. I have gotten use to it but am probably more addicted to interent than anything (I guess I kind of threw them all together because we have a bundle with cable/internet/phone).
Oh yeah, I'll get rid of cable before internet! And I'll get rid of our landline before cable. Hopefully Thom will have some sort of work in 6 months and it's not going to come to that. Hopefully.
If we need vibes for anything, it's not to prevent the layoff but just that he lands something within 6 months. We only have enough Emergency Fund for a year, but we might put Jacob in daycare PT so Thom can look for work / develop his own programming business -- so that would cut down how long we can last on our savings.
Em -- I really like mint. We started using it in the past few months. My only beef is that it's retroactive; it doesn't help us plan whether we'll have enough in the bank to pay the next set of bills, so I have my own googledoc for that. But in terms of tracking what we are spending and tying it to a budget, I really like it. It makes me proud to see green lines on our budget items instead of angry red ones
Just knowing what we spend our money on has helped us spend less.
Wives Unscripted
Zoey Emma 08.18.10