With my husband hunting for a new job, I thought I would share some tips this week for others in the same boat.

1. Think hard about your goals.
   This is an area I’ve made sure my husband has worked hard on. Being laid off means to me that he may as well try to pursue some of the dream jobs he never really had the time for before.
2. Don’t settle until you have to.
   While my husband will have to take a job soon, that doesn’t mean he must settle for the first job that opens up to him. If he were doing that, he could well be working at Home Depot already. On the other hand, a point will come where we will really need that income to stay where we are.
3. Network.
   I’ve been utterly shameless about telling people about the layoff. I’ve gotten ideas from a few people.
4. Get help with your resume.
   One of the few good things to come of this layoff is that his former employer did contract with an outsourcing company that is helping him really put a better resume together. With any luck this will help him land a better job than what he had before.
5. Check Craigslist.
   While scams do land on their job boards, so do a lot of legitimate jobs, especially if you’re not talking about working at home. We’ve seen some really interesting ones there.
6. When in doubt, apply.
   This one has been a bit tricky for my husband at times. In the past he has been too willing to say he’s not qualified for a job over small issues. This time he’s letting the potential employers decide if his qualifications are close enough. Of course, the one that he was a great match for except they wanted him to be able to speak Mandarin Chinese we skipped over. Some qualifications really do matter.
7. Post your resume online.
   Monster, Career Builder, Yahoo! HotJobs, Job.com, etc. This may not get you much of anywhere, but there’s always a chance.
8. Know how much risk you can afford.
   A lot of the employers we hear back from on posted resumes are commission-only types, and potentially high pressure as well. If you don’t want to do that kind of work or risk not earning enough, don’t bother with them. But if you think you could do well and can afford the risk, go for it!
9. Interview, even if you don’t think you’ll get the job.
   Sometimes you will. Sometimes you won’t. Sometimes the interview will help you to realize that the job wouldn’t have been a good fit for you anyhow. And all interviews are good practice for the one that gets you the job you really want.
10. Pay attention to the details.
    Spelling counts. Grammar counts. Your appearance counts, even if you’re just dropping off your resume.
11. Dress appropriately.
    Know in advance how you are likely to need to dress for the job you’re applying for. You can dress a bit nicer than that for the interview, but dressing worse can be a big mistake.
12. Turn off your cell phone during interviews.
    You need to show that you understand the interview is the priority.
13. Do your research.
    It can really pay off to be able to talk coherently about the company you are interviewing with. This is especially relevant if they’ve recently released some big news.

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It’s rough when you stay at home and you find out your spouse has been laid off. A real shock to the system, even if you do earn a decent amount at home, as I do. After all, I don’t earn enough to support my family solo.

Having my husband get laid off has meant rethinking all our money plans. We are fortunate in some areas, such as our landlord being willing to go month to month with us for a time when she really prefers the security of a lease. Add that to his accumulated time off pay and severance pay, and we’ll be able to hold out for a little.

What may be the most helpful, however, is the outsourcing company we’re working with. I have high hopes of finally getting my husband’s career upgraded to the kind of path he has been wanting to be on. He has been completely rewriting his resume and the outsourcing company has a lot of job hunting resources.

That and I’m utterly shameless about telling people he’s looking. How else will they know to tell us about any jobs they’ve heard of.

I would love to see my husband finally get a career in the direction that he wants to go. I’ve been differing with my father-in-law in this. He wants my husband to get a job in the industry he’s already established in. I don’t, because with the way the economy is going such jobs are going to be scarce and unstable. Home decor doesn’t do so well at times like this.

We know for certain we can stretch things through February and quite probably through March. We’re not going to gamble all the way to the end, though. And of course the jobs he knows he could get but doesn’t want quite so badly will be applied for if necessary.

But the hardest part is making the financial cuts to help stretch things out. We don’t buy a lot of extras as is. Add in the fact that job hunting does cost money (just think how much gas is used in applying for and interviewing for jobs!), and it’s pretty hard to cut down on actual spending.

It’s hardest to explain to my daughter why we won’t be doing much of the fun little things like going over to 7-11 for a Slurpee, unless she brings her own money. On the other hand, 5-1/2 is a great age to start working with her own money a bit more anyhow, so that she gets more of an idea of how to use it well.

