Adrian Bacon

Well, it happened faster than I thought it would, but at the end of the day, it was inevitable. The company I was working at as a contractor is going through a workforce reduction/restructuring, and as a result a lot of people are losing their jobs or getting shuffled around. The good news is I was not let go for cause and can apply for any positions which are posted. I plan to do exactly that along with any other jobs elsewhere I want to go for.

So, first order of business Monday morning will be to call everybody I pay money out to that I’ve not already called and either try to work something out or cancel them. If they are not essential, then I will be canceling them. I’ve already cut Cox cable TV along with Tivo, and reduced my internet speed. I still need to call my mortgage company and try to work out some kind of reduced payment until I get a job. Then it will be the credit cards, same deal. If they won’t work with me, they won’t get paid. Then utilities. I need to write a letter to my term life insurance and terminate the policy. I find it weird that I can only cancel via written notice. I’ll spend this weekend finding the policy number so that I can get the letter written and in the mail by Monday. Then car insurance. I’ve paid for my car, so I think I’ll bump it down to minimum coverage and try to work out a deal for how to pay for it. The car insurance is essential. I can’t drive without it. Next will be cell phones. It will cost me more to just cancel things, so I’ll reduce it down to the absolute minimum and try to work out a reduced payment from there.

After that the only other real expense I’ll have is food. This weekend I’ll need to work out a weekly menu. My goal is to get my entire menu to under $100 a week. I think it’ll be tough, but it’s doable to at least approach that.

After that, I’ll be applying for unemployment and food stamps. That will help. I might try to go for AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Control System).

Once that is all done, I’ll start to apply for jobs. I’ll spend this weekend also polishing my resume in anticipation for the intensified effort to find work.

I haven’t done my taxes yet, so I’ll do that as well over the next week or so. My return should give me a little more buffer.

On the internet hosting front, I’ve got some cleaning up to do to reduce expenses. The cost reduction will be minimal, but it’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while and this a perfect time to do so. I’ll also have enough free time to actually do it for a change.

When life hands you lemons, use them to make a margarita. I don’t drink, but I like the analogy.

Speaking of which, since I’ll have a fair amount of free time, this is a perfect opportunity for me to launch a new show over at quicksurf.com. I’ve been mulling over doing something new over there, and this will be a good time to do that, so keep any eye out for a new show to go live some time Monday afternoon. I think I’ll call it “Geek Tech Today” or something like that. It will be a daily show. I’ll start it as audio only for the simple fact that I just don’t have the computing horsepower to render a daily video show at any resolution. I have enough trouble getting my other two weekly shows rendered that doing a daily video show is out of the question right now. So we’ll start as audio only, do the usual online exposure push and see what happens.

I view this as good. It’s giving me a chance to reset my financial baseline with no questions asked, which is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. Expenses have a habit of creeping up on you and it’s not until you’re treading water that you even realize that’s the case. It’s time to clean the money house and I’m going to do so ruthlessly. I have no choice.

I’ll also spend this weekend taking care of me. The reality is that I did just suddenly lose my job, and there’s very little difference between that loss and any other sudden major loss in life. I’ll be needing to do some house cleaning in my noggin so that I can keep moving forward in life, because life does keep going on.

From here, it’s a simple matter of hoping I get a job before I lose my house.