For those long term unemployed -- how are you surviving?

[JTE83]

34 weeks unemployed for me. My first 6 months on unemployment benefits wasted on rent and utilities and food trying to get a job in Houston [it's economically dying there too]. Ain't gonna go homeless or sell my possessions just to pay rent, so I moved back home to my Parent's house to live rent and utility free in Wicker Park, Chicago! Now, all my unemployment extension benifits of $408 weekly can go to buying stuff! YUM!

And I'm trying to get back on $950 / month SSDI checks if I'm gonna be unemployed too long... I'm not a Government Loafer, I really miss my $1069 to $1256 weekly take home checks [after all deductions] from working at NASA! Trying to get back on free Medicare too! Ain't it good I suffer from Paranoia so I can get SSDI?

After all my unemployment benefits run out, I'm going all out for a NATIONWIDE JOB HUNT! It's really too limiting to limit myself to Chicago!

Right now I'm focusing on my Taxes, Expunging my Felony, and learning how to invest / switching my IRA's from Citibank to Scottrade!

 

[swampy1970]

Top tips:

If you're not employed then your entire day should be spent looking for work. Most job boards (like Monster or Dice) post most of their new jobs around midnight so either beat the morning rush and read then or wake up early and read the new postings over coffee at 6.30. Without a damned good cover letter, or if you post via email then a damned good email with attached resume, you'll get nowhere.

Just because you don't pay rent doesn't mean that you shouldn't offer to pay rent. Same deal with food. Buying **** whilst unemployed is the epitome of tacky.

I'm paying your wages now ***** - go look for a ****ing job.

 

[limerickman]

34 weeks unemployed for me. My first 6 months on unemployment benefits wasted on rent and utilities and food trying to get a job in Houston [it's economically dying there too]. Ain't gonna go homeless or sell my possessions just to pay rent, so I moved back home to my Parent's house to live rent and utility free in Wicker Park, Chicago! Now, all my unemployment extension benifits of $408 weekly can go to buying stuff! YUM!

And I'm trying to get back on $950 / month SSDI checks if I'm gonna be unemployed too long... I'm not a Government Loafer, I really miss my $1069 to $1256 weekly take home checks [after all deductions] from working at NASA! Trying to get back on free Medicare too! Ain't it good I suffer from Paranoia so I can get SSDI?

After all my unemployment benefits run out, I'm going all out for a NATIONWIDE JOB HUNT! It's really too limiting to limit myself to Chicago!

Right now I'm focusing on my Taxes, Expunging my Felony, and learning how to invest / switching my IRA's from Citibank to Scottrade!

You should be trying to find a job.
Fair enough, you've lost your job but that should not prevent you from trying to look for something else.

If you're living at home with your folks - you should offer to pay something toward your keep.
Your parents may not accept your offer - but at least you should offer to pay soemthing.

 

[alienator]

Leech.

Someone who'd rather exhaust their unemployment benefits and go on the government dole because they don't know how to function in society...well....that person's not worth the carbon bound in their DNA. Then to use government benefits to buy **** for hobbies...well, that person makes a mockery of all those people who are actually struggling to exist. That person is one of the reason's people stereotype the unemployed. That person offers zero to society.

There are a shitload of unemployed and disabled folks who'd do anything to get off the dole and have a job.

There's no need to even bring up how you like hiding from responsibility under your mommy's skirt, how you'd rather sup from her teat than fend for yourself.

 

[Pendejo]

JTE, you have entirely too much fun here on this forum.

 

[jhuskey]

No worries, I am sending Uncle Sam a check this week to help cover benefit expenses of others.

 

[bryanquinn]

No worries, I am sending Uncle Sam a check this week to help cover benefit expenses of others.

I've been out of work for a year and my benefits are due to run out.
We have also been supplementing our finances with what was left or our 401k.
I'm not sure what the wife and I are going to do next.
So...no job...no chance for retirement.

 

[JTE83]

JTE, you have entirely too much fun here on this forum.

Yeah, my fights with idiots like Alienator or Swampy keeps you guys entertained!

****ING IDIOTS THEY ARE! I'M LOOKING FOR JOBS EVERY WEEK AND APPLYING FOR ALL LOCAL CAD, ENGINEER, OR TECH WRITER JOBS IN CHICAGO!

Otherwise, I gotta do lots of paperwork now EXPUNGING MY FELONY! Then I got my own BUSINESS IDEAS making money off the web!

So I'm not a government loafer, - or else I would've never worked at NASA!