Some cuts we haven’t made yet. We still have cable television, for example. While it is perhaps not the best logic, my feeling on that is quite simply that we’re giving things one month, two at the most before we move in with my inlaws. The cable would be a pretty easy sacrifice for me, since I only watch a little television, but much harder on my husband and kids. Two months of paying extra, when we’re either going to keep living on our own or not… doable.

I’m going to be making heavy use of my frozen food supplies. In part this is to save money, and that’s what it’s all there for anyhow. But also I don’t want to have to find room for it at my inlaws should we have to resort to that. At worst I’ll have to restock it later.

It is so nice to not have to buy a lot of meat at the store! And I’ve really been needing to make those turkey bones into soup anyhow! Mmm!

The big thing I’ve been doing is trying to ramp up my own business. It’s not all on my husband, after all. It’s hard to acheive something that I’ve been working on for ages, but this has been the push to make me try some new things. I’ll be releasing my first ebook for sale soon, for example.

The scariest part is doing a bit of my own job hunting. Nothing saying my husband and I can’t trade positions. We’re determined to keep ONE of us at home, but which one?

I do NOT want to work outside the home. I love what I do. But if that’s what it takes, yes I will do it, gladly.

No, the place really isn’t that much of a mess. But when you have kids, you have toys to trip over. It just a fact of parenting. Don’t worry too much about the mess… this is over several days!

1. Part of my kids’ wooden train set.
2. Rocking horse.
3. Tricycle.
4. Toy laptop computer.
5. Dragon
6. Lincoln Logs
7. Wooden tool set
8. Play dough container.
9. Duplo blocks
10. Roller skates
11. 10 ft tall stuffed toy bird (thanks, sis!)
12. Tractor
13. Toy cars

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Ouch.

I’m hoping he can find something else quickly so we don’t have to move out. We can’t afford the house we’re renting on what I make online right now. If I still had my peak earnings, we’d be doing all right, but for now, no.

I’ve been thinking on what we can do. COBRA coverage, while expensive, at least takes care of the health insurance issues for now. If this turns out to be an extended thing, we’ll have to look at other options.

I’m also thinking it’s time he looks at some of the options he’s been procrastinating on. I posted a long time ago about voiceover work, and he was interested. Maybe now? Not like there’s much to lose.

The company is at least providing some resources to help him look for a new job. But I know a lot of companies are downsizing right now, so this will probably be pretty tough.

In light of yesterday’s post on the economy and rising food prices, I thought I would share ways I save money at the grocery store.

1. Don’t shop hungry.
   Some of the oldest food shopping advice, and some of the best.
2. Plan ahead.
   The more you know about the meals you are going to make in the days ahead, the less extra stuff you are likely to buy, and the less spoilage you should have in your fridge.
3. Go through the ads.
   It’s easy to miss a special if you aren’t particularly looking for an item. If you use the ads in combination with planning ahead, your meals can be based on what’s fairly cheap right then.
4. Go to more than one grocery store when reasonable.
   I have a Henry’s and a Vons sharing a parking lot, and Stater Bros. across the street from them. It makes it very easy to shop them all, even though Vons most often has the highest prices. But driving too far can ruin your savings.
5. Take advantage of coupons for things you would buy anyhow.
   Coupons can save you a nice bit of money on the things you need.
6. Don’t buy things you don’t need just because you have a coupon.
   Buy what you need, not just what is at a good price.
7. Know who, if anyone, doubles coupons.
   This is harder to find than it used to be, but if a store near to you does it, take advantage if the price is then the best.
8. Know the regular prices and what a good sale price is.
   Any time you can get something for it’s best sale price, you’re doing pretty well, and the more you can avoid the regular price on most foods, the better. I also have just general guidelines such as “most fruits and vegetables should be under $1/pound, under $0.75/pound is better”. A lot of people keep notebooks so they always know if the price is good. I’ve seen stores drop a price $0.01 and call it a sale.
9. Plan at least an occasional vegetarian meal.
   Meatless meals generally cost a lot less. One of my favorites is called Sand and Shells, and the kids just wolf it down. Most of the ingredients are *ahem* dirt cheap in my area.
10. Take advantage of your freezer space.
    I love keeping meat in my freezer that was bought at cheap prices so I don’t have to buy so much when the prices aren’t so good.
11. Check out farmer’s markets.
    Sometimes the prices are great, sometimes not so great. But know what you have in your area.
12. Garden.
    Not easy for everyone, but if you have the space and are willing to give it a try, you can produce your own food for reasonable prices. Note it may take a while for you to regain your investment. But if you compost your other food scraps you will have a great natural fertilizer, saving one expense as well as concern about chemicals. It may also help your kids to see where their food comes from, and some even eat their vegetables more eagerly.
13. Make your own mixes.
    Spice packets and other mixes can cost significantly more than what the individual ingredients cost. Mixing up your own is pretty easy, especially since many from scratch recipes are readily available online.

