Living in a multivital society means living with both the benefits and drawbacks of coexisting with the undead. (Unliving in a multivital society means the same thing, naturally.) While we admit the benefits are many, including a perpetual source of energy for a very small cost of fresh brains, as well as comfort in knowing the afterlife is pretty much exactly like life, only with more grey dangling bits, there's no polite way of getting around saying it: zombies are taking our jobs. Sure, the food industry still has entry-level wage positions for the living, thanks to the FDA and OSHA, but when the undead can still perform many tasks that they could while alive, and with greater strength and stamina, only a fool would think economic disaster isn't looming for those of us still among the living and soon-to-be unemployed.

The floods in the midwestern United States are estimated to cost over $3 billion dollars. Add to that the rise in fuel prices ($4.25 for low-test two miles from my house as of this writing), which makes goods and food more expensive to produce and transport. Add the skyrocketing costs of health care, growing more expensive for private citizens and companies alike. Add the burst of the mortgage bubble, sending homeowners and large banks into debt and foreclosure. And finally, keep in mind that we've been in a mild recession for seven year already. Jobs are going away or going to the zombies. Jobs that stay aren't paying enough to keep up with inflation (the true rate of which has been cleverly masked for years by excluding the prices of housing and food). The Baby Boomers are retiring when they can, and crowding for the existing jobs when they can't. We're rapidly approaching a period that will make the Great Depression look like a mild case of the blues.

Clearly, a rethinking of economic priorities is necessary for the living, as well as those acting as stewards for the undead.

First things first: look around. Do you own your home? Are you renting? Are you part of a building cooperative? Do you live in a trailer park? How stable is your living situation, and can you make it more stable? A big part of the current mortgage crisis comes from people having purchased more house than they could afford, paying deceptively low interest-only rates for a while and hoping to refinance before the principle payments kicked in, ballooning the monthly payments sometimes out of reach. If you're a homeowner, examine your mortgage closely to make sure this isn't you. If it is you, your first priority is to refinance your home to a fixed rate that you can afford to pay. No one likes foreclosures. Banks hate loan defaults. Neighborhoods hate empty, unkempt houses and yards. Refinance as quickly as you can while rates are low, extend it out to thirty years if you have to, but fix it before the spike hits. If you're a renter, be it an apartment or mobile home, make sure you know the financial health of your landlord and also make sure you know your rights as a tenant in your state and municipality. Many trailer parks are being sold out from underneath the people who own the trailers. If your apartment's owner gets foreclosed on, you're likely to lose your home, too. Any time your ability to stay in your own home is reliant on someone else's ability to pay their bills, keep an eye on that person and have a backup plan in case something happens.

After you have ensured you have a place to live, look ahead to find ways to continue to afford living there. Jobs disappear, and the prices of basic things like food and gas are climbing fast. Take stock of your finances. Do you have a three-month cushion in case you lose your means of income? Six months is better. What about credit cards and other debt? How much do you owe? When we're looking at a financial crunch, the first thing you want to do is get out of debt. Credit cards can eat you alive, and payday loans do so even faster. The golden rule of paying off credit debt is to pay the minimums on all our cards except the one with the highest interest rate. Pay as much on that as you can per month until it's paid off. Then pay off the second-highest interest rate card, and so on. Once you've got your cards paid off, keep one with the lowest rate you can find and cancel the rest. Pay what you can with cash, because it will force you to keep track of how much you're spending rather than just handing over a card. If you have other loans, other than a mortgage, pay them off as quickly as you can following the same method. The less debt you carry month to month, the less you're going to have to worry about should a zombie take your job.

You've probably seen commercials about bill consolidation programs, and counter commercials claiming they don't work. The deal is, most people go to bill consolidators too late. You can't wait until your job is gone, your home is in foreclosure and your bills are six months past due. Take stock every couple of months, and if you see the edge coming, swerve early. Find a non-profit consolidation program if you can.

Learn how to make your budget work better for you.

