What Worked, What Failed, and How Much Runway You Actually Have Left

You spent 30 days managing unemployment finances. Benefits, expense cuts, health insurance decisions, maybe some gig work. Tomorrow the structured program ends.

Today you figure out which strategies actually worked and which ones you lied to yourself about.

Why this matters now:

When you're scared about money, you make decisions fast. Some of those decisions turn out to be smart. Most don't. After 30 days, you have real data instead of panic-driven guesses.

Here's what probably happened: You cut some expenses that stuck. You cut others that made you miserable for three days before you went right back to spending. You added income that helped. Or you added income that ate your time and gave you nothing useful in return.

Month Two is about keeping what worked and dropping what didn't, even when dropping it feels like admitting failure.

What to review from your 30 days:

Pull out your tracking from the entire month. All of it.

Week 1 was filing benefits and making insurance decisions while everything felt like chaos. Week 2 was canceling subscriptions you swore you didn't need. Week 3 was testing whether you could actually live on less. Week 4 was realizing some of your decisions were wrong and adjusting.

Now look at what actually changed versus what you told yourself would change.

The expense reduction reality check:

Go through every expense cut you attempted.

Which ones are still in place 30 days later? Which ones lasted until Thursday of week one before you cracked? Which ones saved real money without making you feel deprived? Which ones saved twelve dollars but made you angry every single day?

Write down your actual sustained monthly savings:

Subscriptions you cancelled that are still cancelled: $[amount] Food spending you actually reduced: $[amount] Transportation costs you genuinely minimized: $[amount] Discretionary spending you eliminated for real: $[amount]

Total: $[amount]

What those numbers mean:

$300+ in sustained monthly cuts? You did the work. Those cuts are buying you weeks or months of runway.

Under $100? Either you didn't have much fat to cut, or you made dramatic pronouncements about sacrifice that lasted three days before you were back at Starbucks telling yourself you deserved it.

Most people discover their cuts worked in two or three categories and failed completely everywhere else. That's normal. The question is whether you're honest about which categories are which.

The subscription assessment:

Week 2 was the great subscription purge. You identified everything unnecessary. You were going to save $150 monthly. Easy.

Now count:

How many subscriptions did you call unnecessary? How many did you actually cancel? How many are still cancelled? How many did you quietly reactivate because it turns out you use them more than you admitted?

If you identified $150 in savings but you're only sustaining $40, here's what happened: most of those subscriptions aren't unnecessary. You just wanted them to be.

That's fine. It means you can't get to your savings goal through subscription cuts. You need a different category. But stop pretending you're going to cancel Netflix when you watch it every night.

The health insurance review:

Look at your coverage choice: COBRA, Marketplace, spouse's plan, or nothing.

Calculate what you spent: premiums plus whatever you paid out of pocket.

Now ask: did this work?

If you paid $600 monthly for COBRA and you went to the doctor four times, the coverage earned its cost. If you paid $600 for COBRA and you didn't go once, you bought peace of mind at $600 monthly. Maybe that's worth it. Maybe it's not. But call it what it is.

If you went bare or cheap and you needed care, calculate what that cost you. Compare it to what coverage would have cost. Sometimes gambling on your health works out. Sometimes it's expensive stupidity.

The side income evaluation:

If you added side income, look at what actually happened:

What kind of work? How many hours weekly? What did you actually earn after expenses? How much per hour?

And the question that matters: did you miss interviews or skip networking because you were working gig shifts?

What the numbers tell you:

$200+ weekly from 10-15 hours without missing interviews? That works. Keep doing it.

Under $100 weekly from 15+ hours? You're spending time you should be spending on job search. Stop.

If you missed even one interview because you were delivering food or cleaning houses, the side income cost you more than it paid. Finding a job faster is worth more than another $800 in gig earnings.

Your emergency fund burn rate:

This is the number that matters most.

Starting balance 30 days ago: $[amount] Current balance: $[amount] Amount burned: $[amount]

That's your monthly burn rate. Now divide what's left by that burn rate. That's how many months you have.

