Saving Money- Help!

MFPfriend

Okay, I really need the help of my MFP friends here. Please please please, I am desperate- I will do anything.

My mom works for the government, and currently makes pretty good money. Well, we live in California, and the governor just cut the pay of many state workers. My mom went from a good-paying job to 7.25 an hour.
She will now make about 800 dollars (take home pay) a month. That's not even the rent!

I'm so upset, and on the verge of a asthma attack because I'm panicking.

How do you guys save money? My mom got a 14% paycut with the "Furlough Fridays", and we adjusted. We had to cut almost all recreational things from our life. I don't know if there's anything else we can cut.

Please please please please, I need your help. I don't know if we will make it this month.

Dcjones

First thoughts;
Cable
Cell phone
Don't eat out
Walk when ever you can instead of driving
Part time job or career change if possible

I don't know your situation, just ideas...Good Luck ! God Bless !

F.Y.I. - I lost a $100 K job in January, still unemployed...I have 2 kids, and 3 mortages, I've made these cuts...

sunflower0022

well.. the things we cut when we had to were cable, going out to eat, we started spending more time playing board games, and going to the playground with the kids... also for entertainment we searched for all of the free things to do in our area.

but we did keep the internet. We started going to second hand stores to buy the things we needed (I still like shopping there!)
We ate a lot of pasta, ground beef, and stuff like that. Rice... anything that was cheap in bulk. Not easy when we are trying to watch what we are eating I know.

When my friend needed money desperately.. she started AVON, and is making quite a lot with that.. my other friend started doing Tupperware so she could save money and get ready to leave her husband. I know this may not be your case.. hope this helps!

happy_jax

I'm so sorry to hear you are having a tough time. It seems the situation is dreadful the world over

We also have HAD it bad. I was lucky, I still have my job - but I moved in with my partner last year before this all kicked off - he is self employed and has had work coming in at all - so we also did not have enough money to cover bills, mortgage etc.

Like all the other suggestions - you'll have to cut your luxuries. Anything you can live without/that's non essential.

However, the thing that pulled us through is eBay! My partner found a local trade warehouse that sells car accessories and sells them on eBay for a small profit. He is now so successful at this that we don't have to worry about when his business will pick up - as it brings in almost the same amount of money!! Plus, it's not as restrictive on family life as the other suggestions of getting part time jobs etc. You can do it whenever you have some spare time. Especially as, I don't know about where you are - but around here - even the supermarket and bar jobs are kind of hard to come by as it's hard times for everyone.

hkystar

I am sorry to hear about the job circumstances. The posts above are some really good ideas. It sometimes helps to look at your spending from the last 2 months and figure out everything you were spending and what can be cut. The are a lot of frugal tip blogs out there that have some great advice also.

http://www.mrsmoneysaver.com

Good luck!

LainMac

Hi Honey,

Hubby and I in our 25 year marriage have weathered a dozen or so underemployment/underemployment. So here are my suggestions based on our experiance:

Cut cable but keep internet. Hulu has lots of TV shows. NBC and ABC have a percentage of their shows on their website. You see it a day or two later but the commerials are much shorter.

Use the local library for DVDs. Read the wonderful books they have.

Dollar stores usually have pretty cheap spices. Use them to make the cheap boring basics taste better. I couldn't live with out garlic, onion, chilli, paprika, and cumin powers.

Make "making out food at home" cheaper a game. I can make veggie tacos cheaper and healthier than Taco Bell.

Yard sale/ebay/craigslist the stuff you don't want or need anymore. It won't be loads of money but whatever you do get can be used for silly stuff.

Don't be too proud to visit a food bank or other type of government service. You and your mom aren't there because you're lazy or something. You're there because life threw you a curve ball. You will find people there of all sorts, from the chronically lazy to the people just like yourself. It was very eye opening for me personally.

Change to the cheapest cell plan possible. Use it only for emergencies.

I agree with the walk whenever possible and plan all trips so you use the least amount of gas. The last unemployment was Jan 09 to April 09 and I would tell me kids, that Thursday was run errand day. And the errands were planned in a logical order so the least amount of gas was used.

Get a part time job. Best if you can get a part time job that includes moving. I have a friend who works at Target "staging the store" and she conservatively burns 600 calories at day at her job.

Best of luck to you and your mom.

bloblynda

Do you have a job? even part-time bar work can help. Do you have a skill that you can sell like sewing, knitting? Perhaps you have a spare room you can rent out to a student?