Emergency plan

[StanleyJohnson]

I've read quite a bit about having Emergency Funds and selling off possessions in order to get out of debt or at least not adding to existing debt levels.
Does anyone have an Emergency Plan in case of a job loss?
We are having a hard time deciding on areas to cut while we are both working.
We both work long hours and enjoy our memberships and toys.
My solution is to come up with an Emergency Plan in case of the dreaded job loss.
For example, if one of us loses a a job, we immediately drop our gym memberships, cable and adjust cell phone plans.
At the six month mark we start to sell our cherished toys.
Anybody out there have a similar plan?

[Greebo]

We don't have a formalized plan. We would basically cut everything to the bone, apply for every possible job we could possibly do, sell our still fairly valuable cars and buy beaters, and do everything else we could to minimize expenses.

[StanleyJohnson]

I forgot to add that our HELOC only requires interest payments to be considered current. We normally pay more than the minimum, but it's nice to know we can fall back on the interest only payments.

[Moonface001]

Like Greebo said, we do not have a formal plan if there was a job loss but just a general idea. Basically if I lost my job we would still be able to meet all bills and repayments but have little to no extra money for savings. If my partner lost his job we would fall short. In this case we would look at everthing and bring it down to bare bones or go with out. Honestly if the choice came down between a gym membership or food on the table I would have no hesitation to make a decision. We would also take any job offered to fill in the gap until some thing better came along. We fortunately are ahead in our mortgage and have a loan feature where we can draw on the excess. However this would be the very last option. We have worked too hard to get ahead to even consider this. We would rather sell our posessions. At this time we get no government support, but in the case of a job loss there could be something that we may be eligable for.

[joyofsix]

We do have a plan. Only dh works so it seems prudent. If he were to lose his job we would:

I would seek work.
Cancel cable/phone. We'd keep our internet as long as possible for entertainment. It's $30/month. We have pay as you go cells. We'd keep that if possible.
We don't have any subscriptions/memberships to cancel. The kids wouldn't be adding any new activities that cost money though.
We have beater cars but lots of them (two teens drive). We'd sell those two cars which would reduce insurance too.
Our umbrella policy on the home would be cut.
I have an emergency 2 week menu I'd pull out to cycle through allowing us to eat healthily on as little as possible.
We don't have much else to sell. I would ask our working teens to contribute more to the household if necessary. They currently use their earnings for school/insurance/clothes/entertainment.
We keep the house at 65 in winter but we could go lower and all congregate in one room if finances are really bad.
We are lucky dh works in a stable medical field but anything could happen and I'm a planner.

[Contrary Housewife]

DH is a contractor, so we periodically go through a month or more of unemployment. We already live on bare basics (basic cable, economy utility usage, no cell phones) so there isn't much to cut. And frankly, I doubt any of our "toys" would bring much 2nd hand as we don't buy a lot of cutting edge stuff.

We have an emergency fund good for 4-5 months of expenses at our current spending level.

We have savings auto-withdrawn each paycheck, for extra emergencies.

I have a food stockpile good for about 4 months of hearty dinners. That could be stretched to 6 months. When DH is out of work I only buy fresh dairy and vegetables and we eat out of the freezer.

Luxury spending pretty much ends. That means if it is not utilities, car, required home repair, medical, and basic food then it doesn't get bought. No vacations, no dinners out, no movie tickets, no new clothes (unless needed for an interview), no toys.

[druthb00]

We went into a "voluntary" emergency-mode when we moved from IN to FL without work. Granted, our savings was and still is substantial, but I had no intention of us bleeding our savings dry before we found work. So when we moved we got bare minumums for phone and internet (DSL and basic land-line package.) Those were necessary to find work, though, finding jobs on craigslist and having a FL phone number for interviews. We didn't upgrade the cable tv, as the basic is included with our condo rent. We didn't buy any new clothes except a nice blazer and shoes for BF for a corporate interview he had. I started clipping coupons to the extreme for groceries and kitchen&bath items, and although food is a bit more expensive here than in Indiana, we managed to eat better on less money. Our entertainment was pretty much the internet for movies/games and the beach, so practically free. I pack a lunch for the beach and the parking is free. Even though BF is now working, none of that has changed much. We did buy some more warm-weather clothes and we do go out to eat once in awhile, or buy a bottle of some sort of liquor when it's on sale. Oh, and I do confess, we just bought a patio set from Big Lots as we had absolutely no furniture outside and our patio is 14X26. It looked pretty barren. We had to get something to enjoy the weather!

[parkersmom]

I have an emergency 2 week menu I'd pull out to cycle through allowing us to eat healthily on as little as possible.

I'm curious, what is in you emergency menu? Sounds like everyone has good plans, but hopefully you never have to use them.

[krbshappy71]

I'll sell myself on the street corner. I'm kinda cute.

I still have some house items to sell, family that could help me, and would go back on food assistance, LEAP for heating bill, etc. I'm just too stubborn to do it just yet. But if I lost my job, ya. It would happen.

[joyofsix]

I'm curious, what is in you emergency menu?

I got the idea from the spam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typed Housewife. I tweaked her ideas to work for my family's likes and size. Food is a huge issue for us (9 to feed). It could be a real budget buster without a plan. Our lunches and breakfasts are pretty much like this most days with cereal thrown in on Sunday for the kids. Our dinners usually have more variety than these. Typically we have lots more fruit and milk/cheese and yogurt than this menu.