And a bonus tip, just because I thought of it…

Don’t buy in more bulk than you’ll actually use. It’s not a good deal if you paid more and used less than is made up for in savings.

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Just listening to the news tonight, and they were saying that economists say the government has no more than two months to act to improve the economy. Inflation recently hit a 17 year high.

That doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve been watching food prices go up and up. I’ve had to revise my ‘buy’ prices for some foods. Unemployment is an issue too. Things are serious enough that more people are talking about it.

I’ve been working on cutting our food bills as best I can. I’m so glad that we garden, although right now there’s no produce on the immediate horizon. But if things are still bad over the summer it could be a big help.

One of my key things to do is to keep good track of what foods cost at different stores. I get much of my produce at my local Henry’s (kind of like Whole Foods, but smaller and recently purchased by them). They generally have better prices on produce than the other local grocery stores. They also sell things like rice in bulk bins, and that price is often, but not always, better than the prebagged stuff at other stores.

I also know which items are cheaper at Target or Walmart, although Walmart really isn’t a favorite.

The price changes have simply made me see how much my family needs to earn more money. It’s not going to be easy, but I’m determined that one way or another we will earn more so we can get by better. I’m no fan of barely scraping by.

I really hope I can finally successfully ramp up my online business. It’s hard because my son is at an age where he wants more of my time, not less, and I can’t turn him down too much. Not fair to him. With my daughter in school half the day it’s no wonder he’s lonely.

Is the economy impacting your family? Any tricks you use to cope?

All parents have some sort of food battle with kids. It’s just how these things work.

Not last night’s dinner,
but it sure looks good!

For example, last night I told my daughter we were having fish for dinner. She’s eaten it well in the past, so no worries, right?

Except she has suddenly decided she doesn’t like fish. Before it’s done cooking and even before she’s seen it.

I really should have said ‘chicken’. Odds are good she would have eaten it then.

So I played around with her a little. I had a topping on the fish, and she readily admitted that she loved the topping. It was a mix of bread crumbs, chopped cashews, honey and mustard. Really wonderful, and she admitted that she loved the topping.

So I told her about the nuts. Hey, the main part of the dinner was spoiled anyhow.

Immediately she announced that well… there was something in there she didn’t like and that was the nuts.

Cashews are the only nuts she likes when she admits to liking nuts. I know she was trying to play with my mind as much as I did with her when I mentioned the nuts. Besides, she kept nibbling it, if a bit slower.

Feeding kids is a funny thing. A favorite food one day is loathed another. And somehow it seems like just about all of them will eat any meat labeled ‘chicken’.

No matter what it really is.

For many moms, the television is a big help, starting when their kids are very young. The Baby Einstein and similar DVDs keep young children occupied while mom tries to get things done around the house, or just a few moments of peace and quiet.

There’s been plenty of controversy on this topic. Some say it’s related to Attention Deficit Disorder and the like. It’s a topic I really recommend parents consider.

Both of my kids do watch television. In fact, we were given my sister’s spare TiVo as a Christmas present. That’s been a lot of fun as we can program it up for the shows my kids like to watch, and they can watch them when we want them to have the TV on. It also helps with letting us watch our shows at our leisure, but that’s not today’s topic.

My own feeling is that it is not a bad thing in moderation. My kids watch television, but they also spend a lot of time playing outside when the weather permits (and they love playing in the rain!), and playing creatively with their toys. We have plenty of ‘TV off time’.

I also was never that much into the Baby Einstein thing. We have some of their videos, and in terms of style, I liked Baby Genius much better. Still didn’t show them that much.

Some videos I have seen definitely educational value from, such as the Leap Frog Letter Factory video. Their others aren’t bad, but both of my kids picked their alphabet up almost effortly from that video. My son, who is in speech therapy because he struggles with speaking, knows his alphabet and all the letter sounds. He’s not even 3 yet. My daughter was doing that by 2. It’s just a delight to me.

It’s just like anything else, really. Some can be good. Too much does harm.

How much do you let your kids watch television?