When you become unemployed, or realize unemployment is immanent, the natural tendency is to freak out. However, there are a number of things you can do and plan for to help ease this transition and keep money coming in. These tips aren’t a miracle cure, but they’ll help you get more money coming in and help you stay afloat while you search for the elusive dry land of full time employment.
- File for Unemployment: If you’ve just received a notice of impending unemployment, this will need to wait until you are actually unemployed. If you were just laid off today, call your unemployment commission local office to find out when to come in to file. Note: My husband and I filed online when we got laid off, which caused far more problems than anticipated. If you’re in NC I might suggest going to the office instead, even if it’s more of a hassle.
- Start Looking for a New Job Now: You’ll eventually need a new job anyway. If you are lucky enough to have time between your date of notification and last date of employment, look for jobs now while you can be picky. Also, look for acceptable part-time jobs or even freelance jobs. Most unemployment commissions encourage you to get part-time or pick-up work to reduce dependence on unemployment. Besides, if you’re working part-time you’ll be able to keep your unemployment benefits longer (typically) while you look for a decent full-time job.
- Check Into Health Insurance: You might be eligible for Cobra, but you’ll need to find out how much the premiums are. They can sometimes be outside of your budget! If that’s the case, start talking to your local Department of Social Services about what the income requirements are for Medicare and Medicaid options.
- Redo your Budget: If you know you’re getting laid off, now is the time to redo your budget and take stock of your financial inventory. If you’ve already been laid off with no advance notice, this is even more important. Now is the time to put your $50 gym membership on hold, change to the lower Netflix plan, and look at any excess spending. Trim it down as much as you can. Your local state unemployment website may be able to give you a weekly estimate of how much you should get when you file if you aren’t sure. Also, check with your Social Services department for food stamp requirements or assistance with utilities and rent if you find your budget is scary low or you’re not going to be able to meet some of your expenses.
- Pay Up: It can take 2-8 weeks to get your first unemployment check depending on if there are any issues with your claim once filed. For example, if you got severance pay or an extra full week of vacation it can impact your eligibility date. My husband and I got a two month heads up of our impending unemployment. So, I budgeted from our last several paychecks to pay our car insurance, internet, and utility bill average for 3 months all at once. I also put our gym membership on hold and paid the next month’s rent early. We also used our very last paycheck to stock up on groceries (bulk meat into the freezer, pantry stable items and paper good staples- we only spent about $150 on the stocking but it lasted for 1-2 months).This really saved us financially as we both had delays of 4-6 weeks getting our unemployment payments.
Please Share With A Friend:
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
This was an awesome article. Very handy for everyone to keep in their back pockets since no job is guaranteed these days.