Photo: Thinkstock

1. Get Your Due
Part of that huge chunk that's taken out of your check each pay period goes to unemployment insurance, which means that if you lose your job, you get to collect. It's not much—the average is $292 a week, according to the Department of Labor—but every little bit helps.

"Think of it like car insurance. You've paid the premiums, so you're entitled to get your car repaired if you get in an accident. It's the same thing with unemployment insurance, and if you need to collect, you better be in line the next day," says Stacy Francis, a financial planner in New York.

Why the rush? It can take a few weeks for your payments to kick in.

2. Assess the Situation
Is your spouse still earning an income? Do you have an emergency fund? How much is in it and how long will it last? Do you have money in taxable accounts that could be liquidated? I'm not talking about your retirement accounts—if you tap into those early, you'll pay hefty fees and taxes—but other savings or investment accounts.

If you don't have money of your own readily available, you need to start thinking of other sources of inexpensive cash, like a home equity line of credit or a family member who might be willing to help you out.

What you don't want to do, if you can help it, is rely on credit cards, or even worse, credit card cash advances, many of which will charge you upwards of 18 or 20 percent in interest beginning on the day of the withdrawal.

3. Look at Your Spending
Get a good sense of where your money is going. To do that, go over the last month or two of your bank statements, looking at how much you spend on fixed expenses like the mortgage, the car, and the utilities, and how much you spend on extras like restaurants and entertainment. Use this worksheet to keep track. 

Once you know where your money has been going, you can figure out where to cut back. The restaurants and entertainment, for instance, go. The coffee shop, the new clothes, and the spontaneous trips to the mall or bookstore do too. And depending on your expenses, other things may need to be cut as well, including your cable (but not your Internet—you'll need it to search for jobs and send out resumes).

What stays? The fixed expenses, plus prescriptions, groceries, and other necessities.

4. Protect Your Credit
Sure, unemployment is helpful, but it's no match for the salary you're used to, which means your debts may very well overwhelm you—and fast.

When it comes to debt, it's important to be proactive, meaning you should contact your creditors as soon as you realize you're going to come up short and let them know the situation. If the customer service representative can't help you, ask for a supervisor. Trust me, in this economy, they've heard it before. That doesn't mean they'll forgive the debt, but they may work with you to negotiate a lower payment or, in extreme cases of credit card debt, settle for an amount less than the total amount due.

Bottom line: If you wait for the letters to come, or the phone to start ringing, it may be too late.

5. Talk to Your Kids
Your first instinct may be to hide this from them, but trust me, they already know something is up. At the very least, they've noticed that you're suddenly home a lot more often.

Instead of leaving their imaginations to run wild, initiate a conversation. You'll want to tailor exactly how much you decide to share to their age, but in most cases you can simply explain what happened. "This isn't about sheltering them from changes, but being honest with them and even enlisting ideas and suggestions from the kids," says Nathan Dungan, founder of Share Save Spend.

Kids are remarkably resourceful and will likely come up with all kinds of suggestions for contributing to the household, from shoveling snow to mowing lawns. They'll want to be part of the solution. Teach them the value of a dollar.

Next: How to strategize your job search and more