What I’m asking, is how do you get by with out having a job? I’m always perplexed when people say “I have a friend who’s been out of work for a year!”
How is this friend paying the bills? How is this friend paying the rent? How does this friend spend his/her day?
Why doesn’t this friend apply at a grocery store, or restaurant? At least until something in his/her field of choice pops up!
I just don’t get it.
I also don’t mean to sound rude about it. Honestly, if I was with out a job for more than a week, it would throw me OUT OF WHACK! BUT, I’m kind of the type of person that lives from paycheck to paycheck. Maybe these people who are with out jobs for so long have a lot of $$ in savings accounts!
A basic goal is to have 3-6 months of gross income in emergency savings at all times. I would image that that, combined with unemployment benefits, makes it possible for many folks. Others might end up having to tap their 401(k) for a loan or perhaps they have nice separation agreements with their former companies.
Well, unemployment helps with some stuff, but I don’t think I could have made in on unemployment without my husband’s paycheck. Plus, it’s very boring, because there’s no one to play with (they’re all at work!) and when you can see your friends, you don’t have extra money to do anything fun. I’m not big on not working. I was out of work six of the last 20 months, and it was sucky. We never fell behind on our bills, but the tension was thick in the air. Happy to be working, I am!
Incidentally, I don’t get that people don’t take any job they can get. I temp, but if I could have made as much money as unemployment paid, I would have worked at some shitty job, at least part time.
I left my job in early August and haven’t worked since (I’ve been vaguely looking, and I’ve pretty much got something lined up beginning in January). But I’m only going to work part time - the full time student thing is tough too.
How do you survive? Well, different people do it differently - I have a friend who basically lived off credit cards for a year and “got by” by only paying the minimum. Not a wise option from my point of view, but that’s what she chose to do.
I’ve just broken into my savings account, having lived on my last two paychecks (four weeks of pay) since then. It didn’t hurt that I moved to an area where my rent is about half of what it was before then.
I toned down my standards of living, meaning, I don’t go out to eat two or three nights a week. I don’t rent videos or go out that often, but I’m still able to go every now and then. It’s not that tough, if you have the chance to plan for it.
I was out of work for about 6 months this year. I got a decent severance package (better than most companies offered), I had money in savings, I had stock to sell, and I was collecting unemployment. I cut back quite a bit on expenses, but did keep things like my health club membership.
In some states, if you are working at all, even a minimum-wage jobs, you lose your unemployment checks. The amount of the check depends to some degree on what you were earning and how many dependents you have, but maxes out somewhere around 1300-1800 a month (in Illinois, at least).
I figured that I could go for about a year or a bit more before I would have to sell my condo. Luckily, I found something after 6 months.
As far as what I did during the day, it varied. I slept more, that’s for sure (partly because I’m a chronic insomniac, and partly because I was depressed). I job hunted, I worked some (not enough) on upgrading my skills, I got together with friends for lunch once a week or so. There was also a fire in my building and I had to move out of my home for a few months, which disrupted the job search a lot.
In the UK at least we have unemployment benefit (free money).
But there are systems in place which [are supposed to] stop us from living the rest of our lives on this free money.
My (pretty boring, predictable and mundane) advice to people who have no job - do not look for a job which utilizes your skills. Look for ANY job. and once you are in a job, then look for a job which utilizes your skills.
It served me well - I have a job which pays me well, and utilizes none of my university attained skills (but it does utilize a lot of my university-of-life attained skills) and which I enjoy (except when I have to do shifts with my boss)
I haven’t worked for quite a long time. I live with my SO and he pays the bills. I spend my day taking care of our animals, riding my horse, cleaning/chores/etc. I paint, I read, I do photography, and in the summer I garden. I don’t get a job at a grocery/restaurant because I wouldn’t last 5 minutes working in retail, or any job where I had to deal directly with customers. One rude person, and I’d say F*** You and be fired. My SO is OK with me not working, and I like it too. I have money socked away, so I wouldn’t be left high and dry if something happened.
I like staying home. It was weird at first, I had been working full time for 16 years. I quit my last job, I didn’t get unemployment. It didn’t take long to get into the groove of being unemployed and finding things to do. I rarely get bored, there is always something to do.
Brezy, I don’t know if you’ve looked for a job lately, but there are very few out there in my area anyway. I’ve been looking for a job since August, and my luck has been poor. So has a lot of other people’s Here are the listings for the help-wanted section of the big local paper that is distributed through a big portion of the state http://fosters.abracat.com/c2/employment/results/index.xml
Of the 32 ads, some of which are obvious scams, I’m maybe qualified for two of them. One of them might require transporting children, so with my unreliable car that one is out. The other probably pays $6 something an hour because ads worded that way are usually for very low paying positions. As for applying to a store or whatever, they’re not hiring either.
Luckily I have a month or so long temp position coming up in January. I’m hoping that Lobsang’s (and my dad’s since he says the same thing) supposition will work in my favor then. I’m not terribly optimistic though, of the last few places I interviewed with one didn’t hire me because they were able to get volunteers to cover the postion for free, and the other wanted to hire me but had their sister program close suddenly so they had a hiring freeze so they could keep their workers employed. <sighs>
I’m fortunate that I live with my parents, who don’t ask for much rent now that I’m not working(I feel badly that I’m only paying them 1/5th of what I was before though). I also saved about $4,000 of my salary from my last job, and I’m collecting a princely sum of $62 a week from unemployment.
