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Originally Posted by celstu1

I have been EXTREMELY lucky so far in this economy! It has not affected me too much, but I am ONE person. That makes a big difference. I do not have kids. I only have one mouth to feed, clothe, heat, etc. I drive a Honda Civic that gets good gas mileage. Its not paid off though, actually its not even a year old, so Ive got a long ways to go before it's paid off.

Today my company announced a mandatory unpaid 5 days off next quarter. Its approximately a 2% pay cut for the quarter. However the extra money in our paychecks from the government starting next month and being able to collect unemployment for the week means that I am still coming out ahead. However they may do this for 2 quarters though, which could put me back.

There is one major bummer of a change I have to make. I was going to personally pay for 2 classes this summer and finish my BSBA in Dec. Now with this uncertainty I cannot take $2,000 cash to pay for classes. Which means that I will have to finance the rest of my classes in the fall and next spring terms which means I will not graduate until May 2010 instead of Dec 2009. I am bummed!

I do know that more changes will be coming and I will need to really tighten my budget. I am going on a cruise tomorrow for 5 days. I am going to enjoy it since its already booked, but once I get back I will need to start budgeting and cutting back so I can afford this pay cut.

I do own my own house alone and have a mortgage so that makes me nervous. I don't want to lose my house or my car. Oh I also have started grooming my own dogs which saves me about $400 a year since I did both of them every 3 months for $100 a pop! uummm I wish I had more ideas but I haven't had to get creative yet. Now I will though.

You'll get through this! I know its scary. I am only 32 and have been laid off about 4x in my short working life (10years) so I do know how scary the working world can be. I do hope that things start to improve quickly but I don't think 2009 is going to be a year that many will be splurging.

I heard June 1st before we get our little pay increase