The Joys of Being Not-Yet Married

Aharon and I have been dating now for 4 and a half years. We plan on getting married. Once we get married we fully plan on combining finances. Call us old school but that's the way we roll. None of this "I pay for the cars and you pay for the house" stuff for us. Anyway, over the course of the last 4 years, some things became easier to just do together. For example, when Aharon really only goes home at night to sleep, why pay for two Netflix accounts? So instead we split the cost of one account and share it equally. Cell phone service was costing each of us $85 a month. We combined the two lines to one family plan and knocked the cost down to about $58 a month each. So while we never combined bank accounts, we did combine a lot of bills.

Anyway, to the point. Aharon has worked for an electrical company in Livonia for almost 3 years now. This morning, he got laid off. Apparently most of the work that office was doing was with Beaumont Hospital, and they recently suspended most of the projects Aharon was working on. So, there's no work. He'll get enough unemployment to pay his car payment and car insurance for about 6 months, and in that time he will look for whatever job he can find.

I spent some time last night (because we knew this was coming as of yesterday afternoon) trimming what I could off our phone plan and cutting our Netflix subscription down to bare bones. (And I would just cancel it, but I can afford the whopping $9 a month if he can't afford his portion!) It will make a big difference.

So I guess my point is that this is going to be a nice challenge for us. We aren't yet married, but because of our strategic saving-money plans, I now have to make some sacrifices so he can get his bills paid. If we were married, that would be a no-brainer. But we aren't yet and here we are - going through a similar situation.

He's kind of happy about being laid off. He did not enjoy the job or the drive to Livonia every day. But, his dad found the job for him and he felt it would be disrespectful to leave. Plus, when you're working an hour and a half away and with limited vacation time, taking days off or even time off to squeeze in interviews is not at all easy.

And I guess I am happy to. We get a sneak peak at how we handle a financial crisis. By the time we get married, whenever that happens now that money is so tight, we'll know how the other reacts to such situations and how it can be handled in the future.

Every cloud has a silver lining, right?