How long could you stay afloat?

**ironmaiden** · 10-07-2008, 11:42 AM

If you lost your job, how long could your family stay afloat? Keep your house? Keep warm? Feed yourselves?

**DJ1972** · 10-07-2008, 11:54 AM

We have two incomes, but we could make it on one. I would have to be uber frugal but we could live on one income. If we both lost our income, one of us would have to find a job within a month or two.

**jvera** · 10-07-2008, 11:56 AM

My husband was laid off 5 months ago and he is still looking for work. We have some income because I was approved for disability retirement, so that has helped tremendously. We can go another two months without extra income but after that we may have to default on our car loan. I don't want that. And my husband is looking for a trucking job but even has applied as a janitor. But most menial jobs say he is overqualified and the trucking industry doesn't have any local runs. I don't want my husband to do long haul because I need his help because of my disability problems.

**lilac_city_mommy** · 10-07-2008, 12:05 PM

We are currently living on our half of our income, so if one of us lost our job, we would be fine. However, we work for the same company so we would both lose our jobs if it went belly up.

But we each only make $9/hr, so it would by no means be difficult to replace at least one of the jobs. We are also both full-time students and have been using our school grants (what's left after tuition, books & fees) for debt retirement, but we could use them for living expenses if we absolutely had to.

**LexTysMommy** · 10-07-2008, 12:15 PM

Its just me. So if I ended up with no daycare kids, I could live in this house and pay bills, and continue on as I live now for about 6 months. If I had no daycare kids things would change however. I would cut back more then now, no going out to eat, no going out, very very very frugal, and i could get roommate for the upstairs and move son back down here with daughter. I "could" sell house and move to apartment with kids, but would rather not.

**nodmicks** · 10-07-2008, 12:17 PM

A few months if we both lost our job. However if we count 401K quite a bit longer.

**rosey7415** · 10-07-2008, 12:17 PM

i am pretty sure that we would be okey. my husband is retiring this month or november....so we have started living uber- frugal for the last year or two, in preparation for having a limited income. (sort of getting-our-ducks-in-a-row) we have also paid off all our debt, have our 2 cars paid, and not too much left on our mortgage. my mom is dividing up all of her money (except a certain amount for emergencies) between us 5 children. it isn't all that much, but we intend to roll it into our mortgage. so that takes care of 1/2 of what we had to pay. so that is our priority and we should get it paid off when dh gets his pension from where he is working now....as soon as he actually retires.

i have been stockpiling, but not overboard. enough for us. we have excellent credit...7 hundred something...or close to 800. i'm not sure of the # but when we went to buy our car the salespeople were totally impressed. so it's gotta be good....lol

the only concern is medical. my dh is still working part-time for now as a busdriver. if we have to pay for medical that will do it. he loves his kids, so may stay with that a while longer.

**stinkbug** · 10-07-2008, 12:27 PM

Well, we are fortunate in that dh is in a profession that he could literally have job the same day...probably one or two phone calls. If not....we have at least 3 months income in the bank, no debt other than the house, lots of stock we could cash in, etc. We'd be okay.
We've both lived on nearly nothing, and we'd do it again if we had to. We are just in a better place now.

**peanut** · 10-07-2008, 12:51 PM

15 months. We have $10K in our EF...if we squeezed and didn't buy anything, we could get by on $1000 per month. And as a professional, he'd have severance pay of at least 3 months. Which I could stretch to last 6. So we'd be okay. As long as someone was hiring ... Oh, and I forgot the Canadian Employment Insurance payments...which would be another 6 months... Quite awhile...

Jean

**Denvergirlie** · 10-07-2008, 01:31 PM

I am the bredwinner, so if I lost my job we could only bank on his, which would be about $300 short a month.

However, we do have 3 months of expenes and will have that up to 6 months before X-mas. If I could count on getting unemployment benefits, then we would actually still be able to save most of that money each month, so we would be fine for at least a year to 18 months if I became unemployed.

If he lost his job, it wouldn't even register as an issue with our hosehold finances.

**TinyDancer** · 10-07-2008, 01:54 PM

Um.....I'd make it about 2 weeks. My EF is pitifully low and my debt is pretty high. That's a pretty scary thought. Thankfully, I have great job security so I'll just keep plugging away to reduce my debt and ever so slowly increase my EF.

**Trishagirl** · 10-07-2008, 02:22 PM

We have two incomes so if I lost my job we could make it but things would get real tight. I am responsible for the food money. Dh pays the bills with his paycheck. I would have to get real coupon savvy and I'm preparing myself for that. I'm saving all that I can from paychecks. We could live on one income, have done it before when I was a sahm. Love the extra money thou.

**joyofsix** · 10-07-2008, 02:40 PM

About 6 months but I'd hope to stretch that much further with unemployment, 401K and odd jobs if no new job was forthcoming. We only owe on the house so as long as we could keep that paid and get food we'd wiggle the rest. We might live in the dark swathed in blankets but you do what ya gotta do.

**IntlMom** · 10-07-2008, 02:51 PM

12 to 15 months.....maybe more

**Luv2BeFrugal** · 10-07-2008, 02:52 PM

I think we would be good for 3 months, possibly 4...maintaining our regular level of life. If we went UBER frugal I may be able to stretch that to 6. (That's assuming another penny doesn't come through the door...ie. no odd jobs, bartering, etc.).

I'd really like to make this a LOT longer, but Dh and I are both college students right now...so, we'll just have to leave things as they are for now.