How These Moms Get Through a Crisis

It was March 14, 2020 when the Swiss government announced a dramatic shutdown of businesses and schools in response to the pandemic crisis. As moms, we went from taking our kids to school, daycare, and the toy store to a partial lockdown at home. Needless to say, it was a difficult time for all families.

I resisted talking about the current pandemic as a topic during the hype of it because not know what’s happening, I didn’t want to bring unnecessary noise to the table.

But now that two and a half months have passed, businesses and schools are now reopened and life is gradually going back to normal.

Knowing that this event will sure make a spot on future history books, I thought I should document this experience as well.

I also asked a few moms to join me on the conversation specifically on how this pandemic has affected their finances and how they are coping with it.

Through these conversations, I hope to shine a light on the courageous moms who, despite facing a tough situation, will always find ways to make it work.

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The State of the Economy and Our Finances

Even though we are expats in Switzerland, we pay more attention to the news in the States because most of our families live there. We also planned to move back sometime this year but this plan has now been brought to a halt.

Between February and March, we were supposed to travel back to get some affairs straightened up, but due to flights canceling, we decided to stay put.

In just 10 weeks, 40.7 million unemployment claims were filed (data as of May 28, 2020). That pushed the unemployment rate of the country to 14.7%. As of now, there are 21.1 million Americans on unemployment benefits (excluding those who were already out of the workforce).

The Sudden Spike of Unemployment… Eeeks!

In the retail sector, many large companies have filed for bankruptcy – some of which have been in business for over 100 years like Neiman Marcus and JC Penney. These retail stores were omnipresent during my childhood, but they’ll probably be less present or even fade away in the coming years.

On the other hand, tech stocks like Amazon continued to rally amid the drop in the S&P 500. The index now hovers around 3,000 from its all-time high of 3,386 in February.

Despite record high unemployment rate, the stock market managed to bounce back and recover most of its losses. Some of the explanations could be attributed to the surge of newbie investors combined with the Fed’s intervention for keeping interest rate at an all-time low while printing new money.

Speaking of which, many families have been receiving an unprecedented amount of stimulus package from the government. This is driven by the new circulation of money supply from the central bank. As a result, the national debt of the U.S. now stands at $25 trillion. Gasp!

I’m still trying to make sense of this situation and how these series of events might affect our finances in the future. For the time being, our finances have not changed by much.

The only thing we are now reevaluating is whether or not to put our daughter in daycare. I originally budgeted this cost in our annual family budget of raising a child. But this might not happen if we can’t secure a spot for her. It’s notoriously difficult to find a place of available daycare here in Switzerland.

However, not putting Baby Bear in daycare means that she’ll become even more frustrated at home. She’s a very sociable toddler and I often bring her to a kid’s playhouse so that she can play with others.

But since the shutdown happened, this playhouse has yet to reopen.

This makes it really difficult to take care of her at home. Luckily, we have several community parks nearby so at least she gets some fresh air.

Amid all of the uncertainties happening, I try to focus on what I can control and influence rather than the uncontrollable factors. This helps to reduce my anxiety about the fears and concerns I have.

If you want to learn more about the “Circle of Control,” I highly recommend reading the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Now let’s take a look at how other moms are doing and how they are coping with this crisis:

Reevaluating Priorities

– The Intentional Dollar

“My husband and I are on a long trek paying off six figures worth of debt, so when the new year came, we were anxious to see how much progress we could make this year toward knocking it down. 

Then the pandemic hit and there was so much uncertainty and unknowns surrounding job security, finances, etc. 

As much as we’re ready to get out of debt, we made the decision to pause our extra debt payments and put that money toward our emergency fund. 

We wanted to make sure we had somewhat of a cushion just in case our income was at jeopardy. 

In addition, we decided to limit the amount of money we put toward our sinking funds. 

We basically started doing somewhat of a skinny budget and only included the necessities to have extra money to put toward that emergency fund. 

In the event of a crisis, I truly believe your focus should be on surviving the crisis without going into deeper debt or losing your sanity and worry about meeting your financial goals later, once life is back to normal.”

Managing Finances During a Crisis

– Being Alaia

“During this time of the pandemic, my family and I have been managing our finances on a needs-only-basis. This has allowed us to manage our money fairly well. 

My husband still works too so we have his income and we did receive a stimulus check. That helped with mostly rent and some groceries. 

But I live in Hawaii and everything is so expensive here. 

