Cut in Pay

In the upcoming months, I'll likely be asked to start taking furlough days. In my case, the furlough days will be unpaid days, sort of like a temporary layoff, but will probably be structured as a day off every so many work days.

I don't yet know the details, but it'll most likely represent at least a 20% pay cut. And realistically, it'll be closer to 30%, because I'll lose overtime pay as well.

We're trying to watch our spending a bit more, cutting back on things we don't really need. On the home improvement front, we'll only be spending money to complete projects that we've already started, or critical maintenance items - but no new projects.

A Raise - or Not

As I'd mentioned previously, my husband won't be getting a raise for the upcoming year. We were originally hoping that the salary freeze was temporary, perhaps only a few months - but we found out that it will stay in place for an entire year. 

Unfortunately, we also just received notice that only a nominal raise is anticipated for next year, probably around 1%. I guess I shouldn't complain much, since it's better than nothing, but 1% seems like such a tiny amount. Increases in the cost of living due to inflation are surely going to outpace that! 

Unless we can free up more money by paying off debt, we're going to have to make some big decisions about our budget. Best case scenario, it'll take us at least 4 years to pay off the credit cards, auto loans, and student loans. But we'd like to buy a bigger home, and start a family - both things that will divert a significant amount of money from our debt snowball. 

Sometimes it feels like all this debt is never going to be gone.