Last Thursday Lissa Cunneen, a 45-year-old former administrative assistant for WaMu’s home loan department, enraged certain commenters by declaring that she is signing up for unemployment benefits and struggling to pay her mortgage but still pays for cable. This week Lissa explains and responds.
The awful thing about losing one’s job during an economic meltdown is the feeling of helplessness that gradually creeps up on you as the days and weeks advance with nary a nibble from job sites or Craigslist or even temp agencies. I actually just got a very nice rejection e-mail from Temporarily Yours saying that I was too qualified for anything they might have to offer. After I swallowed the lump in my throat, I thought: “Well, at least I’ll have something to blog about.” I mean, really, too qualified to answer phones? Who can’t answer a phone?
It’s frightening to think that things might not get better, or that by the time they do it will be too late for me and so many others. That fear makes some people angry. They look for some clue or detail in stories like mine that will explain my predicament. Surely, I must have done something wrong or made some blindingly stupid mistake that has put me here. The thing is, I didn’t do anything wrong.
When I got divorced I got a good job making more money than I ever had before. I put almost half down on a condo near my job so that if I wanted, I could walk to work. I got basic cable with internet access bundled in. I paid off my one and only credit card every month and put my money in an IRA and my 401k. And I brushed my teeth and took my vitamins and washed behind my ears and you know what? I got cancer and the economy imploded. Shit happens. It happened to me and it has happened to thousands of others and it can happen to you. So what does one do when the bills start to sit on the hall table instead of being paid immediately? What does one do when the cat needs to go to the vet, or the doctor won’t refill your meds without a $150 to $200 office visit? Oh, that’s right. Cancel the cable.
In the mean time I have successfully filed for unemployment and have an appointment to see if I can get my loan refinanced. I am also reworking my resume for the fourth or fifth time and letting people pay for dinner who can afford it. I have gotten a business license so I can get all entrepreneurial with my greeting cards, and it looks like I will have worked enough hours this quarter at my barista gig to qualify for health insurance starting in May.
So many people have given me good advice or a helping hand, I have to believe that things will get better and remember just how lucky and privileged I am. And it’s true, I really am. I mean, after all, I can still watch my stories.
Have an unemployment story to share? Write to jobless@thestranger.com.
A girl needs her cable to watch The Hills while eating her pint of ice cream and crying about being unemployed, amirite?
Yay! You are fabulous!
What is this obsession with cutting cable? What’s a cable bill compared to the medical costs of fighting cancer or a mortgage?
Eat the cat.
(make dumplings,
the meat will go farther)
Has anyone mentioned that she should cancel her cable?
digital cable is $70/month, $840/year. and it pretty much sucks. if her unemployment runs out, she’ll eventually drop it. it’s a want, not a need.
except this week there’s world cup skiing from val d’isere in the alps every night. and big love. and flight of the conchords.
Very nicely said. I hope things turn around for you soon.
@3:
Because the Puritanical Trolls who’ve been hanging out here lately consider ANY form of recreation or entertainment to be morally objectionable, particularly when there are bills to be paid.
Up to a certain point, the argument does have some merit: when you’re short on cash, the luxuries should be the first things to go by the wayside in favor of the basic necessities. But, in a modern, technological society, cable serves as much of an informational and communications purpose as it does for simple entertainment, and so a reasonable argument can be made for keeping it.
It’s just that SOME people think any poor person who’s having anything remotely resembling FUN is displaying a moral defect; poor people SHOULDN’T have fun, they shouldn’t seek out entertainment or culture or frivolous pursuits in general, because they haven’t EARNED the right to such frivolity by remaining gainfully employed.
In their minds pleasure without toil equals extravagance, which is tantamount to sin.
I’m not sure anybody meant that you did something wrong to end up in this situation… just that, if you are in emergency mode and can’t afford medicine (which you said in your previous letter), it seems like cutting cable would be a thing to do that might allow you to afford something more important.
I know it’s a minor and trivial thing for people to jump on, but your previous letter implied that you were choosing TV over your health….
Jesus people, the cable comment was a joke about how little she was making as a barista.
@6 digital cable is $70/month, $840/year. and it pretty much sucks. if her unemployment runs out, she’ll eventually drop it. it’s a want, not a need.
She specifically wrote “I got basic cable with internet access bundled in.” That is not the $70/month digital cable.
Very, very well-put Lissa. Thanks for responding so eloquently — you didn’t succumb to the SLOG crazy.
@6, she’s got basic cable with internet bundled, not digital. with the discount that comes from the bundling, it’s basically the cheapest way to have access to the internet (impossible to job-search without it!) and also have basic local TV channels so you can get local news and crap.
honest to god, people. it was a tongue-in-cheek remark, intended to make light of a scary situation. you know, whistling in the dark? maybe let’s all try to remove the giant fucking beams in our eyes before we attend to the teeny mote in lissa’s. dang.
If she paid for DSL instead it would cost more.
Okay, hate to continue the dickish-ness, but having your own personal internet is not necessary for job searching. Public libraries have free wi-fi.
CABLE WATCHER!!! BURN HER!!!!
@15 – not everyone has a laptop, Mr. Richie Rich.
will, well then they can use one of the PCs at the library. 90 minute slots.
