How being unemployed saves me money...

A friend recently pointed out to me that I have been giving unfair, and truly unneeded, attention to the negative impacts of unemployed.  My friend is right - there are plenty of near constant reminders of the perils of unemployment, so today, I'm going to talk about some positives... specifically HOW BEING UNEMPLOYED SAVES ME MONEY!!!

Everyone likes to save money. Everyone unemployed likes to save money.  Wait, that might not be true either.  Maybe - Some unemployed people like to save money (others like to spend it by maxing out all of their store credit cards with unneeded purses and sandals).

Which are nothing at all like this purse and these sandals.... 

Here are some unique ways being unemployed has saved me money...

• Back when I had a job was still in school and living largely off student loans (that I now can't repay), I used to do about one load of laundry per week.  Now I do about one load of laundry every THREE weeks.  It's easy - I wear pajama's virtually ALL the time.  Sometimes I'm lucky if I can even fill up the washer every third week.  At my local Albertson's, a 32 load bottle of All Small and Mighty (Free and Clear) is $6.49 (plus tax, but we'll ignore that).  That's approximately 20.3 cents a load!  So, by changing from a load a week to a load every three weeks, I have saved 13.53 cents a week!  That's an overwhelmingly large 1.93 cents a day!  (Indeed overwhelming when you realize that's $7.04 a year!)
• In case you wanted to know, I also save even more money on electricity and water when I cut back on laundry.  To wash and dry a full load of laundry in cold water it costs 43 cents on my electric bill. (So i save $14.91 a year!!)   Check out THIS website to see how much money you can save!
• LAUNDRY SAVINGS TOTAL/YEAR:  $21.95
  
• Further, since I'm always in pajama's and rarely leave my house, I don't need to shower nearly as often as someone in the "working class".  If i were working full time, I would be showering an absolute minimum of 5 times per week.  Lately, my weekly maximum has been 3.  A fifteen minute WARM shower costs 57 cents a day (water and electric).  (Check out Shower Calculator.)  So, I'm saving $1.14 a week by cutting out two showers.  Go me!  Save the environment, conserve water, STOP SHOWERING!  It's the GREEN thing to do!
  
• SHOWER SAVINGS TOTAL/YEAR:  $59.28   
•  GAS!  Guess what!  I don't drive to work everyday.  I never drive anywhere near downtown L.A. at any time near rush hour.  In reality, I drive so little I may have started to forget how.  I don't know how much money this saves me, it depends on how far I would be driving to work.  But I know that it's a lot.  It also saves tons of traffic jam frustration and gives me lots of time to spend on my hobbies.
• Even though I'm not saving any money on cable, internet, or rent while being unemployed, I feel like I'm getting a better value.  I use the cable and internet far more everyday than I would if I were working, and I'm actually at my apartment most all of the time.  If you calculate the cost of these items per hour of use, I'm getting a much better value on my investments than those employed people out there.  Suckers!
• Another way I save money - not having any to spend.  You'd be surprised how much money you spend purely because you have it available.  I used to buy random unneeded clothes all the time.  Or something as simple as a new toothbruth a few weeks earlier than I actually needed one.  When you have no money, you don't spend any unnecessarily.  I haven't bought an article of clothing since March!!  I didn't even buy THIS like a good band wagoner would have (even though I really really wanted it!)

I'm sure there are countless other ways that I'm saving money, but right now I would rather think about what I'm going to do with all of this money I'm saving.... I sense a shopping spree coming on!