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- Managing in Tough Times
When you do not have enough money to cover your family’s basic living expenses and pay all your creditors, you face some difficult financial decisions.
In tough times it is especially important to find ways to substitute time, skills and effort for spending.
Grocery shopping can be a real challenge, especially if you are on a limited budget. However, food is a flexible budget expense that can be reduced.
Understanding what you are feeling can help you to begin to cope. Grief is a human response and is inescapable. Understanding the stages of grief, giving in to them and going through them, are keys to getting past the disaster and moving forward.
Saving money at the grocery store could be a challenge, but it could also be fun! It feels good to save money and to stretch those grocery dollars.
We are all feeling the crunch on our monthly budget these days. Being thrifty is important when we need to watch our food dollars.
Good nutrition and routine physical activity help keep you healthy and minimize the impact of stress to your body.
When the family faces reduced income, take immediate action to stop all excess spending.
Losing a job can be emotional, stressful and financially devastating. It does not matter if you are male or female, married or single, young or old, experiencing job loss is very difficult for individuals and families. Use these financial survival tips for tough times.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about seafood from the Gulf and the oil spill
Humor doesn’t just help the medicine go down; it can often be the medicine! Have you ever found yourself in a really sad situation yet you are laughing so hard you are almost crying? Here are some tips for using humor as a coping strategy.
During these tough economic times, many families are concerned about rising food costs. Here are some tips on how to stretch your food dollars through meal planning.
Children learn their responses to loss and how they will cope from their families. Following a disaster, children's views view of the world as a safe and predictable place is temporarily lost. They may be afraid another crisis is likely to occur and that they or their family will be injured or killed. It helps to remind children they are safe.
When you can’t find your way out of a crisis, turning to family and reconnecting to them can sometimes be the best strategy for managing anxiety.
Topics Include: What’s in Your Problem-solving “Tackle Box”?, Knee Deep in Debt? What Can You Do? and Don’t Skip Breakfast. (English and Vietnamese Versions)
Topics Include: How Strong Louisiana Families Survive Disaster, Exercise Has Many Benefits, Good Nutrition for Women and Dealing with Debt Collectors. (English and Vietnamese Versions)
Topics Include: How to Talk to Creditors and Don’t Let Your Anger Control You. (English and Vietnamese Versions)
Topics Include: Elderly Need Help Coping After Disaster, Keep Food Safe to Eat, Do You Have Negative Information on Your Credit Report? and Build an Emergency Fund. (English and Vietnamese Versions)
Topics Include: How Do You Know If Your Child Is Experiencing Stress?, Deciding Which Bills to Pay First and Foods for Young Children. (English and Vietnamese Versions)
Topics Include: Tips for Surviving a Layoff, Strategies for Preventing Domestic Violence During Times of Stress and Achieving and Maintaining a Healthy Weight. (English and Vietnamese Versions)
Complete English publication translated to Vietnamese.
In times of crisis, volunteers may be essential in supporting the work of medical and mental health providers. Ethically, it is essential that helpers understand and act within the limits of their knowledge and skill base.
One of the coping strategies families identify as helpful for returning back to “normalcy” after a crisis or disaster is a return to family traditions. Family traditions and rituals have been shown to help strengthen families – both the individual members and the family as a whole – in good times and in bad.
When you are on the go, eating healthy isn’t always easy. Learning to make the best food choices with limited time is key to a healthy lifestyle.
