What the Eff Do You Do Now?

So as I stated in my last post, I have been laid off. More specifically I have been laid for the second time in 4 months. I personnally couldn't believe it. Mostly because I had chosen this job over three other jobs that I was worried wouldn't be as safe in this economy. I was wrong, I had a target on me due to the fact I was well paid for what the latest company considered an entry level position. So out I went when the time to save the company money came. Another lesson learned by me. What is scary is now I see nothing out there in KC that my job skills really fall into.

But know I have to beg the question what in the heck do I do now? Well I do have a little bit of a plan and it involves the following.

• Know that my old company is compensating me for four weeks. So I have one month's worth of extra pay, starting now.
• Know that my girlfriend has a definate temporary job at one of her old places of work. My GF is one of the only people that knows the work for a position that someone is going to go on maternity leave. That will start in either March or April and should last three to five months. We are not married so that will allow for me to...
• File for unemployment. I am going to have to. I have about three months worth (four to five if we stretch things) of emergency money, my GF some more, but I would like to save that for when unemployment runs out if we have to. I may still need some of the emergency money to makeup for time waiting for unemployment to kick in. The unemployment money should take care of the house payment, which is the most important asset to protect in my opinion. I feel that once this economy shakes out, it is going to be pretty difficult to purchase a home for awhile.
• Look for cheaper insurance for the home and auto. Pretty straight forward, I think I can get a cheaper rates but I need to look first.
• Try to get a better mortgage rate. Actually, I am not very hopeful on this one. I was attempting to do this a few weeks back but realized I had a special 10% down loan before with a special up front PMI that the home seller paid for. Changing the mortgage may jeopardize our current setup. Also, we already are decently low.
• Cancel Luxuries. No more blockbuster by mail, redue our cable-internet package, etc.
• Be thrifty. Pay attention to groceries, cease eating out, less driving, etc.

If you can't tell, I am looking at this for the long haul. I work for factories typically and until there is some real production going on, I am afraid I am not going to see employment opportunities for awhile. I am very much willing to step outside my box and just make money, but I have to make enough to pay the bills. Things could rapidly change, but I don't really see the economy changing for at least a year. Our consumers have to fundamentally change their habits, and real money needs to go to real things. I don't know I am pretty nervous about the whole thing.