Whats Your Plan B

**staceyy** · 02-21-2009, 08:19 PM

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting blog with an article titled, Whats Your Plan B: http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2009/02/...an-b/#comments

I am living my Plan B. I was laid off several years ago and became a SAHW. I previously prepared somewhat for it by going to culinary school to become a Pastry Chef. But I became ill, was hospitalized and found out I was diabetic. I began to experiment with diabetic desserts and started a blog where I posted my recipes. A large pharmaceutical company stumbled upon my blog and offered to sponsor me to give cooking and baking demonstrations to diabetics. Next I was offered a book contract. I also became super frugal which helped me to weather the storm. I stockpiled food, toiletries, paper goods, firewood etc., learned to make newspaper logs, yogurt, my own cleaning products, send for freebies, lowered my expenses etc. Dh seems to have a pretty secure job. Whats your Plan B?

**ravenmaniac** · 02-21-2009, 08:52 PM

Nice post. Since we don't have a fully funded EF we would need to sell one of our vehicles. Probably at a place like Carmax. That would give us some cash. I have about 3 months worth of food, health and beauty aids, and cleaning/laundry supplies. Wow, this has really made me think. I need to think about plan B more. I need to be better prepared.

**Milly** · 02-21-2009, 08:55 PM

I'm pretty much living my Plan B, too, but I'm working on C, D & E, just in case.

**madhen** · 02-21-2009, 08:59 PM

I have a very secure job, but I do think sometimes about what I would do if I lost it for some reason. The PRACTICAL thing to do would be to sell off my livestock, because they are a HUGE drain on my income. I don't know if I could do it right away, though. I'm already trying to start up a second business that I might dive into full time, if I didn't have a "real" job to go to every day. Not sure if that would do much more than pay the mortgage every month, but hey, who needs electricity?

Probably, the first thing I would sacrifice would be my beading supplies. I have literally a couple of thousand dollars' worth of beads, sterling silver wire in various gauges, German-made tools, silk thread, etc. and so on. Purchased over a number of years with grand ideas of beautiful projects that never materialized.

The next thing to go would be my furniture, followed by my books, then my clothes and everything else in my house. I'd probably try to take on a renter and take any job I could find before I gave up any of my animals. If it looked like I couldn't maintain the critters, I still doubt that I could sell them. They are a part of my family. I'd probably work with various rescues to try to find them good new homes.

**sabrelvssammy** · 02-21-2009, 09:49 PM

plan b- would be when 'dh' HAS to get on the 'frugal train'... i believe i have enough frugal 'skills' to live on next to nothing and if that's what we had then dh would have to give up many of his vices and activities....as it stands now i am the only one truly on this train...(though when i went to work this morning i asked him to PLEASE turn the power strips off when he left....and when i got home...he actually had...) that's a first!

it would take some sacrificing (on dh's part) but we could make it with whatever we had coming in.... we have a pretty nice retirement (ok- we HAD a nice retirement fund going) and i WILL NOT dig into that (the economy has already done that for me).....so we would just make do...neither of us are lazy and between the two of us we could come up with some pretty ingenious ways of making money....we will be okay.... (i hope....).......

**MomToTwoBoys** · 02-22-2009, 02:07 AM

Our Plan B would just consist of me going back to work and DH staying at home. We could also both go to work.

**tiff** · 02-22-2009, 05:27 AM

Plan B - if DH was made redundant he would get a nice package so we could use that to pay off the mortgage. He would hopefully get a job with a lower income and I could also go from part time to full time if necessary. We are also stockpiling, its amazing how quickly it mounts up. We dont have a full 3month/1 year supply but there are lots of items that we do have a full supply of.

We're working on clearing debts and then saving an emergency fund.

**Jill B.** · 02-22-2009, 08:34 AM

Staceyy, that is a great Plan B! I love when life's lemons work out well for people. (Lemon=diabetes)

I am working on multiple income streams. I work 30 hrs/week at the main job. Then I have a work at home part time job that I do 2-8 hours per week. I also travel about 4-6 times a year for that job and then it pays big money.

I have a presentation I do in local libraries on living frugally, and paying off debt. I only gave it once for $50 but am scheduled to give it 2 more times. I also am working on a blog to go with it. I am hoping to give the presentation once a week and make about an "extra" $200 a month. Time is difficult to find to contact libraries.

**TheRootedNomad** · 02-22-2009, 09:10 AM

The author of the article actually sums up a lot of how I feel. After such a long stint doing the same thing it would almost be a relief to have someone else tell me "time to change paths".

