He spent the day on his own, licking his wounds, as I had to work. I think he'll be okay; he needs to redevelop a thick skin in his quest for a new job. I'm sure it won't be the only rejection he gets; I think he is just out of practice. This last stint was about three years of making pretty decent money up here in the mountains at a tiny software company.
It is so interesting how people have different concepts of money. I was brought up in a middle to upper-middle-ish class with parents who were very cautious about everything. He was raised in an abusive poverty-stricken home, his parents were prescription drug addicts. His father used to beat him with a belt. He was then basically tossed out and thrown away as a teenager by the father and sent off to juvenile hall in the 1970's because his dad just didn't want to deal with him. So at a very young age he had to learn how to parent himself and figure out how to negotiate the world - he was lucky in that back then the juvenile system actually worked and helped him make better choices than turning to a life of crime, which was were he was headed. At some point as a young adult he went to Control Data Institute and learned computer programming and IT stuff and has been working in that field since the 80's.
Anyway, he actually does listen to me sometimes about how to be frugal. My job is to let him figure it out WHILE being supportive but not to be too judgmental. We keep most things quite separate though have talked a little about moving in together. He wants to buy a house here when he gets out from under the foreclosure, but obviously he needs a job first. The idea would be that I would pay him rent for my share but not be involved in any of the financial stuff of going into a purchase together. It took me so long to build up my nest egg and emergency fund that I will NOT put it in jeopardy, even for love.