We were unexpectedly hit hard...

Me, not so much as I'm taking the year off work on maternity leave. But I work in a private school and student numbers are down. My position wasn't filled for the year I'm off (only part time in my subject area) so I really don't know if I'll have a job to go back to next year. The scary part of it is that numbers were down before the financial crisis really hit.

For DH... He works in corporate events. Sound, lighting, production work. Over Christmas it was really obvious. There weren't so many big corporate Christmas parties and things... less hours for him, less money for us. This has continued. The company has laid a lot of people off, and it's a huge blessing to us that DH still has a job, but he has been asked to work less hours. He's often not paid on time as wages tend to bounce at times.

On top of all this... the owners of the previous place we lived in were forced to sell, so we were forced to move. This means we are now paying more rent and getting less money...

It's all a bit scary, really.

BW