Strange Vibes

Yesterday's post was eerily prescient.

Since starting this thing back up (admittedly a very short time ago), I have been experimenting with composing a number of different posts in one night and scheduling them in advance.  I figure that way I can ensure at least one post per day, or even 3-4 posts per week.  Often I have a lot of different things that I want to write about in the same night; other nights I seem to have writer's block.

So yesterday's post was written on Thursday and scheduled for this morning.

Friday my husband and I felt we were dealt a blow.

My husband has been out of work since May of 2008.  He lost his job under terrible circumstances at a deeply unfortunate time.  I'll save my venomous rant for his former employer for another time - hopefully a time when he is secure in another job.

But I will say this: he was fired.  He was fired for allegedly committing a despicable crime.  He did not do what his employer said he did.  An unemployment judge who heard both sides explicitly stated in his ruling that my husband did not do what he was accused of doing, and ruled in our favor.

But he was still fired.  He was fired in the first few months of the Great Recession.  A recession in which older workers, Hispanic workers,  and men were hit very hard.  To sum up my sources: sure, people over 50 are less likely to lose their jobs, but once lost they have a harder time getting a new one.  Unemployment and underemployment rates for Hispanic men is higher than that of other groups except for African American men.  And this time around the unemployment rate for men is higher than that for women.

Yep, my husband is a 53 year old Hispanic man with no college degree and a big fat stain on his record.

But job listings have been on the rise in our area.  He found one for shift supervisor at a chain drug store.  A chain that my close relative works for in a management position.  Armed with a resume highlighting his decade-plus management experience and customer service skills as well as a recommendation from my relative, he walked in and presented the resume to the store manager.

"I'm sorry, sir, I just hired someone this afternoon."

Really.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that I won't need someone in the future.  I'll be sure to call you for an interview if anything comes up."

Thanks.

My husband's unemployment benefits seem to have run out.  There was no notice, no reminder, no "Hey, you only have 3 more checks coming to you."  Nothing.  He filled in the form and sent it out as usual, only this time no check came back.  He hasn't been able to get through on the phone to find out for sure if there was just a glitch, or an error, or if he's done.

And what he's been facing in the job search is pretty much what he found today: sorry, sir, that position has been filled.  And that's if he even gets a response to begin with.

We're faced with a sudden deficit of money that we need to make up.  Wanna know what's in our budget?  Rent.  Student loans.  Electricity.  Car loan payment.  Car insurance.  Basic cell phone service.  Water/sewer.  Internet.  Netflix.  Food.  Gas for the car.

That's it.

Since the start of my husband's unemployment we have cut out: Savings.  Car maintenance savings.  Cable.  Land line telephone.  Ever going out at all for any entertainment that costs money.  Credit card payments (yay!).  Smartphones/data plans.  Gifts.

So yesterday's post is something that I need to re-read often now.  We still have areas we can cut.  I can apply the credit card payments toward what unemployment was covering.  We can conserve electricity.  We can still cut internet if we really need to.  I started a vegetable garden, started baking our own bread, started making our own yogurt in order to save money.  We're going to move to a cheaper house.  I can invest in educational units to move over on the salary schedule.  We can play around with the little shards of savings we have left in order to limp through until December when my car is paid off.  We're not so hard-off yet.  We're not looking at eliminating meals yet.  We're not in danger of being homeless yet.  And we'll only have that much more room to breathe when my husband finally does land a job, even if it's minimum wage.  And we still don't need to worry about warfare coming to our neighborhood, or famine, drought, or preventable epidemic.

We can do this.