I know it's stressful not finding a job. My prayers are with anyone in need of a good job. My kids never understood why we lived so beneath our means when they were growing up. I worked and DH worked but we lived on one pay check. We both made the same salary. One went in the savings for emergency, like car deductibles, medical bills, appliance break downs and so forth. We decided that if the worst happened then we would be okay if one of us had a job. It paid off big time when college years came around. We were able to pay for all our kids college cost, and give them a nice head start after college (they can now take care of themselves and not come back home was our thinking) and I got to retire extra early. It was hard to not buy the new car, new furniture, new house when we could afford it.