<prompt> Human: edit: copied in a missing section I got lax and spent when I should have been saving just in case something like this happened. Now it looks like I might get crunched. Good news is, mortgage is low enough that I should be able to make it with just my wifes income.However, my credit cards... yeah, there eventually going to bite me. I probably pay 200 a month in credit card payments.So...Of course, debt consolidation, bankruptcy, maybe calling my creditors, seeing what my options are, etc come to mind.I also have one more caveat. I should be able to collect unemployment, and some more school money is coming in luckily my school is inexpensive, maybe 3000 semester, and Im looking at lower interest from school loans that I dont have to pay on until I graduate.Any advice?Update:I did get laid off, I did it quietly and respectfully.Income now:Current cash 1700, 700 soon to be spent on mortgage.VA disability 130moWifes income 900-1000mo can be increasedExpected capital:School money is in the form of grants, looking at about 2000 extra free grant money, 1500 3.5 deferred interest loan, and maybe another 1500 at 6.5 interested.School loans are not due until I graduate in 2 years.I applied for unemployment last week, I was told it was on good terms by corporate HQ. My pay was 17hr, but... my hours varied. On average, I would say between 28 and 36 hours per week.My credit cards are probably between 2-5k a piece between maybe 4 cards, with a total of 10k. Update 2:You guys are really helping me group think through a stressful and difficult situation, I really appreciate it.So far Im making a list of my ccs, and am going to call each one and ask about their insurance options. I was afraid to ask them about this because it might set off red flags for them to monitor my account more closely and possibly become more bloodthirsty in attempting to track down late payments.Im thinking. If I can maybe pay off one or two of those cards, but even if just one. It would put a huge relief on me when unemployment starts which hopefully should be soon, but who knows, Ive never actually collected before, but I did file, but had to request a correction on the s inputted, which takes 7 to 10 days to respond.Update 2.5I called one cc, who said Id have to be actually late before they offer any type of plans?Update 3:I may have just secured a partnership of sorts with a friend of mine who owns his own business around the corner, might be able to do some semi-reliable tech related work.Update 4Today has been busy. Went through all my paystubs, wrote HR the ones Im missing.Updated dice, monster. Sent out a resume to a recruiter who asked based on this post thanks!About to make some business cards... here we go.Update 5So... Im actually going to start up a PC Repair business around the corner. If it takes off, who knows. Wish me luck guys. Whats great about it, is Ive done this profession since I was in the Service, so I have all the equipment KVMs, switches, flash drives with diagnostic bootable tools, the whole nine yards. I can wait out my cc payments. I should be able to start collecting my UI before any of them go past 30 days. If thats the case, I can keep paying minimum payments until next time I get more school money, and then I should be able to clear them all out. I intend on funneling my extra grant moneyloan money into my ccs to basically swap out the interest rates.Ive always wanted to jump into it on my own and be my own boss; so I setup a partnership, so far the split is 60 mine 40 his for letting me use his retail space free of charge, but he has high visibility, and Im hoping that within 2-3 days I start to see my return on investment I dropped 30 on 100 professional custom made business cards, and 100 flyers. Thanks to this post, I already got contacted by two recruiters, and my resume on monster as well as Dice is up to date to include this new venture so it doesnt even show any period of unemployment.Hopefully I can make this work :  <response>: Ask your employer if they can hook you up with a severance package answer is probably no or if they will allow you to keep them on your resume as you apply to new jobs, as it is always easier to get a job if you already have one. 