I lost my last job in 2001 and had to scrape to save my home! (farm). turned off the dish, got an antenna, stopped buying any kind of fee /subscription service (use the public library extensively now - free internet, free movies, free music! my library joined w/ 14 others including the state library so I have a data base of nearly 3 million items of music/movies/ books/ books on tape. You go online to your library web site, search the base, order what you want and its delivered to your local library, and if youre on a trip and near any library in the group you can return your stuff to the closest library in the group.), Started a garden (I have 18 acres in the country), learned to can, turned down the AC in the summer, put in a wood stove for the winter (I live in SC so dont need that much heat), got a fishing license and caught fish, stopped eating so much any meats - which made me feel a lot better, flossed/brushed teeth, and use a restorative mouthwash twice a day! (still have a cleaning once a yr and the dentist is amazed at how good my teeth are). Never have lites on in the house in more than the rm Im in. Use candles more! Use a treadle machine when practical, hand sew a lot, got a cell phone that uses a prepd card and have it for emergencies, have a house phone cus I needed it for internet connection, but can only call locally, ate ramie noodles once a day (12C a package), and cut out alllll other prepackaged foods -(cooked from scratch), collected cans on the roadways etc, and even dumpsterdived!
Stopped buying fabric and used what I had and cut up clothes no longer good and found clothes thrown away and on the roadway I washed and cut up - now I buy about 4X a yr from fabrics.com so I get cutoff bundles and free shipping - keeps me in more than enough cloth! lol-
I was in my late 50s, widowed, no kids, no one in the family could afford to help, finally I gave my youngest brother, now in his 50s - single no kids, a promise of half my property and the whole thing if I die first for help in the mortgage (he was a trucker at the time). I managed to get by, and now make the bills on SS and a small pension from where I worked for 20 yrs. I also found a new hubs and have moved into town and my bro is on the farm, but we still own it and it is mine, not hubs- he owns the town house and other stuff.
But, I learned, you can do it on your own if you dont panic and think things thru, you can live with a LOT less and still be very happy, and your health is something you have a lot of control over if you are willing to "own" your body, your health issues and do what needs to be done to keep it healthy - read up on everything about it.
on the farm we had many strays cats and dogs, and still do. My brother started picking up dead deer (only fresh ones) there are so many down here and dressing them out and freezing the meat, we cook deer for all the animals (he still does - never raw, always very well done to kill any bad germs) every 3 days to supplement dry food.
sharet
hope you find something soon, am glad you have a hubs to help out and be supportive of each other