[neilk]

Hey, I know you must be on an emotional rollercoaster right now, but just one question: why use a throwaway account?

You're just looking for work. There's no shame in being in this position, at least in this economy. And if you're going to refer to your reputation, why conceal your identity (which is probably already pseudonymous anyway)?

[throwaway911]

1) My regular identity isn't even remotely pseudonymous.

2) Not sure what the moonlighting clauses are for my current employer, and while they're aware of the other thing that I'm doing, they're likely more forgiving in that it doesn't come anywhere close to competing with their core product. This is a little different.

3) I don't want my credit-worthiness to come up in my day job, as my employment is somewhat contingent on my ability to make purchases for the company.

[lionhearted]

Hey mate,

I don't have any work for you, but I feel for you. I was working on a project with a guy a couple years who lost his job. He'd previously bought a house, and rented it out when he moved to another state - then the family renting from him stopped paying the rent without moving out, meaning he had to try to cover a mortgage with no money. Absolute hell on Earth for him, things got all screwed up, but he's back on track now. It can mean a shit few months or year, but if you keep going you'll find a way, and come out on top.

Practical advice - cut your expenses to bare bones NOW.

The biggest mistake I see in people under a serious cash crunch is to say, "Well, I'm $2000 short on my bills... fuck it, what difference does another $5 make?"

Make a list of healthy, cheap foods, and go stock up. Lipton black teabags, instant coffee, oatmeal, rice, beans, tuna, maybe wheat bread if there's decent bread where you live. Stock up, and stop eating out. If you've got to eat out, get only a couple $1 sandwiches off the super discount menu from Taco Bell or another fast food place.

Cancel your cable TV. Think of cutting back your phone plan. Try to negotiate down or downgrade any insurance plans you have. Think about downgrading your phone minutes, and potentially canceling 3G internet if you don't really need it for testing what you do.

Look for recurring charges to cancel - magazine subscriptions? Do you have any bank fees? Call them up and have them cancel or change the account.

This is surprisingly unintuitive to people who are in a crunch, because, "Screw it, what difference does the $20 make?" But you might be able to carve $500 per month out of your budget in just little nick-knacks and expenses, which will add up. By all means, keep seeking work, but it's time to audit all your expenses. I know, it sucks, it seems like it won't make a difference, but do it. You can always scale the expenses back up once you're on more solid ground.

Good luck and godspeed. I don't have any work for you, but if you have questions or I can be of assistance in some kind of marketing yourself, pitching, proposals, something like that, go ahead and email me. Info in profile, confidentiality assured.

Godspeed, you'll get through. You'll shake your head at this period of your life later and laugh, you can count on that.

[throwaway911]

This advice isn't falling on deaf ears, rest assured.

The criminal irony here is that we'd already done this with the last job transition. Cable TV, gone. Internet is a necessity, but I downgraded from the 15Mbps plan to 5. Pasta, rice, oatmeal, potato, noodles are the new staples, and steak has been replaced with chicken. Netflix, cancelled.

Figuring out what ELSE to cut is the real killer. But there are always to do more with less.

Thank you.

[trizk]

If you own, try to rent out your house and then rent a cheaper place closer to work. If you rent, try to move closer to work. If you live in a city you might be able to do without a car. Also, if you have an extra room, you can try renting it out or listing on airbnb (no affiliation). The point is that sometimes you can find low-bandwidth opportunities to make or save a little extra cash on the side.

[oscardelben]

Start keeping track of where your money are going. I use a notebook for that, and I have categories like clothes, eating out, food, business, etc. I record all expenses and after a while you become more conscious of your expenditures.

[robryan]

I recently took a lower paying (but much lower stress) job to allow me more time to bootstrap my own startup.

Probably that? Might not want his employer to know that he is trying to gain more paid work around his work with them?