Scary news

Mike called me at work the other day to let me know (before I heard it on the news) that all of the employees of his company had been "furloughed" without pay until further notice. Basically, the sale of the company to the new buyers has been taking longer than anyone anticipated. The great majority of the funding is coming from a Russian bank and the bankruptcy court wants to make sure (in light of current global economic troubles) that the bank is solvent and the funds are good. Because of this, the interim funding that the new buyers provided to keep the company running during the transition is quickly dwindling. They hope by having everyone but a skeleton crew go home, that they can conserve enough funds to keep things going until the sale is finalized. Then (they say) everyone can come back to work.

The same day this happened, we had several other businesses go under in our state, leaving around 2000 people without jobs/paychecks. The governor took action to help speed up unemployment benefits -- and apparently those employees in my husband's company who have been furloughed will be able to apply for unemployment benefits (even though they have not been technically laid off or fired). I'm not sure how that will work and I'm hoping its not even necessary, since the new buyers seem to think it's just a matter of days before things are finalized.

At my job, the president of the company issued an email to all employees, explaining that the company has lost $2 million more per month for the past two months than they had anticipated (which seems to indicate that MORE than $2 million per month was lost). Apparently, people are not going to get medical care as they used to and, if they do get care, they are less likely to pay. The president basically said that the company cannot continue to hemorrhage money like this and stay solvent. They are trying desperately not to lay off any employees, but that may not work. Of course, temporary employees like myself will be the first to go if things get worse. As it is, the past several weeks I've been told to go home when there are not enough providers in our office to keep everyone busy all the time. Of course, as I'm a temp employee, when I go home, that means I don't get paid for that time off. It's a particular concern now that my husband is also not getting paid.

We are hopeful that things work out for my Mike's company and that he is told to report back to work within the next week or so. In the meantime, I'm doing as much freelance work as I can and also asking to be flexed out to other departments within my company (if my department does not need me and some other department can use me). We've got a few major expenses coming up immediately that we had saved for -- but its scary to use those funds on the replumb and bathroom remodel when we don't know for sure that my husband will be employed or not. However, not to spend the money is not really an option at this point, as the bathroom has to be put back together and the replumb must take place or we will loose the option. Granted, we could not do the additional work (of continuing the replumb to the street) -- but we both agree it is a good investment for a future sale of the house (not to mention that the piece of mind that we will not have a leak under our foundation/slab is priceless). We did start the refinancing process on our home about a month ago, locking in a 5% fixed rate (down from the 6.375% we had originally). We close on that new loan on Monday, which will save us about $250 per month on our mortgage payment. Every little bit helps at this point.

Nearly everyone I know has been effected to some degree by this horrible economy. I don't know that I agree with everything that the government has done to try to fix it -- and I expect things will not get better for quite some time. I know that there are some that are much worse off than we are, even with our current problems. I'm grateful every day for our savings and for my husband's military retirement pay, which is enough to pay our mortgage under the worse circumstances. We've also finished paying for my daughter's college for this year -- so we have some time until the fall semester starts to figure out how to deal with that. Once the replumb and bathroom remodel is done, then I think I'll be able to take a deep breath, reassess, and draw up a new budget so that we can all feel more at ease, knowing everything will be paid, even if Mike becomes truly unemployed.

Happy Holidays

The month of December just flew by in a flash! Mike was at work most days (and the company is even paying the employees :) He has also had quite a few days off, as he is attempting to use up his accumulated vacation time, as that will probably be lost when the company is sold next month. We will find out in mid-January if he will be laid off or retained by the new owners and, if kept on, if the pay will be the same or not. Interesting times should be ahead! I kept busy working, although the company I'm currently temping with has instituted a hiring freeze due to the economy. I had pretty much been promised a position that had been open (so I would have had benefits and more pay), but now that is all on hold. They have even put a freeze on building the new hospital that they had planned to open in 2010. The economy is impacting just about everyone, I think.

As we had already purchased some of our fixtures for the master bathroom remodel before we found out about Mike's employer's problems, and since we have to have the re-plumb of the house done in January (as "use it or loose it" situation on the approval to have it done free of charge due to the class action lawsuit), we are going ahead with the bathroom remodel. We are constantly on the lookout for good deals and ways to make it more cost effective. So far, we've had the new window installed, which lets in a great amount of light and really opens the room (making it seem larger). We also now can see the great view we have of the valley and mountains. However, we will need to invest in some blinds -- although the nearest house with a line of sight to our bathroom is a mile away -- I still feel pretty exposed, especially at night. My husband demo'd the old shower over the weekend, finding a lot of mold on the sub-floor (which we expected, since we felt that there had been a leak in that shower). We were surprised to find that the builders had not used any sort of cement backer board on the walls or the sub floor -- and the sub floor actually bends when you step on it. It's no wonder that the grout in the shower had cracked and was leaking! We have a contractor friend who has given us a good price to frame out both the new bathtub and shower, and to install the shower pan and waterproof the whole shower. Then, we can take over the tiling of the bathtub deck, shower, and bathroom floor. The vanity we bought on sale is currently sitting in our bedroom and the new toilet is in the garage. The bathtub has been ordered and we're just trying to find good deals on faucets, mirrors, and lighting. I've been diligent about paying for everything we have purchased as we go -- as I do not want any additional debt. I'm also trying to pay a bit more towards the one credit card that we carry a balance on (for the initial remodel of the house). We're down from $12,000 to around $7500 now -- so that feels good (but I'll feel a lot better when that balance is ZERO!)

The holidays were great, as my daughter Mysti and her new husband Nick came to spend several days with us. We ate much more than we should have and had a nice time catching up. It was sad to see them go, but Mysti is coming back out to see us in February, so that will be nice! Also, I had a nice (I guess) surprise when I went back into work this morning. Since only one doctor was working in the clinic, they apparently decided that they did not need any temp workers for most of the week -- so I was sent home until Friday. While I really have been enjoying the time off (and getting caught up on a lot of stuff that I've neglected due to working full time), I worry about not earning for the whole week (as I only get paid for the hours I actually work). I guess there is nothing I can do about it -- but I will use the time productively and get ahead in some freelance work that I do.

My First Blog!

Isn't it funny how we resist change? I remember when I used to have dial up internet access and I could not understand why anyone would want high speed/broadband connections! Dial up worked perfectly fine for me, so why should I change? Then I got high speed internet after a move and, after just a short time, I wondered how I could have lived with dial up for so long! The same thing happened with online banking. I couldn't imagine doing my banking online (for any scammer to see, I thought). Now that I have it, I can't imagine writing checks to pay my bills. When I do have to write a check, it just seems archaic!

I guess that is why I resisted having a blog for so long -- just one more change I would need to get comfortable with. Plus, isn't that something that only young people do?? Plus, did I really want my life out there for the world to see? Then I got a Facebook account and I began to see the beauty and fun in connecting with others, even if it is not "face to face." So, I figured that even this old(er) dog might be able to learn a few new tricks and I decided to give blogging a try.

The one thing that hasn't changed in my life for all of these years is that I am a creative bargain hunter. Yes, I'm a cheap chick (in a good way), and proud of it! Why pay retail if you don't have to?? So, I figured that could be the focus of my blog -- especially in this time of economic uncertainty for so many. This will be a place where I can tell you about my creative solutions to money matters and where you can share your own experiences!

Enjoy!