Money Money Money

As each week passes we get ever closer to the drastically lower paycheck. We thought it would be this week, but now it turns out we have one pay period more to go.
Enough time has passed that by now, we aren't feeling the dread as much. But it's hard to decide exactly which stage of grief we're in. The Kubler-Ross model is: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. I think the order may be somewhat different for workplace grief, though. At least for us. So far I can identify anger, bargaining, depression and maybe now, denial mixed with guilt (because after all, other people are losing their jobs completely.) No acceptance yet, though.
But it's pointless to dwell too long on feelings. Not optimistic. We need action.
With such a large pay cut on the horizon, the logical thing would be to start drastically cutting expenses right away, wouldn't it? But so far in our house, it has been just the opposite. Need some new jeans? Better get them this week while we still have enough. A movie? Sure. It may be the last we see for a while. Better get that physical while we still have enough for the deductable.
Planning ahead, though, has proved to be next to impossible.
Part of the problem is that figuring the new check is amazingly complicated. We'll stop having 401K money deducted. Same with life insurance and long-term disability. Then we'll probably go down a tax bracket, so that will affect how much comes off the top. Also, the Obama tax break will kick in, and that will help a little more.
What it all boils down to is I have no idea how much the new amount will be. Consequently, I don't know how much to cut.
That hasn't stopped us from trying, though. But from the preliminary talks we've had, it sounds like cutting the expenses is going to be at least as hard as getting all the pork out of Congress's spending plan. Every time anyone puts something up for discussion, it turns out to be someone else's favorite air base.
HBO--But mama! Flight of the Conchords! All the movies. Bill Maher.
New York Times--Hey, it's a business expense. And the crosswords!
Cable TV--Well, maybe. How hard would it be to get everything on our outdated computer?
The gym--C'mon. It's keeping us all alive.

And on and on.
So for the time being, we're going to try not to cut the fun things, and concentrate on smaller things until we know more.
With that in mind, I'll be looking back on a previous post, "Try these money saving tips," with an eye toward some creative cost cutting.

Play us out, ABBA...