HCBW worked 2 days a week before and she picked up shift here and there. We cut out a lot of extras.

We would normally pay extra on the house and any other debt if we had it. When I was laid off we stopped paying the extra and just went to minimum payments. We didn’t have credit card debt so that was helpful. Stop going out to eat, cut subscriptions. Reduce internet, cell phone bills, watch utilities closer, etc.

We had a decent savings account but by the time I went back to work our savings increased. It wasn’t fun but helped us know what we were capable of. I am sure there is more we could have done but it didn’t come to that.

At the time our kids were pretty young, 6, 4, 4, 2. They never noticed the drastic cuts we made but I think they would notice now.