December 2011
21 posts
2 tags
'Sort of like being the only sober person at a...
My husband is officially laid off today, after 26 years with the company and roughly 2 weeks before Christmas. We have scaled back tremendously—no gift baskets to relatives, only cards. No big presents to my two adult kids—just some cash and a few stocking stuffers. No trips to see family. My adult son has only been able to get part time work and lives at home with us.
To cheer the...
3 tags
'I do not have a new years resolution. Well maybe...
I am a mother of three living in Reno, NV. The holidays this year are rough.
I am still without work and my husband is just starting his job on Monday and we do not know if it will even pay the bills. We have gone from making $72,000.00 a year to food stamps and $100.00 to my name.
To add to our struggles the home I live in is being auctioned off on Thursday and my oh so wonderful...
2 tags
'Holidays literally around the corner with with...
I have been jobless for about a month or so now. My previous job was in Fremont barely making enough to get there and back due to my car that ate my gas and of the prices being outrageously high. But like everyone else, I needed a job to get me around. Let alone every pay check went into bills which now is piling up due to no income. And giving money to my parents who unfortunately are unemployed...
2 tags
'My presents from my family members will be things...
This Christmas will be worse for my family than it was last year. My parents and I are unable to buy presents for any family members. If we’re lucky, maybe we could at least buy them some of those chocolate-covered cherry candies. My presents from my extended family members will be things to help me in any way get a new job, such as how two of my aunts are buying me a new pair of glasses....
3 tags
'This past Friday, on the afternoon of our annual...
I thought I would add my two cents to the tale of the down but not out stories. I have been employed for the past eleven years in a small Civil Engineering and Surveying office. Times have been tough and we all have been taking unpaid furlough days to help keep the office overhead in check.
This past Friday, on the afternoon of our annual evening company Christmas party, I was told I was being...
3 tags
'I'm grateful that I don't have a family of my own...
This is my second Christmas in a row unemployed. In fact, my 99 weeks of unemployment are ending in January, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do. My usual work is as an entertainment executive in Los Angeles, but my holidays this year will be spent looking for any job I can get and deciding if I’m going to have to declare bankruptcy. Merry Christmas to me!
I’m 36 now and...
3 tags
'We will have a special dinner if the meat goes on...
I am a 56 year old female who has been out of work since early Feb. 2009. I worked with an educational travel organization located here in Spokane, WA. I live 25 miles west of downtown. My significant other is a 60 year old male on disability retirement from the federal government (not SSI).
Having run out of unemployment in Jan, 2011, I’ve been supporting myself by taking cash out of a...
3 tags
'I've found that so many of the people who I...
I quit my job with a Project Management company in early 2010 to come back to my hometown and take care of my elderly parents who both have major health issues. As one of 5 children and the only single one, I felt it was my responsibility to care for them. Like most people who have not been hit very hard by the economy, I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be trying to find work. I...
2 tags
'I got my parents to help me get baking products...
I am 19 years old and live in Northern Virginia. I have been out of work for a year now, I was working at Spirit Halloween/Toyzam for the holidays last year and was laid-off right before Christmas. I have been searching for a job since then and I can’t find one that I meet qualifications for. This year for gifts I got my parents to help me get baking products to make everyone sweet...
3 tags
'I will be home, alone, in a city without my...
I graduated in May with a Masters degree and moved from Los Angeles to Sacramento, CA to be closer to my boyfriend who moved here for a job. I thought being fresh out of graduate school from a renowned university would make me a top candidate for jobs. Well six months later, I realize now I do not have enough work experience for jobs compatible to my degree or I have too much education for...
3 tags
'My 2012 resolution is simple: survival'
I have been unemployed for almost 15 months. My last position was as an assistant manager for the US Census. Before that position, I was unemployed for almost 11 months. In total, I have been unemployed for 26 of the last 46 months.
Even with putting in thousands of applications, I have only received three interviews. I am not one of those people who, “sleeps later” and is...
2 tags
' The worst part of this holiday for me is that I...
I have been unemployed for a long time now. I am 54 years old. I live alone with my dog and every day I am one step away from homelessness. I have cleared out my storage and sold its contents for money. I have sold anything I have of value for money so that I could pay my bills. I have been lucky in that I qualified for financial aid and loans for school. I take any odd job I can find. I...
4 tags
'I find myself on the Internet looking at...
I have currently been out of work for two months but was living paycheck to paycheck before i was fired. I was fired after being in the hospital for 4 days from my job as a head housekeeper. I have 4 kids all under the age of 6 and am finding it extremely hard to get into the holiday spirit. We cant pay the basic bills fully and as far as rent goes its not getting paid at all, and we are in the...
5 tags
'With every potential fun outing there is hidden...
I am married with two children, a 12 year old daughter and a 4 year old son. I have been out of work for nearly four years. Before I was unemployed I was a counselor, involved with teens and children in a residential treatment setting for almost 10 years.
My wife and I found ourselves living off of a part time job in southern Oregon, with our bills quickly closing in on us. We moved to Northern...
'I have found myself wondering if it is the right...
I am a 30 year old husband and father of 3. I have two daughters ages 2 and 6, and a son that turned 4 today. I have been out of work for almost a year straight now, and have only had infrequent work for the past few years, since the markets crashed. I am licensed Financial Advisor and have struggled to work in this down economy. I live on Cape Cod, MA. As a primarily tourist economy, it is...
4 tags
'You make me laugh when you ask me to now...
The black hole of unemployment hit me almost two years ago. Each step, every passing day, of collapsing into that dead-beat vortex is like a kind of double-triple slide further down into a black pit of emptiness. Yea, you travel through every stinkin’ layer of Dante’s hell. Not pretty. You make me laugh when you ask me to now juxtapose being out of work with the materialism of the Christmas...
3 tags
'I am writing my 11-year-old daughter a nice poem...
I am 31 years old and I have been out of work since June of this year. A few staffing agencies have contacted me regarding temporary positions but I never seem to get picked. I lack a college degree and am now drowning within a reality where even a horrible gas station cashier position seems to be a market full of too much competition. I am writing my 11-year-old daughter a nice poem this year...
4 tags
'So I guess what I am feeling is that from this...
I lost my job at the end of November. I had only thought about being jobless in terms of paying bills, and not really related it to Christmas coming up. Not only does it mean that there will be less money for presents, but traditional holiday meals are going to have to be tweaked. We will also not be able to afford traveling to visit our family as we would have in the past. It takes me back...
5 tags
'We will spend the few dollars in gas to drive...
I am a 38 year old single mom. I have been looking for permanent, full-time work since March.
We still put up the tree this year, decorated it together as we always do. As I unpacked the ornaments that came from my mom’s tree, I talked to him about his grandma. He doesn’t remember her, she died when he was only 4, but I like to remind him of her. I am not sure he even understands,...
'I told them that this year there wouldn't be many...
My husband’s 2-year military contract ended on August 4th. He finally found a new job, working in the oil field, this past week, but will not receive his first paycheck until after Christmas. We’ve made arrangements to not exchange presents with most of our friends and family. The exception is our two children. Our boys are 7 and 4 years old, and of course, they expect presents...
7 tags
'I find the holidays more relaxing now that there...
We asked unemployed Yahoo! readers how they were coping with the holiday season. The response was overwhelming. We’ll be posting responses, edited for space, until the end of the year.
We are staying home this holiday; we have homemade gifts instead of buying gifts this year and the past years since I was laid off three years ago. There is no budget for extras for the holidays as we are...
