There are a lot of people out there who are anti-the current unemployment system. They were especially against the recent constant extending of unemployment benefits. I can understand the reasons why, however, I believe that there are times when the government needs to participate in deficit spending, and this was one of the cases. (Would I have preferred it if the government had been smart enough to save for a rainy day when times were good? Especially since that’s what a lot of talking heads think individuals should have done? …Yes, but that’s a different story.)

Our Story: We were one of the families to benefit from the full extended unemployment benefits. Thanks to my husband working for the Census last summer, his benefits extended a full thirteen months. In fact, we just received his last check, after being laid off in May 2009.

Unemployment saved us financially. There’s no other way to say it. Had my husband not gotten unemployment benefits, or even if they had only lasted the initial six months, we would have lost at least one car, and maybe our house. I would have thrown student loans into forbearance, but it wouldn’t have been enough.

At the time he lost his job, we had revolving credit card debt, a monster car payment, our mortgage, and my student loans.

We did the math. We could live on my salary alone if we could pay off the credit cards and the car loan. It would be tight, but we could do it. So, we started with the credit cards- sure they had a lower minimum monthly payment than the car, but they also had a much higher interest rate and no defined end date.

But it was going to take time. When we got the first notice of extension of benefits in November 2009, I remember breathing a sigh of relief. I had a plan for what we could do if the benefits stopped, but it was a scorched earth kind of plan.

It took us through February 2010 to get the credit cards paid off, and then another two months to get the car paid off. So really, it wasn’t until one full year after my husband lost his job that we would have been able to live on my paycheck.

Breathing Room: Last summer saw a lot of good things. My husband spent a couple months working with the Census, earning some money and extending his benefits. I finally (2 years after earning my MBA) got a management position and the raise that came with it.

Starting in July 2010, we could have lived comfortably on my salary alone. We were no longer following the unemployment extension news like it was the air we were breathing.

But, the extensions kept coming, and yes, we kept taking the money. We no longer “needed” it, but that’s not to say it didn’t come in handy. We made a new budget plan. This one included paying extra on my student loans to decrease our debt and putting money into savings.

My husband decided to go back to school for his Bachelor’s degree. We made teh decision for him to start part time in the evenings while he was still receiving benefits. Yes, he was still looking for work, but after 18 months and only two interviews, we knew we needed a better plan. Thanks to him still getting benefits, we were able to save enough  to pay for his education out of pocket.

The Big Picture: We are the lucky ones. Maybe I should have said that sooner. My job was never in jeopardy. We had the financial understanding to know what we needed to do, and the ability to follow through with it. We had family and friends who understood when we had to change plans.

We were on the brink, but thanks to unemployment, we never went over the edge. There were many people in much worse shape than us, even at our lowest point. And if unemployment was that much of a life saver for us, I can only imagine what it meant to those families.