My husband no longer has a job.
This wasn’t really a surprise for us, as he was told 2 months ago that he was being let go due to enrollment (he’s a teacher). We had hoped that somehow things might change and that there might be a place for him, but the end of the school year came, and the decision was final. He officially wasn’t going back to the school he’s worked at for the past four years.
Fred has been the primary breadwinner since we got married, and although I’ve been working part-time for three years (and doing lots of substitute teaching this year), he’s always out-earned me. I’ve always been fine with that – we’re definitely a team, and I have found that I do really well working part-time and managing the home part-time.
Now things are going to change.
Life will look different than we planned: I’ll be working more, Fred will be substitute teaching and maybe doing some other work on the side, and our traditional roles in the home are likely going to shift a bit. Life has certainly panned out differently than we hoped or planned.
You know, I hate that old expression “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” because it implies that the only thing you can do when you get thrown a curve ball in life is to simply to try and hope to make something delicious out of it. I think there’s another approach.
The news that our biggest source of income being lost should have made me feel scared. It should have made me freak out and worry about how we’re going to eat and pay the bills.
Fortunately, thanks to Dave Ramsey and the advice we picked up out of his book The Total Money Makeover
We also have a little emergency fund of $1,000 in the bank, just in case (click here to read another story about how having money in the bank saved us from 
So the biggest thing that happened when Fred got this news was that we were emotionally disappointed that he was leaving a job he loved, and really grateful that we had savings.
No drama. No fights. No staying up all night wondering if we’ll make it.
Life gave us lemons, we counted our lemons, and we know we are going to be just fine.
Want to respond from your own personal experience?
- Leave me a comment below to share about a time in your life that you were thrown a curve ball
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