Financial Friday: How Low Can You Go?

The economy is in the toilet and as of this writing, a gallon of gasoline is priced lower than a 24 oz bottle of soda at the convenience store. That does not bode well for those who are employed in the oil and gas industry. Sure enough, the L word happened last week at my husband’s place of employment: Layoffs. The company had to advertise or publicly announce the layoffs because it was greater than 30% of their workforce that lost their jobs last week.

That morning, I woke early and couldn’t go back to sleep. My husband’s shift starts at 4 a.m. and at 4:30 a.m. when my eyes flew open, my vigil began, waiting for a text message to say he made it through with his job intact or he’d be home in 5 minutes and he’d be filing for unemployment. For us, the news was good and he still has a job but so many coworkers – friends – received a pink slip and were told to go home.

Experiencing times like these, where one unexpected event – be it an economic downturn or a car accident in rainy conditions or even a diagnosis with the word “cancer” included – can easily derail your budget. After getting the reassuring news that the Hubs made it through this round of layoffs with his job intact, I started to wonder just how low we could get our budget. It was an interesting exercise because there are so many factors at play with the pandemic going on. The kids aren’t at school nor in paid childcare, we’re driving significantly less, we’re eating out less, and our grocery budget needs to be a bit higher but we could still avoid large grocery bills by eating out of the pantry.

For us, our budget is fairly lean already as we have been saving for the house we are currently building. However, the layoffs certainly made me look and see where we could tighten the proverbial belt. We have looked at were cutting out the allowance both myself and husband have in the budget ($100 each to spend on whatever we wanted each month), our fuel consumption is reduced right now so that line item could be lowered, and with our youngest not in his paid preschool, that certainly allows us to save almost $600 with that alone. When we didn’t have to pay for April, I tucked that into our savings account because the future is uncertain. My husband suggested we could even pare back to one cell phone (would save $40/month) and cut the eating out budget (another $200/month savings). With better meal planning, I could probably scale back our grocery bill by at least $50-100/month. It can be both worrisome and reassuring when you look at a budget and realize that you can still survive. No frills, but you’ll have a roof over your head and food in your stomachs until things can get better.

We received a decent chunk of change from the COVID-19 stimulus check this month. Most went to pay off debt. We had a medical bill from an ER visit last fall that we were able to pay off 6 months early. It was quite freeing to take that line item off the spreadsheet! We also had some electrical work done for the house project so that was paid in full as well. With the electrician bill, we knew that spending money that way certainly helped our friend who owned it to pay his staff. The balance was tucked into savings.

How has the pandemic impacted your budget? Have you had to merely cut out a bit more fluff or are you slicing it back to the four walls? By “four walls,” I’m referring to a budget where you prioritize and pay the absolute necessities to keep your family sheltered and fed. Perhaps if you and/or your spouse is in an essential occupation where they are working more, you may see an increase in your monthly income. The pandemic is impacting each and every one of us but it can vary in so many ways.

It is like a meme I saw online the other day; we are all in this storm together but we may not all be in the same kind of boat. For those who have low debt and high savings or are in essential jobs, their boats may be floating a bit higher. Others that are less prepared may be in boats that are listing, leaking, taking in water while the occupants try desperately to stay afloat. But we are all facing the same storm.

I think it is important to remember to be a helper to those we can, if we are able to do so. It is also important to ask for help when you’re floundering. There was a forum post I have been following where people were talking about the COVID-19 stimulus check. Some acknowledged that financially, they are fine and don’t need the money. Several of them opted to donate it to local organizations to help families in their communities while others gave grocery money or utility help to those who were hurting. We can survive this storm as a community. We just have to be willing to be a helper if we can and ask for help when we’re the ones in need.

Stay green, my fellow Texans, and may social distancing treat you well.