Federal workers are pinching pennies during the shutdown: ‘I’d love to come to work, but may not have gas money.’

• The government shut down on October 1, leaving federal workers furloughed or working without pay.
• Dozens of workers told Business Insider they’re financially strained as the shutdown approaches its third week.
• They’re dipping into savings, delaying car repairs, canceling kids’ activities, and applying for loans.

The federal government shutdown has become the Grinch who stole Halloween for Johnny Jones.

Halloween is typically a big deal for the Jones family — they love to decorate, hand out candy and hot dogs, and enjoy a neighborhood shindig. But Jones, who works for the Transportation Security Administration, isn’t getting a paycheck during the shutdown. That means big Halloween plans are out of the budget; so is an outing for his daughter and her friends to the new Taylor Swift movie.

“We’re probably another couple of weeks from having to prepare to start selling stuff. I’ve already started identifying things that I could liquidate easily to get cash,” said Jones, who is the president of local 1040 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union.

Across the country, government workers like Jones are cutting back on subscriptions, canceling vacations, skipping car repairs, pausing kids’ dance classes, and delaying credit card payments.

Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been furloughed or are working without pay amid the shutdown, while the Trump administration pushes through new staff cuts. Most employees received one final prorated check this week for the days worked immediately before the shutdown; it could be their last until Congress reaches a funding deal. The same goes for government contractors, which include people working in cafeteria and janitorial roles at federal buildings, on Capitol Hill, and at national museums and historical sites.

Business Insider interviewed more than two dozen workers across agencies and the military. Some said they are dipping into savings, while others worry they won’t be able to afford medicine and rent next month. The White House has hinted that furloughed workers and those still on the job may not receive back pay. Meanwhile, thousands of federal employees who received termination notices since the start of the shutdown are left in limbo after an October 15 court ruling temporarily paused their layoffs.

‘I won’t have enough savings to pay for the bills’

Federal workers told Business Insider that one check can be the difference between paying a bill or going into debt.

A Pew analysis showed that nearly half of government employees earned under $89,000 annually as of March 2024, with 8% earning less than $50,000 — money that goes fast if families are paying for housing, childcare, groceries, and medicine.

“A lot of us are living paycheck to paycheck, like most Americans, but even more so now we have to be cognizant of where every penny is going,” Mark Cochran, a furloughed National Park Service employee in Pennsylvania and AFGE Local 3145 president, previously told Business Insider.

One civilian Department of Defense worker has been hitting the phones: They’ve reached out to their mortgage company and two major banks to see if they can get a loan or forbearance. So far, prospects have been grim.

“My pay covers me through October but if the shutdown continues past October into November I won’t have enough savings to pay for the bills,” the DoD worker said. It’s been a stressful time, they said, as they scramble to get last-minute credit card and loan applications together. They’ve already applied for a bridge loan from the United States Senate Federal Credit Union. “I just wished that we could get more financial support from these public companies (even major ones) when it was not our fault.”

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employee said they are trying to secure a mortgage loan approval this month, but “that fell through because of the missing paycheck,” and a National Aeronautics and Space Administration employee said that they’re delaying repairs to their roof and car. One Internal Revenue Service worker said medical challenges would become “drastically more expensive” if they lost their job. Another IRS employee said they’re anxious about making credit card and loan payments.

Cochran and others added that they are worried about how their diminished spending will impact small businesses in their community. A few said they are working with colleagues to organize food drives or apply for SNAP and unemployment benefits.

Just days after the shutdown began, unemployment claims in DC started to spike, while an analysis by The Century Foundation found that around 10,500 federal workers across the country have filed for unemployment since the shutdown began.

Many are looking for stopgaps, too. USAA, which offers interest-free loans equivalent to paychecks for impacted federal workers, said that they’ve approved and funded nearly $243 million for around 65,000 loans in the first week of opening the program. The Maryland Department of Labor received more than 550 applications between October 6 and October 14 for its federal worker loans. And the Navy Federal Credit Union, which offers a similar program, said that they’re “seeing a significant uptick in participation.”

“It’s very difficult for me to advocate to an employee, ‘Hey, take a loan out so you can come to work,'” Jones, the AFGE local 1040 president, said.

‘The ground has been shaken beneath us’

Layered on the paycheck uncertainty is whether workers will even have jobs to return to.

A filing from the Office of Management and Budget on October 10 indicated that between 4,132 and 4,232 federal workers were marked for layoffs, with some receiving RIF notices that day. Administration sources told Business Insider that the numbers in the filing are “just a snapshot in time” and OMB head Russell Vought said during an appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show that the layoffs will total about 10,000.

For now, those planned cuts are paused by a court order, and the administration cannot legally enforce layoffs for employees who have already received notices or continue issuing new terminations.

At one agency in particular, employees are feeling whiplash. A few hundred workers at the Centers for Disease Control received RIF notices at the end of last week, then were told over the weekend that they could remain in their posts. An HHS spokesperson told Business Insider that some employees received incorrect notifications and “are not subject to the reduction in force.” The CDC union confirmed that “around 700 employees received emails rescinding their illegal terminations. More than 600 workers remain unjustly fired.”

A few CDC workers told Business Insider that this lack of job security is having a tangible impact on their lives and financial planning.

“We have an emergency cushion, but I am concerned about how long it’s going to go on,” one laid-off CDC worker — who wasn’t called back — said, “We have talked about selling our house if we need to. We’ve also talked about tapping into retirement savings as a very last resort.”

Another CDC employee mistakenly received the layoff email. They said they’re the breadwinner for their family, and have considered cutting back on activities for their kids and applying for an emergency loan. Over the past eight months of DOGE firings and the government shutdown, the employee said they have had “pretty charged conversations about what our life is going to look like” with their spouse.

“I guess it was a bit of relief if I still have a job and I know where my next paycheck is going to come from when the shutdown ends,” they said, “But the ground has been shaken beneath us.”

Over 200,000 federal workers have lost their jobs, and thousands more have left their government posts through retirement, buyouts, quits, and deferred resignations since Trump took office in January.

Senate Democrats and Republicans have not yet reached a funding agreement to end the government shutdown. “The Trump Administration is encouraging the Democrats to stop the pain and reopen the government with the bipartisan funding proposal they supported just 6 months ago and 13 times under Biden,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, previously told Business Insider.

Until then, some employees are draining their bank accounts to show up for unpaid shifts until they can’t afford it anymore.

“Gas stations don’t take IOUs. I talked to a couple employees, they said, ‘this is my last fill-up and I won’t have any money,’ because they don’t have credit cards,” Jones said. “They’re literally like, this is the last tank of gas I’m going to have until I get paid again. I was like, this is just too much. People are asking like, ‘Hey, I’d love to come work — but may not have gas money.'”

Alice Tecotzky and Taylor Rains contributed reporting.