My husband is out of work. How can our family make ends meet?
We realize that this can seem like an overwhelming situation, and we encourage your husband to persevere in looking for another job. If he can’t find the job of his choosing, it may be necessary for him to take one or more part-time positions in order to make ends meet while he continues to search for the job that he really wants. For more information on this topic, please read Crown Financial’s Unemployment Fact Sheet.
When emergencies arise and you do not have savings to meet the need, Scripture says that your family and your church should help. We encourage you to ask for help from these sources rather than turning to credit cards.
When you experience a loss of income, we believe that you need to switch to “survival mode.”
This could include:
- brown bagging your lunch for work
- foregoing eating out
- canceling cable or satellite television and Internet connections
- wearing last year’s clothing instead of buying new clothes when the seasons change
- selling assets to get money to pay bills
- downsizing to a less expensive car and/or house/apartment
- examining your budget for any other ways to save money
If you cannot make even the minimum payments on your bills, we suggest that you take the following steps:
- Establish a budget. (See Crown’s free, interactive Budget Guide.) Allocate the minimum payment to as many of your creditors as possible and pay something to every creditor.
- Send a copy of your budget to all your creditors with a letter of explanation and a humble request for them to reduce the interest and/or accept what you can afford to pay.
- Enclose a check to each creditor for the amount you have allocated.
- If they accept your proposal, pay that amount faithfully until it is totally repaid.
- Do not use credit for any purchase or procedure. This is especially important to avoid further debt.
If you would like help setting up your budget, you can meet with one of our volunteer budget counselors. These volunteers offer free, in-person assistance, and they can show you how to establish a budget, to become debt free, and to honor God in your finances. If you want this kind of financial counsel, please call us at 1-800-722-1976 and we will be glad to give you the name and phone number of our nearest volunteer budget counselor in your area.
In the meantime, you may also want to download Crown’s Budgeting and Debt and Credit article lists.
