Build a Bare-Bones Budget

To know your true monthly minimum and how many months your money will last, so you can job search without panic-spending.

Pull up your last two months of bank and card statements and a blank spreadsheet or notebook page with three columns: Essentials, Cuttable, Income Sources.

1) List every essential monthly cost: housing, utilities, groceries, insurance, transportation, minimum debt payments. 2) List everything cuttable: subscriptions, dining out, memberships — pause what you can today. 3) Add up your Essentials total: that's your monthly floor. 4) Total your runway: savings + expected severance + estimated unemployment benefit. 5) Divide runway by your monthly floor — that's how many months you can breathe. 6) Pick one cut to make right now.

Your runway number isn't a countdown to failure — it's your planning horizon. Most searches fit inside it once you see it clearly.