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I share five must read blog posts about saving money every Friday.

Understanding your credit – What is good credit? Learn what your credit ratings and ranges mean. (MoneyCrashers)

Hilarious tax stories – CPA’s reveal tax writeoffs that didn’t work. Yup, someone actually tried them. (Bargaineering)

Budgeting solution – Hate planning? Here’s how to budget for those who don’t like to prepare in advance. (Wisebread)

Surviving a layoff – Find out what to do after losing your job. (The Digerati Life)

Nonfans win big – Here are 4 Super Bowl deals for non-football fans. (MainStreet)

This post is copyrighted by BargainBabe.com. Any other site posting this content is violating the DMCA.

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This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.

I recently read a story in the LA Times about Hallmark adding unemployment cards to its sympathy line. The cards are apparently a good way to show compassion, but to me spending $3 to $5 on a card is ridiculous! This got me thinking of five frugal ways to show your support for those going through a rough time.

Not surprisingly, Hallmark is not the only company getting in on the action. You can also buy layoff cards from online companies Zazzle Inc. and Greeting Card Universe.

1. Provide a survival kit – Share our job loss survival kit which includes everything from keeping your health care while unemployed to tax brakes for job hunters. This is invaluable information that may be missed when they’re too shell-shocked to think straight.
2. Help them network – Offer up your contacts to begin the process of searching for a job and mention any job opportunities you hear about. You can also help your friend prepare a resume and cover letter, and get ready for interviews.
3. Help them stay current – If you have skills that will help your friend stand out from other applicants, then offer free lessons. A former coworker of mine taught me the basics of InDesign when I was looking for a job. It was very helpful and it was much appreciated.
4. Give a care package – Heading to the grocery store to buy necessary seems like a better use of money than buying a card. Getting a week’s worth of groceries (or whatever your salary allows) is helpful. Don’t forget to use My Coupon Database to  keep the cost down by printing off grocery and drugstore coupons.
   
5. Take the Person to Dinner – Treating your pal to a meal helps him/her enjoy the pleasures that are often the first to go when money gets tight. You don’t have to break the bank! Save 25-45% off your bill with Restaurant.com. Not only will you enjoy a night on the town, but it will alleviate stress, or at least push it away for an hour or two.

How else would you help a friend? Would you buy a greeting card for someone who just got axed?

With so many personal stories, Creative Unemployment is cathartic.

This book offers a positive look at the potentially damaging psychological aspects of underemployment. This book is not about finding a job. It is a book about finding yourself…When you find yourself, you will find employment – a vocation – a life purpose. The issues in this book can also be useful to people who are aware or alive and still employed who want to gain the benefits of increased self-awareness before the trauma of rejection and loss of income.

Each chapter of the 284-page book begins with a 1-3 sentence description of what you’ll get out of that chapter and ends with a 1-3 page review of the major points. Chapters 1-8 are about recognizing and accepting the emotional journey that follows unemployment. Chapters 9-15 are about moving forward and taking action.

In chapter 10, Harlan breaks down the emotional journey of unemployment into six practical steps you can take to move forward.

1. Become self-aware.

2. Decide what you want.

3. Write your goals down.

4. Imagine or visualize your achieved goal. (emphasis his)

5. Take action.

6. Reflect and select.

The book’s introduction lacks sources for the statistics cited, which makes me uncomfortable. However, the point of the book is to help one heal emotionally, not provide economic figures. The nut of this touchy-feely (and I don’t mean that in a bad way) book is that it is okay to to feel how you feel, you should believe in yourself, and definitely go for it!

Leave a comment on this post by the end of Thursday, March 4 to win my review copy of Creative Unemployment: How To Transcend Job Loss. Or, you can buy it from Amazon for $19.

What was your initial reaction when your boss told you you were getting laid off?

I sat there for a full minute, quiet, with all these things going through my head…I felt shocked and angry and betrayed and then just confused. I think I finally said “I don’t understand.”

What didn’t you understand?