I spend my time writing, writing cover letters, looking in the want ads for several different papers, cleaning, playing computer games, watching too much tv, occasionally seeing friends and worrying about my student loans.
Anyone I know who has been out of work for a year lives at home with their folks. A lot of them travel or do whatever. I have a couple of unemployed friends here in the city so I have some people to hang out with during the day. We generally drink at a couple local bars that offer $2 drink specials.
What would you do if you didn’t have to work?
In New York, you can collect up to $405 a week on unemployment.
Well, for me, it’s not worth it to work for $10 an hour or less when I can make $405 an hour doing nothing.
Well, I hate to break it to you, but you can apply at grocery stores and stuff till the damn cows come home without getting a job. In the 7 months since we moved, I’ve applied for dozens of jobs like that, just to tide me over till I can find something better, without ever getting to speak to a manager, even. As soon as they see that I’ve got a degree, my application gets circular filed because they KNOW that I’m out of there as soon as something better comes along.
As for what I do with my days, I LOOK FOR A JOB, take care of the house, yard and pets, surf the net, watch television, and try to remember why exactly I let him talk me into coming to this godforsaken place to start with.
I was recently out of work for 10 months. I collected unemployment benefits and eventually gave up my apartment and moved in with my girlfriend.
After the benefits ran out I was able to get a job pretty quickly…then a couple of weeks later was offered another job. I left the first to go to the second one. Neither job was big bucks, but it’s income.
While unemployed, I spent my days at the pool. I also fished, hiked, and read books. Oh yeah cough cough I looked for a job too.
I took an early retirement package that gave me enough to live on comfortably for 4 years.(I would have had to stick around for three more years at a job that I hated in order to retire with all my benefits) The total freedom to travel, volunteer, or do nothing at all, is bliss. My blood pressure has gone down measurably…no surprise there! This past year has been one of the best of my life. Who knows where I’ll be in 2005, but I’ll always have the experiences between now and then to look back on.
My roommate foolishly quit a job he loathed (well, not really the job, but the company, management and policies were what he loathed) without having another one lined up. It took him 6 months to find another, and that was applying at grocery stores, retail stores and the video rental place down the street. Being unemployed for a year doesn’t mean the person isn’t looking.
having been unemployed for the past 6 months, here’s my 2 cents. I spend at least 2 hours a day looking for a job. Lotsa fun for those of us in the telecom field. I keep the house clean, laundry done and make sure the kids get their homework squared away. Which is a lot of fun when you have an adolescent with ADD. I like to cook, so I now have time for it. I got 4 months severance which was cool while it lasted. unemployment pays about $400 per week, and my wife has a reasonable job. At this point she’s more employable than I. I’ve worked on my frisbee golf game. It’s very wierd being unemployed. I went to the mall for the first time in about 4 months last week. What a bizarre experience. All my hobbies now require zero cash to participate in them.
Same here, I got fired from I don’t know
how many fastfood jobs, my record
lasted a month, but it was slow at the
Hardees where I worked, then a bad
customer, and I flew off the handle,
basically I cried, stomped off,
and slammed myself in the walk-in
refrigerator.
I quit my job 16 months ago over totally bs demands on my time. (Late June and they tell me I’ll be working Every Day through the end of the year, holidays and weekends included. F- NO!) Just before the entire IT job market went to sheep dip. I survived the 12 months on savings and stock. The last four months I’ve lived in Credit.
But then, I got engaged, I got married, I’ve gotten a lot of rest, I’ve had a lot of fun. Moved into the wife’s house, the sale of my house closes next month and that will pay off all our debts plus about $50k. I’m still kicking back and enjoying life.
But then again, I am an INTP, strong on the Introvert part. I’m perfectly happy being alone with my computer, my TV, my neighborhood and my cats. Oh, and the wife. Only occasionally do I get bored and even then there are plenty of things to do on the cheap.
So what do I do? What do I have to do?
Geez, if it weren’t for that pesky “money” thing, I would be perfectly happy all around!
I was out of work for 9 months last year…got laid off from my job, screwed around looking for another one, and then actually got rehired out of the blue.
For me, it was a combination of many factors that kept me afloat and comfortable…
A decent savings account
A lay-off check from my company that included 3 weeks severance, 4 weeks of vacation pay, and a week of sick leave.
Unemployment checks…they don’t amount too much, but at the time I had no car payment, so the monthly amount I got covered all of my bills (rent, car insurance, phone and credit card bills) which meant that I only had to use my severance pay for spending money, and that lasted a good long while.
Supplementary insurances…I was paying 10 dollars a month on a additional unemployment benefit, which paid 400 dollars a month for up to a year. Add that to the severance pay and unemployment checks, and that made for a nice base.
Thiftiness…I cut out major social expenses (no movie theatres, no drinking in bars, no concerts) and just kept to eating out 2 to 3 times a week and going for coffee afterwards. I rented lots of movies on Blockbuster’s “30 movies, 30 days, 30 bucks” plan, and instead of buying books “cold” I actually dug out my moth-eaten library card and used it frequently.
Overall, I was in a good situation, and by my estimates could have stayed out of work for up to 15 months if I had raided my savings. As it was, I never touched it, but would have had to if I had not gotten re-hired at the end of the nine months.
I enjoyed the break, but can’t say I enjoyed it that much. Free time can be pretty worthless when you’re watching finances, and it was pretty frustrating to have all that time but not the money to take a trip or vacation (I did do a few local day trips, but nothing that I wouldn’t do on a normal weekend while I was employed).