Things I've learned over the past 7 weeks.

Some of the things I've learned are:

*If you and your husband are both laid off from work, its a guarantee that your kids WILL grow 2 inches and gain 10 pounds. Therefore making you spend money you don't have on new clothes.

*The cheapo laundry softening crystals are awesome. Really, they are. Try the new purex softening crystals in the purple bottle. They only cost $4 and the smell stays with your clothes for days.

*Couponing is really time consuming. But I guess if you don't have a job, you have the time for it. LOL

*My oldest got his first job. Did you know that working 4 hours a day at McDonalds makes you too tired to take out the trash? Yeah, I didn't fall for it either.

*I have the best family and friends in the world. They really are caring and generous even when you don't /want/ them to be.

*And most importantly, I've learned that my family can live on wayyyy less than I thought it could. And since my hubs is now back to work, we will have an emergency fund started by this time next week!!

My hubs was working 80 miles (one way) away from home. The price of gas was killing us. Not to mention how tiring it was on him to drive that far and then work 10-12 hours a day. So he went job hunting closer to home. Luckily, he found one about 5 minutes from our house. He got hired to be the night shift manager. The company didn't have a night shift at the time (end of FEB) but they were starting one the first part of March. Which was excellent timing (so we thought). He put in his 2 week notice with his job. Which would have meant we wouldn't be without a paycheck. Well...... At the end of his 2 weeks, he finds out that permits weren't in for the job he was supposed to start. So he called his other job and told them he could work 2 more weeks. They said that was great and to come back to work on Monday (this was on a Thursday). So on Friday he called his job to see which job site he was supposed to show up at. They told him they didn't really have anywhere to put him so he could just go ahead and sign up for unemployment benefits. So, he does just that. Well, we get a letter saying he quit his job voluntarily so he wasn't eligible for benefits. UGH! But then I was talking to a friend of mine that works for the Unemployment office and he tells us that if they told him to come back to work and then didn't have work for him (AND TOLD HIM TO SIGN UP) then he would be eligible. So hubs had to contest the claim or something like that. My wording might be off here. lol.

Anyway, since the government is all about promptness *sarcasm* we have waited and waited on the phone conference from them to let us know if he is being awarded his UE insurance benefits or not. We finally got a letter saying it will be next Monday when they call. So please keep your fingers crossed that he will get it. He has since started his new job. He loves it. And we love him being 5 minutes from home. We get to see him so much more than when he drove the 2 hour commute (one way!) every day! If they award him his UEI, he will get the money he would have gotten from the time he signed up for it until the day he started his new job. Let me just tell you, WE NEED THAT MONEY! We have been living on so little money. We've only paid the bills we had to pay. I think I'm probably one payment away from my car being re-poed. :( But he will be getting his first pay check on Thursday, so I will take care of that!

You know, my husband has worked for years and years and paid for his unemployment insurance. So I feel like he should get it. It was circumstances beyond him that kept the new job from being ready on the day he should have been able to start it. Please just say a little prayer that it will work out in our favor next Monday. We really really need it to.