What that number means for Month Two:

Burning slower than expected? You bought yourself time. You can stay selective about which jobs you'll accept.

Burning faster than expected despite everything you tried? Your timeline just got shorter. That changes what you can afford to be picky about.

Burning exactly as projected? Your guess was accurate. Keep executing the plan.

The benefits check:

Are you claiming your full unemployment benefit every week? If not, why not? It's money you already paid for through taxes. There's no virtue in leaving it unclaimed.

Any payment issues or delays? How many weeks of benefits do you have left?

Calculate your monthly gap: survival expenses minus unemployment benefits. That gap is what emergency fund or side income has to cover. If it's large, Month Two has to address it.

The resource sequence review:

Day 22 told you the order to use financial resources. Did you actually follow it?

Benefits first, expense cuts second, side income third, emergency fund fourth, retirement accounts never unless you're desperate, high-interest debt last.

If you followed that order, you're preserving your most expensive resources. If you're depleting savings while unemployment benefits sit unused, or if you're racking up credit card debt while your emergency fund sits untouched, you're doing this backwards.

The timeline reassessment:

30 days ago you estimated unemployment would last [X] months. Based on how job search is going, what's your estimate now?

If it's close, keep doing what you're doing. If your current estimate is longer, your financial strategy has to change. More aggressive cuts. More intensive income pursuit. Or acceptance that you need to expand what jobs you'll consider.

What to keep doing in Month Two:

Look at what actually worked:

Expense cuts that stuck and saved real money without making you miserable? Keep those.

Side income that paid well without interfering with job search? Continue it.

Benefit use that maximized what's available? Obviously keep claiming.

Health coverage that met your needs at sustainable cost? Don't change it.

These things proved themselves through 30 days of reality. Trust that data.

What to change in Month Two:

Look at what failed:

Expense cuts that didn't stick? Stop attempting them. Find different categories to cut.

Side income that paid poorly for time invested? Drop it.

Health coverage that's either too expensive or inadequate? Switch it.

Resources you're using in wrong order? Fix the sequence.

Burn rate that's unsustainable? Address it now, not when you're fully broke.

Your Month Two strategy:

Write this down:

"My actual burn rate is $[amount] monthly. I have [X] months of runway left. The expense cuts that worked save me $[amount] monthly and I'm keeping them. Side income [describe what you're doing and whether you're continuing it]. Health coverage [describe your decision]. My priority for Month Two is [one specific thing based on what your numbers actually show]."

Common Month Two mistakes:

Continuing expense cuts that already failed. If you couldn't sustain something for 30 days, you're not going to sustain it for 60. Stop trying. Find something else.

Abandoning strategies that worked because they don't feel dramatic enough. Saving $200 monthly doesn't feel like much. But it's $2,400 over a year. That's real money. Don't drop something that's working just because it's not exciting.

Adding more side income when your job search isn't working. More income extends your runway. But if it's keeping you from finding actual employment, you're just prolonging unemployment while making a few hundred extra dollars. Sometimes the answer is more intensive job search, not more gig work.

Keeping expensive health coverage out of inertia when your timeline has changed. COBRA made sense when you thought unemployment would last two months. If you're heading into month five, that calculation is different.

The honesty requirement:

Month Two only works if you're honest about Month One.

You wanted to cut spending to survival level. What does your tracking actually show? If it shows minimal reduction, you haven't done it yet. Wanting to doesn't count.

You wanted side income to meaningfully extend your runway. Are you earning $50 weekly for 10 hours of work? That's $5 per hour. It's not worth it. Stop pretending it is.

You wanted your emergency fund to last long enough. But if your burn rate puts you at zero in four months and you're not getting interviews, wishful thinking won't fix that. Different strategy required.

Next step:

Finish this review today. Calculate your real burn rate. List what worked and what didn't. Figure out how much runway you actually have left. Decide what you're doing differently in Month Two.

Tomorrow is Day 30, the full integration of everything. Today you're just looking at money: what you kept, what you spent, how long you can keep going, and what has to change.