I didn’t understand why because to everyone’s knowledge in the office we were safe. We had plenty of work. But I found out (in my bosses office) that a big project or two had just recently gone on hold indefinitely. Which totally messed up everything. So they had to make some changes.

Have you ever been laid off before?

No.

How are you coping, two weeks after?

Now I feel fine, comfortable. The first three days were tough. I felt sad but I felt relieved.

Why were you relieved?

In a way I had been somewhat frustrated with the way things were going at the office, personnel-wise, project-wise, and I had had some thoughts about doing something different. But no specific thoughts. I wasn’t searching for anything. The relief was now I can think about these other things in more detail.

Did you see it coming?

I remember about two or three weeks before I got laid off that 25 people in a company in San Francisco that was one of our clients got laid off. I remember being surprised, thinking “Wow I really can’t take this all for granted anymore. I don’t think it really sank in because one of those emotions that went through my head, that still does, is that I felt really foolish thinking that my history with the company and the fact that my project was strong was keeping me safe. My project still is going. It has a source of funding. I felt foolish for linking those things. I took it for granted even after telling myself that I shouldn’t.

How prepared financially were you for something like this?
I have some savings that could probably get me through a couple months so I’m not panicking yet.

Financially, have you done anything different since getting laid off?
I’ve been eating out less, drinking less, making choices that I don’t have to spend as much money. Looking back on my expenses, at least 50 percent were eating out.

Are you cutting out a few things entirely or making reductions across the board?

I will probably cut down across the board and not on anyone thing. I’ll put off big purchases that I otherwise would have gone ahead and done. For example I want a new pair of running shoes. But that’s like $100 give or take so when I got laid off, I said I can live without a new pair of running shoes.

Has your attitude about the recession changed since getting laid off?

I’m definitely more interested in unemployment benefits news and economic stimulus package news because now it actually does affect me or could affect me. I never really paid attention to that before, not for lack of interest but for lack of time.

What are you most concerned about?
To be honest I haven’t started to think very far in the future yet because I am really relived to just be able to live in the moment and relax. It’s summer and I know that I have a little bit of a cushion to take a month to just breathe.

What are you least concerned about?
I’m actually not real concerned about not ever being able to get another job because I feel the market will improve, it may just be a matter of time. I have certain knowledge and strengths and excellent referrals. My bosses have said they would be more than happy to help me out with any references. We left on very good friendly terms.

Do you still have health care?
Yes I got a severance package through the end of July and then I have to figure out COBRA.

What is your plan for the next 6 months?

I haven’t thought more than a month and a half out. I’ve got two weeks until a triathlon race and then I’m going to take about 2 weeks to travel through California, visit friends, go through Yosemite, go through Mammoth. I’ll fly back to New York, go see my parents.

Anything else you want to add?
I did file for unemployment. Haven’t heard anything back. It was easy to file online but I haven’t heard anything. It takes a while.

Read past Q&A’s:

Recession wedding: road trip

Coupon train: clipping with strangers

Do you have an interesting recession experience you want to talk about? Email me to be considered for an upcoming Q&A.

Can I get a mortgage if I do not have a job? There are so many factors to consider. Would you be kind enough as to give me some pointers as what to look for or avoid?  Please help me. Thank you.

Fred, my short answer is not likely. The long answer is maybe, because getting a loan depends on many factors. Lenders look at your whole financial picture when deciding if you are a good risk, i.e., someone who is likely to pay them back.

Maybe you are a trust fund baby and has never worked a day but still has plenty of moolah to make good on a loan. If you are a regular working Joe, however, your chances are not as good because job stability is a factor lenders consider, so not having a job hurts you. Do you have any evidence of how soon you will get a job and how stable that job will be? How do you plan to pay your mortgage with no income?

Ultimately, the best way to answer your question is to prepare a loan application and submit it.

Start by figuring out what you can afford to buy using this calculator from the American Bankers Association, which recently shared tips to get a loan in this tight market.

Next, gather and organize your information, including pay stubs, tax returns, financial statements, and paperwork showing your monthly payments on your car, credit card, and student loans. Lenders will want recent statements going back three to 24 months.