The people who criticize her are the same ones who compain about ghetto welfare receipients who drive big Cadillacs and Lincolns. It’s a free country and I can spend my welfare/unemployment money however I please!
If you have a desktop and need internet at home, you can get an extremely inexpensive dial-up service (<$10). Not going to be lightening fast, but, again, if you’re choosing between medicine and fast internet….
I don’t care who you are. If you are a normal American, you splurge on SOMETHING. Maybe she watches cable TV and that gives her some joy. Some people buy beer/wine. Some people rent movies. Some people buy books. Some spend a few hours a day at a coffee shop. It’s pretty rare to find someone who lives a completely spartan lifestyle.
I don’t understand why someone who puts down 50% on her mortgage would get an interest-only loan. Cable or not-to-cable is the least of her worries.
If you are looking for a financial misstep Lissa took, it is not the failure to cut basic cable.
Personal financial advisors routinely recommend keeping six months’ living expenses in the bank in case of an emergency (like unemployment, underemployment). It is kind of laughable, because for most people this amount of money would be impossible to save.
However, if Lissa had enough cash at one time to put half down on her condo, she should have considered keeping aside six months’ worth of living expenses and putting it in an FDIC insured bank account. This amount should have been calculated to include payments for medical insurance, which could be obtained from a previous employer under COBRA. http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consume…
She could still sign back up for her old medical insurance under COBRA, while she waits for her new insurance to kick in, if she was insured on the day she was laid off. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 includes a provision to reduce premium costs for people paying for their medical insurance under COBRA to only 35% of the premium, effective 2/17/09.
All of that said, Lissa is totally correct when she points out the natural tendency of people to look for flaws in the behavior of others that would explain how they got into unfortunate circumstances.
Of course it is not Lissa’s fault that she got laid off and has cancer. I hope for the best for her, and for all of us.
@22. That’ a good point, idaho. That doesn’t make any sense… Wouldn’t the only point of an interest-only loan be to have lower monthly payments? Not sure why you wouldn’t just put a little less down (40%) and have the extra cash to fund traditional mortgage payments (and actually be able to build some equity).
If this is actually what she did, sounds like she got some bad advice from whoever her loan person was at WaMu.
what business is it of anybody if she has cable or not? Lissa wasn’t whining about her situation; the name of this feature is Notes from the Unemployment line, so all she’s doing is reporting on the facts of her life.
If you’re a friend or family member who’s been helping her out with money and you’re unhappy that she’s spending it on cable, you might have a right to address that with her. For all the asshats on here criticizing her for it that have no connection to Lissa, you should STFU.
Note to Comte: I don’t think of them as Puritanical Trolls…I think we’ve been infected with a rash of immature fucktards who chose to seize the day with the abdication of Mr Poe…for some reason, his presence kept them at bay…I miss Mr Poe.
I have no diss on this lady.
Teachable Moment: I buy my medical insurance on the open market and consider employer-linked medical insurance a bad idea. The tax code makes it commonplace. McCain wanted to decouple these. Obama knew it was politically unpopular, but I hope he still does it now that he’s in.
Yeah, what’s up with her mortgage story? It doesn’t add up. Last week she had an interest-only mortgage and her condo was worth less than she owed, and this week she made a 50% downpayment? Seattle real estate hasn’t dropped 50% (yet).
she had better watch out about that business license because they may cancel her unemployment. stupid but true.
obama should allow people to continue to draw at least the futa part of unemployment until they reach a certain level of income, maybe $12 an hour for a full time job. those that are drawing the max have little reason to take a job for less than that.
oh and if you call comcast and say you want to disconnect they usually make you a six month low priced offer
Whatever is going on with the mortgage, that thing is messed up.
@28 Actually that’s untrue. They will ask for earnings information before randomly canceling a business license like that.
Worksource will help you start up a business if you’re unemployed, while receiving benefits. The point of their services is to get you off benefits and making money.
Sure, they’re backed up, short staffed, busy and impossible to call. But their core mission IS to help the unemployed. Both with benefits and services like Worksource.
Lissa mentions again that she started working working after her divorce, I will ask again if she has considered asking/forcing the ex-husband to help out?
Millions of women in America forgo an education and/or a career to tend to the home and/or kids while the husband goes out and works. If and when the marriage breaks up in such a situation, the wife has the ABSOLUTE RIGHT to expect a part of her ex-husband’s compensation that she made possible through her sacrifice.
I bring this up for Lissa’s sake, but also because I think husband’s who encourage/pressure their wives to not work should be fucking punished if the marriage flounders.
and…uh, cable doesn’t just mean TV. She pointed out that her internet and TV are bundled, I don’t know for sure but I doubt that the internet (used for job hunting by those of us in the 21st century) is cheaper on it’s own.
Well done, Lisa! You are an inspiration to many of us who slink about, guiltily, in fear that that self-righteous pundits will find out we have three-digit channels.
Hey, did you know that out here in Denver, if you’re seeking financial help from certain christian charities when your utilities have been shut off, they won’t do a thing if you have cable. That’s qualified charity, because some people are more worthy than others.
EAT THE CAT !!
They won’t cancel the business license. They may suspend benefits while making sure she is available for full time work. Friend just start getting benefits and a money-losing, tiny business cost her much paperwork and lost benefits any week she makes money. Workforce is not unemployment.
Anyway it should be changed but it might be something people on or going on unemployment should be aware of.