Almost immediately after I started taking Crystal's Financial Shape challenge- like, literally two days later, I lost my contract job. It was a bummer, but that did not alter our commitment. I also found work a few weeks later as an adjunct instructor at two local colleges. Yay! The money I started earning as a teacher did not replace my previous income entirely, but it helped. We were on the road to success!
This weekend, we had another wrench thrown in our plan.
You may have heard that the Boeing machinists went on strike.
My husband does not work for Boeing, but the company and department he works for heavily depends on Boeing. Because Boeing has gone on strike, my husband and his coworkers will not be working as much. He has been put on three day weeks with a significant pay cut. EEP! I think the scariest part of this is the not knowing how long it will last- it can be a few days, it could be weeks, it could be months. We don't really know for sure.
So we're battening down the hatches. We pray for the best and prepare for the worst. We're still committed to our goal, and will be doing our best with debt repayment while this strike lasts. In our new circumstances, we have these goals, in this order:
1)To keep up our saving and investments at their current level, and not taking money out of our savings unless we really *have* to.
2) With what is left, we will contine paying off our debt. We hope to maintain our current level, but it may not be possible, depending on how long the strike lasts. We will do the best we can. If we cannot keep our aggressive level of debt repayment, we want to at least send more than we owe for the monthly payment.
To keep these two goals going, we will be pinching our pennies extra hard! It is fortunate that I am home so much more- it makes it far easier (for me) to be thrifty with things like grocery shopping. In a way, this new trial is a blessing. It will encourage me to be extra thrifty so we can keep adding to our savings, rather than taking from them. I will be pulling out my trusty Complete Tightwad Gazette
tomorrow for some encouragement.There will always be challenges, which is why saving is so vitally important. I am so relieved and thankful that we have some fallback. If this had happened to us five years ago, we would have had far less of a safety net.
Strikes and the effects of the strike are new to us. Have you ever been affected by a strike? How did you react? I'd love to hear your comments!
6 comments:
I work for the government of Canada. We civil servants have a union contract. Five months after I started, the civil service went on strike for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture. I was so new that I didn't understand what we were striking for or have a position on the issue. All I knew was that it meant no income. I was up to my ears in debt and just scrapping by. No income for even just a day would have been disastrous. Thankfully, my position was deemed 'essential' so I had to go to work and I avoided the status of being a 'scab.' Crossing the picket lines sucked and I was called all sorts of names and was ostracized even though I really did have to go to work and I had papers from the union proving it. The strike lasted two weeks. There is no way I could have gone two weeks without income. It would have bankrupted me. There's talk of another strike this fall (four years since the last one) and I don't have to worry about such things now because my financial situation has changed so much that I voluntarily took unpaid leave for a year in order to travel and, thus, the strike won't affect me.
When my hubby's work was cut back to four days a week, he was able to collect unemployment for that one day. Is that a possibility? It wasn't the full amount he would have been paid, but it still helped.
I don't have my own strike story, just wanted to tell you that your resolve is impressive. Best wishes.
Hi Amy,
He is looking into unemployment, but he cannot apply until his first day that he is not working.
I tried to get unemployment for my time unemployed, and it was an adventure. Alas, my claim was denied. :( I was really surprised at how complicated it was, how much time I had to put into it. It made me very thankful for my resources- ie, my computer, my phone, the fact I was not disabled or in pain...it really opened my eyes!
I'm sure I'll update on this unless the strike ends very quickly. Thanks for the thoughts everyone!
Good luck! You are certainly taking a wonderfully positive view of it. I hope it won't last long.
Jennifer
Wow. That's a lot to hit y'all all at once. I hope the Boeing strike resolves quickly. Best of luck to you both in all of this! I guess this is when frugality really pays off. We've been there. Not with a strike, but with layoffs. Not fun, but manageable.
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