Bad news at work today. Our VP of operations, who was in charge of our west coast office and my boss, went on an extended leave of absence. His wife died tragically of breast cancer, and the poor man needs time to grieve. The move was sudden and unexpected, and our whole office is like really wigging out. What does this mean for our office? I called my ex-boss, and he said I will probably report back to him in our VP's absence.

I hate unstable work situations, not that this job has been very stable, but today's news is the worst. I don't blame my VP. He needs time to grieve, and he was getting very depressed since the death of his wife. But still.

I've spent all morning, reevaluating my expenses. I'm preparing for a worst case scenario, which is they hire someone new and he starts reorging the whole office. The one good thing about my new eating plan is I don't spend very much money on food, drinking or eating out anymore. Those kinds of expenses are already at a minimum, and since I plan to eat this way till the end of January, I don't have to face a cut in food expenses.

I've decided to stop buying clothes, which I was thinking about anyway, until I'm at the weight where I want to be. I love buying clothes and jewelry, and it is quite an expensive habit since I have very expensive tastes. This will save me at least $200 a month. I just don't know how people can wear the same thing month and month out, but I guess I'll find out. Since I'm losing weight, some of my other clothes are starting to fit again, so in a sense it's sort of like having new things to wear.

I've decided to not spend money on any concerts and other entertainment events for awhile, but will still attend movies. Movies are so much cheaper than Broadway type plays anyway, plus there's always a bargain matinee.

I've got to put more money away into my savings and pay off more debt, so I'm in a better financial position if I do get laid off and have to go on unemployment. If worse comes to worse, I have my IRA and a long term savings account I can tap into. But I'll only do that as a last resort. One of these days, I'll need money to retire, and one of these days I'll have enough money for a down payment on a place. My retirement and long term savings account are definitely only a last resort option.

If the economy weren't so bad, I wouldn't be worried. It's never taken me that long to get a job in the past. But not now. I know people who have been unemployed since last year, and they still haven't found a job. It's a tough job market out there. I think it's going to get better by the end of the year, but the end of the year seems like such a long way away.