Once upon a time a terrible thing happened to the company I was working for. They lost the lease on their huge building because their rent was going up, and the only replacement in town within their monthly budget was a great deal smaller. When they discovered they were going to have to consolidate a bit and start downsizing, they began planning to merge departments. My department was merged with another department, and they combined management staffs. Since I was not cross trained with the other department, but their supervisors and managers were cross trained with mine, my department's management staff was the first to feel the axe. I was abruptly laid off, through no real fault of my own.
I was unemployed for five months. My then fiance, now husband, was a graduate student getting paid peanuts and could not support us both on his salary alone. Unemployment insurance meant 1. We were not evicted from our apartment and 2. We didn't starve. It amounted to about $800 a month after I paid income taxes on it (yes, you may have to pay income taxes on your unemployment insurance, if your total income including it might tip you over the income taxable amount. I figured it was better to get it out of the way.)
I eventually found another job, but I had the luxury of the safety net catching me.