It took several sessions with my Life Coach and lots of long talks with my (incredibly handsome and amazing) husband. And yes, a couple of conversations with my parents, too.
Straight up - I'm relying on savings. That's what it comes down to. But here's how we figured it out (spoiler alert: it wasn't easy)!
Rewind a couple of months...
My husband and I had just sold our house for a nice little profit - not crazy money by any means, but we were able to walk away with a decent chunk of change. At the time, we were both in stable jobs and were itching for a little adventure. So, we decided to rent a floating home in Sausalito for a few months.
Super exciting, I know!
We paid our eight months of rent up-front, put 85% of our belongings in a storage unit, and moved our clothes, our dog, and our lives to a house that literally floats on the water.
Where would we go at the end of our lease? No idea. But, that was part of the appeal!
So there we were - two responsible adults with stable, lucrative careers taking a little break from reality. We woke up every morning to stunning sunrises and beautiful water views, went kayaking every weekend, and most importantly, drank wine out on our deck in the evenings while watching the sun go down.
<--That's me kayaking with our dog!Heavenly.
Then, I had my huge epiphany and sh*t got real.
My husband had just accepted an amazing opportunity at an awesome software company in San Francisco. He took a pretty hefty pay cut, but at the time it was no big deal because my salary could totally cover the difference.
Now, we were looking at potentially living off of just one salary and dipping rather deeply into our savings.
I had to be really honest about what I was willing to give up...
-Manicures & Pedicures
-Professional Hair Color
-Professional Hair Cuts (Hello SuperCuts!)
-Happy Hour
-Shopping at Whole Foods (That one hurt)
-Shopping in General
-Starbucks (Noooooooo!)
-Eating out
-A trip to Boston
Ugh. I know. #firstworldproblems
But, it is what it is. In the end, these were all SO easy to give up. SuperCuts does a pretty good job, guys!
In all seriousness, there were lots of questions to ponder. How much time off are we both comfortable with me taking? How much would my unemployment cost us each month? What happens if I don't find a new source of income? If we had to, could we really move in with my parents?
One night, during one of our many conversations about this decision, my husband said to me, "You know what? I want my wife back."
And that was it. I had been so miserable that I wasn't myself anymore. We both agreed that the sacrifice was worth it. At the risk of sounding super cliche, you really can't put a price tag on happiness.
So, we talked about everything and decided that six months was comfortable, we would have enough savings to cover a little extra time off if I didn't find something new right away, and yes, we could live with my parents (although we'd try avoid that one at all costs, sorry Mom!).
I'm now on a budget, I color my own hair, I make coffee at home every morning, and we eat in almost every night. I'm actually learning to cook!
What am I trying to get at here? A LOT of thought went into this decision - it wasn't done on a whim. I had to:
-Have open, honest conversations with myself, my husband, and my family
-Take an honest look at our finances
-Create a budget
-Cut the fat and make sacrifices (goodbye, blowouts!)
-Make a plan
-Make a back-up plan
-Make a back-up plan for the back-up plan
You get the idea :)
Believe me, I know that I am incredibly lucky. BUT, I worked really hard to get where I am. I worked my tail off to stay out of debt, save up to buy a house, beef up my savings account, etc. None of this just fell into my lap.
I've been gainfully unemployed for a month and a half now and you know what? I don't miss all of my fancy beauty treatments or new clothes (I live in yoga pants!). Sticking to a budget is easy - and it can be kind of fun, too!
But damn, I do miss Whole Foods.
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