Start.

We’ve recently been getting a relatively high number of visitors that punched in variations of “filing for unemployment in Georgia” – and since they don’t seem to post this information in plainspeak anywhere on their website or printed material – basically once you file, you’ll receive a letter in the next 10 days (I think it’s 10) that tells you how much you will be eligible to receive and for how long, and then within 21! TWENTY-ONE days after that you will actually be ‘Approved’ – at which time you will finally start getting your money.

It took about 3.3 weeks before I finally got some money deposited into my account. However, even with this lag, and before you are actually “approved”, you want to make sure that after you do the “in-center” paperwork and you’re in the system, that you ‘claim’ every sunday through the Georgia Department of Labor Website.  Because when I did finally get the approval – they paid me for those earlier weeks that I had filed. 

So really, it could take up to a month between when you go into the office and get into the system, to when you finally see some money auto deposited in your account – that’s if you do direct deposit instead of having them mail a check to you. Got that? See. They don’t have a simple set of paragraphs like that anywhere on the website outlining the process. They should. Apparently it’s not that hard. 

*Update – You can verify what their formula is for determining how much money you can get from unemployment – but the max is $330 a week, before taxes. Yes. You get taxed on your unemployment checks. You do have the choice of paying the taxes at the end of year rather than per check – so if you REALLY every bit of money right now (and with so little money being given, you probably do), it’s a good choice to select to pay the taxes later – hopefully you’ll get a decent paying job. Again, I know you’re worried about having to pay all that tax money back – but that’s a choice you’ll have to make. I mean… at roughly 25%, you’re losing $82 out of that 330. So then you’re only receiving $248 per week. 

But obviously, we’re all card carrying members of the Upstanding Citizens Brigade here are LeahAndMark.com! Join us! (Okay, there really isn’t such a thing and we don’t know how you could join us even if there was.)

[Photo removed due to Department of Homeland Security Restrictions]

These are pictures we took at the East Atlanta Strut last weekend. This is 2/3 of SuperCute! – Lizerati and Glue&Glitter. They’re in this video just for a second. 🙂  These three are MY role models. (’cause you know, deep down I’m a twenty-something crafty-hipster with strong political and social ideologies concerned with making the world a better place.)

This past week has been up and down and then sometimes it was just sidways. Nothing too interesting, just making the rounds and trying to figure what I’m doing in general. Although it has been nice to get out and about and see other people (I think I’ve been spending a bit too much here in the house, or at coffee shops with no one except… me.) Yeah I know. And I will hangout with some of you people who offered to meet up for lunch sometime – but then there’s always that looming budget concern – and most of the time the ‘going out’ or eating out money is reserved for times when Leah and I go out so that we can actually spend some time together outside of the house – ’cause it’s easy to just stay here and go mindless with all the studying we’re both doing. 

And I do go back and forth between feeling like I should be doing more to find a job – and then days when I feel like… hey, we’re not dying for money right now (as in we’re not going to be homeless) – so maybe I should enjoy this a bit more than I have been. But even that’s hard because unlike other people (both good and bad) I’m still of the mindset where no job = bad. Which is not necessarily the case. But if you’ve worked for a long time (at least a decade) it’s weird to not have a job.

But even still. The reason I haven’t accepted just any job posting out there is because I’m attempting to find a job that I actually want and meets the simple requirements that we need. Basically, money, location, and interest. I’m generally interested in most things so that’s not really a problem (I’m open to most industries, and they’d all be interesting since I’ve generally worked in the Real Estate/Homebuilder/Mortgage area for the last 10 years – an obviously that’s part of why I’m out of a job right now.)

It’s Saturday right? Awesome.

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Filing. How. Much. Georgia. Unemployment Post One

Filing. How. Much. Georgia. Unemployment Post Two

Filing. How. Much. Georgia. Unemployment Post Three