We try to buy in bulk to prevent having to return to the store too often. This has helped us save some money. 

But what’s really helped the most is the stay at home order. It has really cut out a lot of our spendings (i.e. gym memberships, gas, nights out). 

This has also helped cushion some of the spending we’ve been doing on movies every few weeks and some of the things we’ve needed to purchase for the babies. 

They’re 10 months old and growing way too fast! We’ve had to buy them bigger clothes and shoes several times already.

Overall, I think my family has been doing well. It’s been stressful. But I’ve been grateful everyday for the time I’ve been able to spend with my family and for what we do have.”

A New Outlook on What We Truly Need

– A Little of Lauren

“My husband is currently the sole income provider for our family. 

As a stay at home mom I manage our finances. 

When the pandemic arrived in the U.S. we decided the best thing to do was put aside as much cash as possible in the event something happened to our income stream.  

I did a thorough review of our budget and spending and immediately cut unnecessary expenses so we could put as much cash as possible into savings. 

We cancelled unnecessary services and were able to also start doing some of those services ourselves with new found time at home. 

Living this way has shown us how much we can live without and has set us up for a new outlook regarding how we manage our money moving forward.”

We Are In This Together!

– Dandelion Seeds Positive Parenting

“This pandemic has been tricky, for sure. We’ve been worried about everything from food shortages at the grocery stores, to our incomes as self-employed small business owners. 

At the same time, we’ve worked to avoid contributing to the problems we’re facing. 

We’re remembering the importance of treating others as we want to be treated. Perhaps more than ever, the golden rule applies.

When we worry about food, we make sure not to buy more than we need every week. We save enough for others and don’t buy the “last” of anything. Someone likely needs it more than we do. 

For many of the supplies we’d considered “essential” before the pandemic (think “toilet paper”), we’ve reconsidered them and replaced them with alternatives that are more sustainable and better for the planet.

Every time we refrain from making an impulse purchase, we support our financial and behavioral goals.

We realized that despite our worries, the more we refrain from panic-buying, the better we ALL fare financially and otherwise. 

Trusting is hard, but it’s critical for supporting the greater good. We’ve accepted that we really are all in this together.”

Staying Strong & Focus on the Positives

– Mama Shark

“Living during a global pandemic is certainly no one’s idea of a good time; however, we have seen some positives in regards to finances. 

My husband is a blue-collar worker, I’m a stay-at-home-mom, and we live in a pretty big city (i.e. high cost of living), so our budget was already tight pre-quarantine.  

Being faced with my husband’s potential job loss (thankfully he ended up being counted as an essential worker!), we were able to have some really good conversations about finances and our current financial situation. 

We talked about shoring up our Emergency Fund (3-6 months of living expenses), and we changed to a different vehicle (bought a cheaper one and sold the other) to free up some funds toward that end.  

We are also in the process of refinancing our home- it’ll cost a bit upfront, but we’ll end up saving 3 years worth of payments in the end! 

I am very thankful that though this is a difficult season, we have still seen some positives.  It’s never easy to consider big financial decisions, but I feel like my marriage and my home are stronger for what we’ve done these last couple of months financially.”

Blogging During the Lockdown

All of these moms have one thing in common: they are moms with a blog!

Ever since I became a mom, I love reading mom blogs. They all have such unique stories and experience that I can learn so much from.

With a blog, we get to write down our thoughts, connect with each other and share knowledge.

In the future, we get to tell our children, “Back in my days…” and then proceed to show them our blogs.

How cool is that?! *Ahem*

Anyway, I thank all of the moms above for sharing their stories with us. Please do check out their blogs and support their work!

You can also share your stories with me on my Facebook Page. I like to feature a variety of stories on this blog – bloggers and non-bloggers alike! And if you want to keep up-to-date on this blog, please be sure to subscribe below.

For those who want to start a blog (but hasn’t done so yet), I created a Blogging Resource Page to help guide you. Two years ago, I couldn’t imagine that I would start a blog.

I’m not much of a writer, and yet here I am.

I’m very happy that I took the plunge because blogging during this lockdown period has become a sanctuary place to store all my thoughts.

Even though at times I’m quite worried about what’s ahead, I know that in time “this too shall pass.”

I’m so glad that you’re here reading this. Let’s get through it together!

Related: Building a Side Income via Blogging from Home

What has been your experience during this pandemic crisis? Were your finances affected at this time? How did you get through it?

Please spread this PIN (not germs)