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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

And for that, you need a strategy, says Bradley Richardson, an executive recruiter with Kaye/Bassman. That means shying away from plastering every job search website with your resume, and instead, figuring out exactly what you want your next step to be.

Maybe this is an opportunity to change jobs completely, or maybe you still love the career you were in. In either case, you want to update your résumé. As a general rule, you don't need to list jobs from more than ten years ago, says Lita Epstein, author of Surviving a Layoff: A Week-by-Week Guide to Getting Your Life Back Together.

If you've held the same job for the last decade, that's fine, just be sure to note your advancements, titles and accomplishments. And if you work in a field that values youth, it's a good idea to de-age your resume a bit by removing your graduation date and making sure the language is up to date.

Having an online presence, like a (professional) Facebook or LinkedIn page, is helpful as well.

Networking is key to getting back in the workforce, and belonging to professional organizations or clubs that pertain to your industry is the first part of that battle. Often these groups will have jobs listed on their websites that you won't find on the standard job boards.

But the other half of this picture is your friends and former co-workers. "Split your network of friends into two different groups. One is a group of people who can be there for emotional support, and the other is for networking and finding a new job. You really need to separate those," says Epstein.

In other words, you don't want to whine to the people who might be able to help you find work. Once you've pinpointed that group, start asking picking their brains and their contacts.

This is a rough economy to find a job, and realistically, it could take a few months or longer. So you want to start thinking about other ways to bring in some money.

The possibilities, really, are only limited by your creativity. I know people who make a living selling things eBay for people who are too busy to do it themselves, or hosting in-home parties for companies like The Pampered Chef.

If you're knowledgeable in a particular area—maybe you're a certified financial planner, or a healthcare expert—you might consider signing up to work for LivePerson.com, a website that matches experts with people who have questions.

Find the support you need to find a job.