If you’re unemployed at the moment, we don’t have to tell you that the situation out there is pretty grim. But you’re not alone: The Senate passed a bill last week extending unemployment benefits for people who find themselves jobless for up to 99 weeks. However, with an unemployment rate hovering around 9.5 percent, there simply are not as many jobs as people looking for work.

Whether you’re among the jobless ranks or simply want to take precautions, here are a few tips for ways to stay afloat in troubled waters.

1. Keep your credit score high. Now is not the time to limit your lending options with a bad credit score. Make every effort to pay your bills on time, and if you can’t, try to work with lenders to negotiate payment plans before the account goes to collections.
2. Sell your clutter. Sentimentality can be a financial thorn in your side if you hold on to your valuables longer than necessary. If you haven’t touched that bass guitar since college or your wedding dress is just going to yellow in the back of your closet, sell your stuff on Craigslist for instant cash.
3. Use free services to fine tune your job search. Even if you graduated from college years ago, check with your school’s career-counseling office to see if they offer free resume tweaking for alumni. And tap into the university job network, which will put you in touch with fellow alums.
4. Go back to school. If you’ve ever had an interest in continuing your education, now’s the time to pursue that advanced degree. Interest rates are at historic lows, and the new degree could give you an edge in the job market after you graduate. Just make sure you’re not taking on more debt for a degree that won’t ultimately increase your earning potential.
5. Keep in touch with your ex-employer. If you were laid off, there’s a chance that your old company could use your services on a contract basis. It may not offer benefits, but it’s still a paycheck. Even if they don’t have work for you, it’s always a good idea to keep up contact for future references.

According to the ASPCA, here are some of the expenses you can look forward to during the first year of pet ownership:

And that doesn’t include regular expenses like food (average of $120 for medium-size dogs, $115 for cats), vaccinations ($235 for dogs, $160 for cats), and treats and toys ($55 for dogs, $25 for cats) — those rawhide bones and catnip mice really add up. If you can’t make it home to let your dog out at lunch, you may be paying $50 per week to hire a dog walker. And keep in mind that exotic animals like ferrets and parrots will probably incur higher vet bills, particularly for emergency care.

In all, proper care for a pet can easily top $1,000 per year. To a true animal lover, those costs may seem like a bargain compared with what you get in return. But particularly for families where cash is tight, waiting to get a pet until your financial situation improves may be the best thing you can do.

Not sure if you can swing it? Fill out this pet-ownership worksheet by ValueYourMoney.org.

As designer denim became every girl’s go-to, prices went up; “luxury” jeans by companies like True Religion and Seven for all Mankind were fetching hundreds of dollars, the same price as a new computer.

Cotton dungarees for the price of an iPod was a stretch so extreme that retailers had to come up with a whole new term to suggest that the new jeans were different from the $100 jeans they used to sell in the 1990s.

But as this New York Times article points out, such a price point is only sustainable if consumers are willing to pay. When that willingness disappears – in this case, due to a recession – the speculative jean “bubble” starts to deflate.

But the denim bubble has burst, and only a handful of such extravagantly priced jeans remain…Meanwhile, the sweet spot for designer jeans has relocated to a neighborhood just below $200, even though the styles do not look substantially different from the $300 jeans that were on the sales floors of Barneys New York and Bloomingdale’s only two years ago.

“The bubble has burst,” or some variant of this phrase, was used so frequently during the housing crisis that it’s almost cliché. Where does this imagery come from?

Economists disagree on the exact causes of a speculative bubble; however, when the term is used, it generally means that consumers are willing to pay increasingly large amounts of money for a product based on its perceived value.

Whether it’s the housing bubble, internet bubble, or denim bubble – the common denominator is that they all “pop” eventually.  If the price of goods can rise rapidly due to consumer demand, they can also fall very quickly when the demand disappears.

