How To Survive When Your Spouse Get's Laid Off

When two people decide to live their lives together as husband and wife, if their marriage is to succeed, they must learn to work together as a team, making joint decisions that will benefit them both while sharing common goals that are set forth in their commitments to each other.

Notwithstanding, this type of commitment becomes strained at times during a marriage, especially when money, or the lack of it, is involved. A family unit can be shaken to it's core when a spouse is laid off from work. A layoff is a devastating event that can bring hardship, heartache, and friction into a home, sometimes leading to divorce if the situation is not kept in the context of holy matrimony.

A layoff can be hard on a husband and wife, but it does not have to tear a family apart. Layoffs are common when the economy goes into a slump, forcing companies to look for ways to trim their costs and to balance their budgets. The last thing most companies want is to start laying off their employees, but they may have to if they want to compete and survive.

How do you survive when your spouse gets laid off? How do you survive when there is only one income to support your family? What do you do when your spouse can't help you out and the financial burden falls on you? It will be hard but it is doable.

• Talk to your spouse. Sit down at the dinner table and talk about the layoff and make plans for your family's survival.
• Both spouses should understand that it is not the fault of the one being laid off and they should not play the blame game. A layoff is not like quitting or being fired. A person can get laid off any number of reasons.
• Immediately start looking for another job, especially if your income is really needed. Both spouses should understand that finding another job may not be easy and it may take time, a week, a month, or it may depend totally on how bad the economy is.
• Use all the available resourses at your disposal, such as your unemployment office, newspaper employment ads, the internet, friends, and family members.
• Pay a visit to your companys' human resources department. You may be entitled to severance pay or money from unpaid vacation time or personal days. You may also be entitled to money from your 401k plan, stock, and other investment accounts.
• Take advantage of outplacement services. Some companies let their laid off employees come into the office and use company computers to search for employment.
• Make a list of references before starting your job seach, such as managers, co-workers, and other reliable people.
• Money is a vital to staying afloat and keeping the pressure in check so keep track of your finances and regulate your spending habits.
• Make a list of all of your bills and determine if there is anything that you can live without and let them go. You may be surprised at the number of expenditures that were totally unnecessary in your day to day living.
• Learn how to cut back on energy usage, especially electricity, gas, and water and give up expensive hobbies.
• If possible, keep an emergency fund. It may be hard to do but you should try to keep enough money to survive for at least four months.
• If at all possible, keep your health insurance. Health benefits may be crucial to you and your family, especially if your spouse does not have them.

When a spouse is laid off, adjustments have to be made to make up for the lost income that may be critical to the survival of the family. The loss of one income may mean having to make dramatic changes in your lifestyle, like letting go of unnecessary luxuries, doing without many of the things that you have become accustomed to, and learning to survive on one income.

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