After losing my job in 2006 and finding I was worth precious little to the job world in spite of a ton of experience, I took a chance on a socking big student loan and went back for job retraining. It looked to be a bad gamble, when 4 months after graduating at the top of my class the only "employment" I could find was an unpaid internship. Fortunately I start a new job on Monday.
Best wishes to you in improving your situation.
I am in similar circumstances. My husband lost his job 9 years ago & we decided to put both of our full efforts into a business I had been running as a hobby for years. It’s been very difficult & now I’m going back to school to get new skills that are marketable. I’ll graduate in a year, but we’ve really had to cut down our standard of living in the last few years.
Things I thought I couldn’t live without, I’m doing fine without. I’m thinking about doing away with our cable TV, but we’re still not ready to cut that cord - we’ll probably do it though. I thought I’d never be able to give up getting my hair professionally colored, but I’ve even learned to do that myself. We keep our house between 65 and 67 in the winter & dress warmly. One thing I’ve noticed is that I’m not getting nearly as many colds as I used to get - I wonder if there is a connection?