To strength your application, include any additional information that proves additional income or wealth. Depending on your credit score and other factors, lenders will want to see that you have many months of PITI (principal, interest, taxes and insurance) on hand. Here’s a PITI calculator.

ABA also recommends you use a trusted institution, pay down other loans, read the fine print, and take into account the myriad costs of home ownership like insurance, maintenance, closing costs and taxes.

Good luck!

Debit cards are becoming more popular, but have two major drawbacks compared to credit cards, says Tightwad Tod.

Well-educated professionals are taking “survival jobs” earning $8 an hour, reports NPR.

Fake coupons from major manufacterers like Reynolds and Kraft are popping up on the Web, according to the LA Times.

Wise Bread suggestions 10 things to land a job online that covers the basics, like use a plain black type font, not a 16-point turquoise one.

Ordering flowers for Mothers Day this Sunday? CashMoneyLife has a bouquet of ideas to keep floral costs down.

“Companies offering these extreme guarantees — which typically require documentation to verify a job loss — said they were a direct response to research showing that a growing number of consumers were worried they might lose their jobs,” the story says.

A few examples:

“JetBlue will refund plane tickets. Virgin Mobile USA will waive up to three months of cellphone service charges. Walgreens will allow members of its in-store clinics to stay enrolled free if they lack health insurance.”

A few weeks back TheStreet.com also highlighted companies that will give you a break if you receive a pink slip.

Thanks, Sarah!

“People must have gone to the retail clinic for treatment of some acute condition – sinus infection, strep throat, urinary tract infection – before becoming unemployed to be eligible for free health services,” says a story in the Columbus Dispatch. “Spouses and other dependents are eligible for free services, too.”

There are Take Care Clinics in 32 cities across the country. None in LA, unfortunately. Find out more about the free health care, including eligibility.

“Call me old-fashioned. I just don’t think kids are able to fully grasp the transactional differences in swiping plastic and watching that $20 leave their hand and receiving $0.70 in change back.”

On the other hand, if your teenager first encounters credit under your eye you are more able to teach them how to use it properly. Frugal Dad resolved the situation by giving his kids a credit card only to be used for fueling up the car.

If my teenager were mature enough, I would let them apply for their own credit card their senior year in high school. They probably would not qualify if they did not have a job. But if they were earning their own wages and paying the credit card bill themselves, the relationship between earning and spending would be mighty clear. I know I watched every penny I earned in high school very carefully to save up for the things I wanted.

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If you need help writing your resume, go early. The stores will be packed Tuesday.

Find a FedEx Office near you. Note, not all locations are open 24 hours.

Thanks, Eli!

To qualify for the Citgroup Homeowner Unemployment Assist program, you must be 60 days or more past due on your mortgages or in foreclosure. “The house must also be the customer’s primary residence,” according to an AP story.

Unemployed workers can also pay significantly less for health insurance because of the stimulus package. Previously, COBRA allowed workers to continue coverage for 18 months if they paid the entire premium plus a 2% administrative fee. Now, the stimulus package will cover 65% of the COBRA payment for workers laid off between Sept. 1 and the end of 2009.

“If you delayed signing up for COBRA coverage when you lost your job, you have 60 days to re-enroll after you receive a notice from your employer,” says a USA Today story. Keep reading for more details.

If you are tempted to cutback, read these six things to keep in mind, from TheStreet.com . I won’t give it all away, other than to say keep your eyes on the prize and don’t forget the tax benefits.

Cable TV, car insurance mileage (they may be able to lower your rate if you are driving less), clothes, day care, gardener, gym membership (ask if you can suspend it), home improvement projects, iTunes downloads, maid, meals out (including Starbucks!), Netflix, salon services, satellite radio and vacations.

What not to cut:

Internet service – you will need it to send resumes and search job ads

Car payments – depending on where you live, no car = no job

Cell phone – especially if you have given out the number to contacts. But call and ask your carrier if there is anyway to reduce your contract temporarily.

If you lost your job, what would you cut – and what would you keep?