Laid Off? Seven Simple Ways to Ease Your Financial Burden

Looking for some easy ways to cut costs after being laid-off? Here are seven simple steps to help streamline your budget:

1. Learn how to become a smarter money manager: Sign up for a free 45 minute webinar offered by the Consumer Counseling Service of Atlanta. Topics include How Do I Get Out of Debt?, How to Save Money on Your Groceries and Handling Life's Big Emergencies. Connect to Financial Webinars Here.

2. Ban the Catalogs: Now is not the time to be tempted by all the merchandise promoted in those glossy catalogs. Reduce the temptation, lighten your mail carriers load and help out the environment by going to Catalog Choice which is a free service that allows you to decide what gets in your mailbox. Use it to reduce your mailbox clutter, while helping save natural resources.

3. Use Less: It is amazing how much you can save by simply using less of everyday products. Most people will never notice if they use half the amount of shampoo when washing their hair or run a load of laundry using half the amount of detergent (while allowing extra time for the clothes to soak). Small steps can add up to big savings over time.

4. Host an Online Yard Sale: Go through your home, make a pile of everything you'd like to get rid of, take some digital photos and sell your "gently used" treasures on e-bay or craigslist.com. Books and videos can be sold through Amazon.com.

5. Go Back to College: My university offers free career related tele-classes, networking opportunities and career counseling to university alumni. Check with your alma mater – you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the scope of services that may be available for little or no money.

6. SCORE big with your own business: Thinking about starting your own business? Volunteers for SCORE (Service Corp. of Retired Executives) offer personal online business consulting in more than 500 categories, all for free. Learn from a volunteer mentor if your business idea has merit, what you'll need to succeed, and what steps to take next. Go to Score.org for more information.

7. Take advantage of online career counseling tools: As a professional career counselor, I obviously believe in the value of working with a trained career counseling professional. However, if your budget does not allow for one on one help, check out the University of Waterloo Career Development E-Manual. It is an online workbook that walks you through many of the same exercises a career counselor might use. It’s filled with excellent information but it will take some discipline and time to complete- - a tremendous amount of information for free!

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