Such is the case in the market for luxury jeans. As inventories built up in stores, retailers realized that a willingness to pay $400 for a pair of jeans no longer existed. So, retailers dropped the price below $200 – a market correction, as it’s called – and found the points at which consumers were again willing to spend money on designer denim.

Whether it’s $200 or $400, though, spending too much of your money on any luxury good may hamper your savings. If you’re shelling out serious cash for clothes, make sure the item is really an investment and not this season’s must-have trend. Check out our tips on fiscal responsibility here.

Of course, there are many personal factors that tie us to the places we live, be it school districts, social circles, or parents in need. But for those of us who are not tied down, for some reason it can still be difficult to make the call of whether to pack it up and move to another state.

Then I found BestPlaces.net’s Cost of Living Calculator, a neat website that analyzes the government’s data about salary and cost-of-living averages in thousands of places, both major cities and smaller towns.

Say you make $45,000 and live in Alexandria, Va., but you’ve always dreamed of moving to San Francisco — which is right up there with New York as one of the country’s most expensive cities. How much more would you need to make to afford the same standard of living?

According to the calculator, you would have to find yourself a job in San Francisco that pays $61,145 just to maintain your current lifestyle. That’s nearly a 36 percent raise. Not only that, but housing is 55 percent more expensive in San Francisco on average than in Northern Virginia. In fact, San Francisco is more expensive in every category analyzed, from utilities to transportation to food.

This calculator doesn’t take taxes into account, but we’ve blogged previously about another website that can help you sort it out on that front.

As the New York Daily News reports, “Divorce is out of the question for couples who can’t afford to split their assets during the recession.”

Economic decisions are bound to be harder to make when emotions are involved. But it looks like, for now, many who are pondering major life decisions are putting aside their feelings and going by the numbers.

Fortune Small Business reports on entrepreneur Seph Skerritt, who is offering custom-tailored mens dress shirts online for just $90 apiece. He started off by selling only 300 shirts in the first 5 months.  But now he’s aiming for 15,000 shirts this year, bringing in more than $1.3 million in revenue.

In Maryland food auctions are taking off as a way to buy food in bulk and avoid grocery store prices.  Richard Betz is a middleman who buys food from farmers that is sold at food auctions. He’s noticed a huge jump:

“The places where it used to be a full house are now standing-room-only. People, when they get their gas electric bills, their health insurance bills — they get laid off — they look for a way to try and save a buck. And they have to eat.”

Many restaurants and bars are taking advantage of the fact that even during a downturn, people still want to unwind with a beer.  Across the country there are “recession specials” like the one at “Below Bar” in Denver which turned Wednesday into Recession Sessions offering $2 Late-on-Your-Rent Lager and a $5 Fill-up (Beer + a shot).

So take some time to scope out what kind of recession deals are available in your neighborhood to make sure you’re getting the best bang for your buck during the downturn.

It’s all doom and gloom, right?  Well not on all levels. While the news media focuses primarily on the negative, consider some of the positive secondary effects that come from being (f)unemployed (as some of my friends have taken to calling it). People now laid off can be employed to do other things.

Some are taking the opportunity to learn a new language. (Rosetta Stone is one of the few companies succeeding during this recession.)  Others are honing their skills by going back to school, learning a new trade, taking computer courses at the local community college.  And some will self start businesses. Some of America’s most successful businesses were founded during recessions.

And those who are still getting a paycheck?  People place greater value on their jobs and improve their overall work ethic, which in turn enhances the overall quality of the services provided.   Lower labor costs brought about by the recession, combined with higher productivity, translate into cost savings for businesses. These savings are passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices.  Businesses try to entice customers to spend, with sales and other deals. Consumers eventually respond.   Business by business, firm by firm, and industry by industry, better-than-expected-profits are posted. And eventually, businesses will begin expanding, lowering the unemployment rate all over again.

So while it’s true that the economy’s downturn has badly hurt many families, like anything in life it isn’t without certain silver linings. Small consolation to someone who’s lost their job or home, I know. But in times like these it doesn’t hurt to look for a few positives.