How do you get by? How is it different now compared to before?

Yes, times are really hard. I was laid off from my job three months ago. Unemployment is 40% less than what I was making. I am being hit with a $900.00 decrease in income. I concentrate only on basic needs and bills as well. But with the cut in salary, I can not even meet all of my bills. That is scary, I have never had a problem paying my bills. I used to pay my bills as soon as I got them in the mail, now I have to wait to see which is more imoortant to pay. We do not go out to eat anymore either. We aren't doing much of anything, especially with the gas prices. I guess the only tips I can give you are what you are currently doing, don't spend on anything that is not really needed. I sell Avon, and since I am no longer employeed, I have lost a lot of my customers, actually lost all of them. I was fortunate enough to get an order last week, which will give me a $50.00 commission. That will help me out with something. It only cost $10.00, to become a representative, so if yo know a lot of people maybe you can try your luck at that. Let me know if you are interested.

The first thing that I did when I started to feel the economic difficulties was to compel and hound my husband for child support. I am a single parent for nearly 3 years now and I really feel the tightening of the belt. Also, my sister lost her job when the company where she worked went under, so most of the responsibilities for the family went to me. I am still lucky though i could not buy anything I wanted and eat out often but I guess it is part of life. Though, I am so bad when it comes to budgeting and making ends meet but I still manage somehow. I have lots of relatives and cousins who may be willing to help me and who really helped me out when I went over the budget but I don't abuse them because it just makes me feel so bad. So as much as possible I stay within my means and do away with those luxuries that my family and I have been used to.