If you have cable, internet and telephone service, look into bundling some or all of them into a lower-priced package through one company. Perform an inventory of the bills you pay each month and see if there are places you can make cuts. Having the full cable package is nice, but if you're only really watching things on basic, you might be better off cutting down to a smaller package and going ala carte on one of the higher channels. If your heating and cooling bills are eating your budget, see what you can do to improve the insulation in your home, and make an active choice to change the thermostat settings to something a touch closer to the outside temps. Invest in a programmable thermostat and use it to help you save energy when you're not at home. Remember that a rolled-up towel is a perfect draft blocker, and that a box fan placed in a window can cool your home just as easily as the air conditioner on a nice day. Compact fluorescent lights have disposal issues, but they save money over their lifetimes.

When it comes to stretching your budget, your grandmother was already on the right track years ago. Clip coupons and check out the newspapers for double coupon days at your local grocery stores. Compare prices per unit between good bargain brands and discounted name brands. Sometimes the coupons can make the name brand cheaper than the store brand, but you'll usually save more going with the latter. Take a calculator with you to the store if you can't convert price per ounce easily in your head. Buying bulk tends to save money per unit, but only if it's something that you'll use before it expires. Buying twenty rolls of toilet paper to save a dollar is good; buying twenty pounds of fresh spinach to save a dollar isn't a good idea unless you've got a way to eat it or store it. The biggest waste of money is the thing you bought and threw out without using, be that the extra three pounds of potatoes that went rotten or the two-for-one strawberries that got moldy before you ate them.

Look into growing your own food at home. With store-bought tomatoes currently under siege, it's a fine time for the home-grown tomato plant to regain its status. Go in with a neighbor and plant a garden together. Seeds are inexpensive, and tools, once bought, will last for years.

Focus on purchasing items that are going to last. This seems counterintuitive in an essay about saving money, but the truth is, a high-quality item that's going to last for years is much cheaper in the long run (and usually more environmentally friendly) than something that you use once or only for a short time until it breaks. For example, reusable menstrual products are becoming more popular and thus available. Lunapads are washable cotton pads, and the same company offers the DivaCup, a menstrual cup along the lines of the Keeper and the MoonCup. While more expensive than traditional menstrual products, these items will last for years, resulting in a significant cost savings over their lifetime. Other things that can save you money include simple fixes for large ticket items. A good slipcover for a tattered couch will make your living room look newer, but at a much lower cost than reupholstering or buying new. Trading in a gas-guzzling SUV or minivan for an economy car with good MPGs will save you hundreds at the gas pump, and may cost less per month in car payments, too. Look into purchasing a bicycle and running some of your car-based errands that way.

In the spirit of the staycation, research local attractions and consider investing in a season pass if you have a vacation budget burning a hole in your pocket. The less you spend on traveling, the more time you can spend at your chosen destination. (Ideally, you'd spend your hypothetical vacation fund on paying off your debts first! But one must have some fun.)

Look into ways of expanding your spending money. Clean out the attic, closet, basement and fanshrine, then go forth to eBay. (Please also note that Firefox News is in the planning stages of a fannish auction service along those same lines. Stay tuned.) Take stock of your skill set. Are you creatively inclined? Many websites are looking for bloggers and can pay a little or a lot depending on what they need. Artists can sell commissions. Musicians can do the same. Maybe you have mad carpentry skills, or you mow a fierce lawn, or even wield a mighty snow shovel. Can you cook? Can you petsit? Babysit? Tend plants? Sit with the elderly or help them go grocer shopping? Zombies can't do it all. Consider taking a few hours a week for a part time job, enough to get your debts paid down and your cushion softened. A few dollars here and there can make a real difference in your pocket.

The influx of zombie workers will almost certainly have a negative impact on the economy, and the economy is already sliding quickly downwards. Don't blame the undead, just do what you can to minimize the impact on you and yours. And if you can, toss a little to help your friends and neighbors who can't quite make those same ends meet.