Assuming that you now have a job and you know what assets you have for an emergency, you need to find the difference between your take home pay (the amount you have when you cash your paycheck), and the amount of money you have to have to maintain your OLD lifestyle. Write down the total amount of money that you bring home for one month. Next, try to divide your monthly income to cover your month’s worth of expenses. If you find that you cannot afford your old lifestyle, you have a lot of company. About 75% of women in money crises cannot afford to maintain their OLD lifestyles.

Initially, the realization that you cannot afford your old way of life may make you feel sad or afraid or desperate. In some ways, giving up a familiar way of living is like losing an old friend, so it is normal to grieve. The good news is that you can now choose to include those things in your life that may not have been possible in the past. You may wish to pursue a hobby, or a career, or a group of friends that did not fit with your old way of life. Since your money will be tight for a while, you will probably spend it on the people and the things that are most important to you. This is a good thing.

In Step Nine you will begin to create and try to live within a budget. But first, there are a couple of things you may need to do to keep from adding to the crisis. See Step Seven.