Breakfasts
hm pancakes w/hm syrup
oatmeal w/sugar
cornbread w/honey or butter
french toast w/hm syrup
mush
rice w/milk&sugar
toast w/egg
fruit I've frozen for breakfast~I've got applesauce, peaches and pears I put up
milk for kids

Lunch
hm vegetable soup w/crackers or bread
hm tomato soup w/crackers or bread
hm lentil spinach soup
pbj sandwich
grilled cheese sandwich
ramen noodles w/peas&carrots
any dinner leftovers
carrot sticks, slaw, or other discounted veggie
apple or in season cheap fruit
water

Dinner
1. x2 hm refried beans wrapped in hm tortilla, corn
2. tuna pasta w/peas, garlic toast
3. veggie chili, cornbread
4. chicken and dumplings, carrots
5. vegetable stir fry on rice
6. ham&beans, cornbread
7. hot dogs w/hm buns, green beans (to keep the kids happy)
8. breadsticks w/hm cheese sauce, raw veggies
9. fried potato w/egg, hm biscuits, juice (kids again)
10.black bean soup, hm tortilla
11.creamed chicken w/peas&carrots on biscuits
12.pasta faguouli, garlic toast
13.hm pizza, raw veggies
milk for kids

snacks
pb toast or biscuit
cinnamon toast
hm muffin
popcorn
piece of fruit that's frozen/in season/cheap

[Greebo]

I'll sell myself on the street corner. I'm kinda cute.

Hey, ceashels - should we get her price sheet, see if we wanna buy her?

[krbshappy71]

Hey, ceashels - should we get her price sheet, see if we wanna buy her?

I do windows!!!


And mac.

[Grainlady]

FOOD - SHELTER - UTILITIES - TRANSPORTATION

We're a single-income family and a couple years ago we did an assessment of how prepared we were for any emergency after I read the book, The NEW Passport to Survival 12 Steps to Self-Sufficient Living by Rita Bingham. In this economy, more than ever, we became even more aware of assessing our needs and spent 18-months building a food storage plan and would be able to easily cover 1-year.

The food in storage includes the Seven Survival Foods - grains, legumes, sprouting seeds, sweeteners, salt, oil, and powdered milk - which is what I started the food storage focus on, and built from there.

Food storage consists of three levels and I built it on a $50/week food budget (for 2 adults). Now that it's well-established, I have a $75/ every TWO week food budget. About 70-80% of my food dollars go to food storage, so these days I "shop at home" for food preparation and have learned to use foods we weren't accustomed to using in the past.

Three Levels of Food Storage...

1. 72-hour Emergency Foods - foods that don't require heating or refrigeration. This group of foods is portable.

2. Pantry Foods - those foods it takes to prepare meals daily - 6-12 months worth.

3. Long Term Emergency Foods - these are mostly dehydrated, dried, freeze-dried (most in #10 cans), canned foods, etc. Foods that can be kept long-term - hundreds of pounds of grains, beans, seeds, powdered milk products in #10 cans, etc. Foods from ALL the food groups.

We are debt-free (other than our home), have a full-funded emergency fund (as well as savings and investments) and are saving every cent possible that doesn't go towards the house and regular monthly bills. We decided it was better to position ourselves for the worst NOW, rather than trying to figure out what to do if the worst should happen. If the economy recovers, we'll still have the money AND all the things we stockpiled "JUST IN CASE". It's a win-win situation.

At the first of the year we canceled cable TV and the newspaper, no subscriptions of any kind, no memberships... Went through all our regular bills and looked for ways to save money - like increasing the deductible on insurance that covers the cars/home, to lower the cost.

Everything is on a strict cash budget. We use two TracFones (total expense: $200/year). We have to keep Internet service so hubby can work from home using the computer evenings and weekends, so we have the least expensive land line phone possible in order to get the least expensive ISP.

I've done many things to drastically reduce the use of utilities, such as using Solar Ovens for cooking and other low-energy methods. We use solar camp showers to heat "saved" water for showers. We use an Infrared Heater (which costs 2-cents per hour) to heat our home, instead of our whole-house furnace; rain barrels (1,000-gallon water capacity) to use for watering the garden/landscape/yard..... We've switched as many light bulbs as possible to LED, which use even less electricity than CFL. We purchased a solar-powered generator (Solar Generator - Amazing Solar Generator Is Like Having A Secret Power Plant Hidden In Your Home) so we would have a back-up source for electricity.

Several years ago we eliminated our free-standing freezer. It was a wonderful convenience, but the expense of running it cost more than the savings from the "bargains" I stored in it. This is a place people rarely consider cutting back.

Anywhere and EVERYWHERE I can reduce, reuse, and recycle I do. We dry our clothes on 6 clothes lines in the basement or outside, so I never use the dryer. We're careful to re-wear as much clothing as possible to save on loads of laundry. Cooking from scratch and planned meals is another great money-saver. We eat more low-meat or meatless meals to save on high-priced meat. Friday is always meat-free and I use meat-alternatives like "fake meat" made with vital wheat gluten as a meat substitute or mixed with ground meat. Powdered eggs are used when they are less expensive per egg than fresh shell eggs. I mill my own flour and make all our baked goods, and grow as much food as possible.

None of these things inflict any kind of pain in our lives. There are so many wonderful things to enjoy that are cheap or free. Half the fun is figuring out what you can do instead of spending money.... Instead of expensive Ice Melt, we use sand we got free and it works just as well.

[daughter of pearl]

Grainlady, that is nothing short of AWESOME!

[mateosbaby]

Wow, Grainlady, that is pretty much what we are working towards! Congrats! We are getting a cheap house soon (cross fingers), then will save up all the money we can after we pay off these annoying debts. We want to buy land up north in the woods, build a house (cheap, alternative housing and off-grid - especially interested in shipping containers - Google it, they're awesome), and then plant a garden big enough to give us enough to eat for an entire year. Also want to get chickens eventually, and hubby has this weird fascination with beekeeping... LOL Don't know our plans after that. We hope to start achieving all this within the next few years. How long did it take you to pay off the debts, save up, and become self-sufficient?