Still Working, but Making Do With Less

And before heading out recently to the discount grocery store that has car geico insurance jersey new become the family’s new lifeline, Sharon Ferrell cincinnati life insurance company checked her bank account balance cheap auto insurance quote nj car insurance rates one more time, dialing the toll-free number pennsylvania renters insurance from memory. “Your lower auto insurance available balance for withdrawal is, $490.40,” the disembodied electronic voice informed her. At the store, with that number firmly in mind, she punched the price of each item into a calculator as she dropped car insurance statistics it into dental insurance only her cart, making sure she stayed under her limit. It was all part of a new regimen of fiscal restraint for the Ferrells, begun in bikeline motorcycle insurance January, when oklahoma long term care insurance state workers, including insurance inspection services Mrs. Ferrell’s husband, Jeff, were forced to accept two-day-a-month furloughs. For car insurance companies in ontario millions of families, this is the recession: not a layoff, or a drastic supplemental health insurance plans reduction in income, but compare car insurance quotes a pay cut that has forced them to thrash alberta title insurance through daily calculations similar to the lorry insurance Ferrells’. off road insurance Even if workers have car insurance quebec managed san diego car insurance to ski insurance ireland avoid being laid off, many employers have nys disability insurance cut back in other ways, reducing employees’ hours, hyper insurance imposing furloughs and even sometimes trimming salaries. About 6.7 million people were working fewer than 35 hours a week in April because of motorcycle insurance “slack health insurance credit work comprehensive car insurance online or business conditions,” nearly double the number michigan auto insurance rate nrma car insurance a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor physician professional liability insurance Statistics. A recent survey of 518 large empty house insurance companies by Hewitt Associates, a human resources consulting firm, found malpractice insurance cost 16 percent discount boat insurance had cut pay and 20 percent had cut hours or imposed furloughs, far more than the firm has seen in previous recessions. (The actual percentage of workers affected money back life insurance is likely to be significantly lower.) Some have managed to absorb the shrinking colorado auto insurance law group life insurance of their paychecks with minimal pain, especially households where a second car insurance riverside income has helped cushion the blow. Melissa Saavedra, health insurance singapore a customer service texas small business health insurance technician california auto liability insurance for the illinois auto insurance law City of Redlands, Calif., who normally earned about $38,000 a year, took a online term life insurance rates 10 percent pay cut along with other city workers in January. In part 125 insurance because Ms. Saavedra’s nj auto insurance rates husband dental insurance in Ohio was still employed at an electronics company, the family of care insurance long tennessee term transfer health insurance five had so massachusetts automobile insurance far made auto insurance in Connecticut only modest dental insurance orlando adjustments. She and her husband take their lunch to newark auto insurance work now; she tries commercial insurance massachusetts types of auto insurance to buy meat on compare term life insurance quote sale car insurance windshield at the grocery and clips coupons. “We probably had extra money left over every month,” she said. “Now there’s less of pay as you go bike insurance that money, but we’re still O.K.” For families like the Ferrells, however, who insurance car online quote were already just a car repair or an appliance breakdown away from falling behind, even a modest step travel insurance hong kong lexham bike insurance down car insurance for ladies can bring hard choices. The furloughs meant a roughly 9 percent reduction to Mr. Ferrell’s $72,000-a-year salary car insurance in NC as an industrial hygienist, in which car insurance ireland cheap he lic insurance evaluates health hazards in the workplace. The couple and their two sets of twins — the flood insurance providers older twins are 7 and the younger are 20 months — have had social security supplemental insurance to make do with pmi insurance calculator about $450 less per month. Should commercial building insurance uk they cut the $315 a month they were rbc life insurance spending on ballet lessons for the older twins? What about the $55 dental insurance in Arkansas a month for the satellite television service they had because lancaster insurance they could not get regular cable in their semi-rural car cheap company insurance home here liability insurance usa homeowners insurance agent about 40 miles outside of dog bite insurance Sacramento? Rising living expenses over the last few years had mostly exhausted the family’s savings and led to several thousand dollars in credit henderson car insurance card title insurance search tackle insurance debt. The Ferrells had only recently genworth financial insurance begun to relax redundancy national insurance a bit after Mr. Ferrell, 55, received a 5 percent raise in December. But the furloughs, which are slated to extend car insurance in Houston at commercial insurance agency least to mid-2010, took away the raise and then some, dropping Mr. Ferrell’s take-home pay to $4,856 a month business automobile insurance from $5,308. In January, the couple sat down at protective insurance their computer in their cluttered living room and waded home insurance supermarket through their american century casualty insurance major bills, car insurance quote tesco unclaimed insurance funds including the mortgage, utilities minnesota long term care insurance and car insurance. The Ferrells concluded they had just $1,200 a month left over home contents insurance only to cover everything else, from groceries car insurance quotes toronto to diapers. Many health insurance international medical of their remaining expenses seemed icbc insurance rates impossible to reduce supplemental infertility insurance by much, like the roughly $360 a scooter insurance london month for gas. It quickly became apparent how little the family had backpacker cheapest insurance travel left over rav4 insurance for necessities like food. “People just say: ‘Oh, it’s just a 10 percent pay cut. Cut the fat admiral car insurance quote out auto insurance alberta canada of auto insurance century your budget,’ ” appliance insurance cover Mrs. Ferrell said. “But we’ve cut the fat. 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