Currently I would try to take a nice long streatch as a SAHM maybe picking up something to do with books very part time after a bit. (My stress free fantasy job is working at a bookstore where I don't have to talk to customers unless I choose to, work whatever hours I want, get paid double what I'm making now and I get to read and decide where to shelve the books as they come in. Ah Cassie Edwards - romance, Timothy Zahn - scifi, probably star wars, Dr. Phil - in the trash, Dave Ramsey - personal finance, and so on.)

Sorry side tracked. I would like the plan to be SAHM for a little while but we'd have to make some cuttbacks and DH would have to be on board.

Plan C would have me looking into work at home positions and/or selling things like at a flea market. I am pretty good at refinishing furmiture. If I had the time I could probably sell old pieces picked from the trash or gotten on a steal-deal at a yardsale for a very tidy profit. I actually like to do this so it would probably fall into plan B whenever the time was available anyway.

Plan D - Fall back on alternate passive streams of income that are lying in wait. This can't be plan B because we're still working on developing these. One day this will hopefully be a profitable plan A.

**jamie79** · 02-22-2009, 11:02 AM

Well dh's job is very secure so we will not have to worry about layoffs. I am using the g.c's to the Piggly Wiggly to stock my freezer with meats. I am also working on getting rid of debt.
Also if it were necessary I could get a part time job working a cash register or something

**peanut** · 02-22-2009, 11:12 AM

Interesting article. I think we're already in Plan B. I'm a SAHW and DH works in a government job that is unionized. Unless the government goes broke, he's got a job. BUT, in case that happens...we have a 6 month EF plus he'd get severance, plus EI. We'd be good for 2 years unemployment.

If necessary, I could try to go back to work...but it's been 15 years and I'm not sure I could work for someone else. DH would like to see me make money of my handiwork. He mentions rug hooking a lot since I took him to an acquaintance's exhibit and he saw them selling for hundreds and thousands of dollars.

I find I am concentrating on sewing/making things to use a barter material these days. I also find I am working on plan B for the kids, but sewing things they might need in the future. If they don't, that's great. If they do, well I have a Christmas present/birthday gift for them...or it's here for the taking.

I'd drop our gym membership and work out at home more...and develop a more active lifestyle in general. Plus I'd be growing a garden to get organic produce cheaper.

I would be very leery of selling what I own here...people here are really cheap and most are worse of than we are. I wouldn't sell locally...maybe over the Net.

If push came to shove, we'd clear out the basement and take a renter. And if it got really bad, we'd sell the house and move into an apartment.

**mombottoo** · 02-22-2009, 12:11 PM

Originally Posted by Milly

I'm pretty much living my Plan B, too, but I'm working on C, D & E, just in case.

What she said....

**old_lady_in_the_shoe** · 02-22-2009, 01:06 PM

We are currently living our Plan B too! My husband and I quit our
60+ hour per week jobs, moved to a rural small town, only have about $30thousand debt left on our home, with no other debt, stockpiled enough for 4 for about 1 year on food, health, bath/body items and we raise most all our meat, eggs and about 1/3 off all our veggies/fruit and such. We also work for ourself and homeschool.

Now with that said, we have a new plan b...which is for the bad...which would mean that our business could no longer support us. If that would be the case...we could pay our mortgage for 3 months along with electric. We would cut all other things like cell phone, internet, trash service and yes even electric. We would part one car and not register or insure it. The only thing we would pay would be mortage, car insurance, one landline phone for our business, EVERYthing else would be cut completely. We should be able to stay that way with "work here or there" for quite a while. But if that doens't work, we would auction everything off in the house, and move into our 30 ft fully stocked camper, after we move all our stockpile into a small storage unit and we would leave the house. That, of course, would be a very, very, last resort, but we have the plan and would do it if needed...the family would stay together, stockpile stored so we could still use it, and we would campout at moms, mil, or free campgrounds till things recover.

**MommyBliss** · 02-22-2009, 01:51 PM

Well, I think the first thing we would do is move to a cheaper local. Hubby has a 2nd business which provides steady secondary income and he is starting to do a third stream of income. We are starting to build up our EF and cut back on our spending.

I am a SAHM and I homeschool, I do have a VERY small little business on the side that I could build up a bit more.

**Grayce** · 02-22-2009, 03:02 PM

We are living our plan B. My DH was laid off Wednesday. We have been living on just my income since last year and paying off debt. Everything my DH made went to our LOC. Now that he is laid off we are continuing to live on my income and his unemployment will be continue to be used to pay of our LOC.
We have a plan C if he does not find work before his unemployment runs out. We will continue to live on my income but would have to scale back even more because I would have to take over paying on the LOC. If that happens we would just pay the minimum until he finds work. It is doable.