Lots of professionals are suffering in this economy not finding jobs and they're even working at Starbuck's!

 

[garage sale GT]

Say, why do you yave to limit yourself to Chicago now?

 

[JTE83]

Say, why do you yave to limit yourself to Chicago now?

I am doing an occassional out of area job reply to jobs emailed to me by recruiters. Like I just applied today for a $40 to $45 / hour job at a coal plant in Austin Texas for operating and maintenance procedures. A pay level that swampy or Alienator don't make yet, so they gotta wear cheap Liz Clairborne panties!

After summer - full force Nationwide Job Hunt! A year long unemployment and I'm hungry for $$$$$ !

 

[Camilo]

I think it's pathetic when people won't take any job they can find rather than accept unemployment. If it doesn't pay enough, get a second full or part time job.


Yea, you say you're looking, but you're really not looking for a way to support yourself. You're being a prima donna. Get a job, quit mooching off mommy and daddy. Be a man. I'd be humiliated and embarassed if I was in the position you describe and I'd damn sure do something about it. I've never been too proud to find a way to support myself.

 

[Sikhandar]

I'm thinking to create a "travel agency" specialised in renting bikes + rooms for cyclists coming to Tuscany. Well... it would not be addressed to cyclo-tourists, but to RACERS. An hypothesis for the pack is:

Monday you arrive in Pisa (for instance), we take your measures and we give you a good bike (for instance an hybrid alu-carbon or something like that, Campy 10) and we tune it on you; on tuesday we have a good training with typical Tuscan climbs where the pros usually have training (San Baronto... Monte Serra...), on wednesday we go to the seaside cycling, on thursday another good training, friday RELAX (visit Pisa or Siena or Firenze), saturday and sunday... we RACE together! We've got wonderful amateur races here!

...well, ok, just dreaming...let's go back to Monster site...

 

[stevebaby]

34 weeks unemployed for me.

You're Richard Gere's gerbil, and I claim my ten pounds.

 

[mcclainma]

You should be trying to find a job.
Fair enough, you've lost your job but that should not prevent you from trying to look for something else.

If you're living at home with your folks - you should offer to pay something toward your keep.
Your parents may not accept your offer - but at least you should offer to pay soemthing.

When I lost my engineering job, I found a great website to keep me up to date on local area jobs that might interest me. They pull from all the major serch engines like Monster and such. If you have not already tried, go to http://www.indeed.com and create your own custom search. Results will be emailed to whatever e-mail address you provide.

Good Luck!!

 

[alienator]

You're Richard Gere's gerbil, and I claim my ten pounds.

Unwashed gerbil, with bits o' corn on it from Gere's dinner yesterday. As you'd expect from a rodent, it hides in the basement at mommy's house.

 

[garage sale GT]

I almost lost my clydesdale status due to a truck loader position I picked up through a temp agency. Unfortunately they only needed people for Fathers' day and I got let go again just after.

If you are on unemployment you just tell tele-serv you had earnings that week and they take it out of your check.

 

[ScottJ]

I don't know what all you Yanks are moaning about

Here in Blighty, we invite every nationality under the sun to live here for free - yes FREE!!!

We give them a council house, money, help for fares for traveling to interviews, put their kids through schooling, no medical bills to pay - THE LIST IS ENDLESS AND IT'S ALL PAID BY THE BRITISH TAXPAYER!!!

In fact, even some home groan Brits have been doing this since leaving school to retirement age - and then they get a pension!

Come and visit, I'm sure you'll be welcome...

 

[swampy1970]

even some home groan Brits have been doing this since leaving school

Grown not groan. Yes I'm a pompous English f#$k, now living elsewhere I may add... I'm guessing you left school before normal leaving age. I often moan and "groan" about how far down the toilet Britain has been flushed down the toilet in the past 20 years, ever since they stopped beating kids in schools with a big stick.

 

[alienator]

Grown not groan. Yes I'm a pompous English f#$k, now living elsewhere I may add... I'm guessing you left school before normal leaving age. I often moan and "groan" about how far down the toilet Britain has been flushed down the toilet in the past 20 years, ever since they stopped beating kids in schools with a big stick.

Was that before they became a US lapdog......er, the government, not the people? I'm pretty sure that George Bush (It pains me just to type that name) used to tea bag Tony Blair.

 

[swampy1970]

Was that before they became a US lapdog......er, the government, not the people? I'm pretty sure that George Bush (It pains me just to type that name) used to tea bag Tony Blair.

Before... and just for the record Blair was worse than Bush. I know you may have a hard time believing that but it's true.