Furloughed workers feeling the pressure as shutdown drags on

WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - As the government shutdown drags on with no end in sight, many furloughed federal employees are feeling the pressure.

"I've got $5 left before the shutdown, I'm getting a drink," Debby Beckner laughed back on December 22. At the time she was enjoying a "shutdown cocktail" at Capitol Lounge in southeast, and said she was prepared to weather the storm.

Things have changed since then.

"I didn't think it was gonna rain this long," Beckner said Friday night.

She didn't get her usual paycheck Friday and neither did her husband, Steve, also a federal employee.

"We do have, you know, a little something that we can fall back on so we can continue to live indoors and do what we need to do," Beckner said, "but there's no extra money being spent now for entertainment or we're not doing anything extra to have dinners and stuff like that."

They're far from alone. Friday night a potluck dinner was held in Montgomery County for some of the 800,000 federal employees who have no idea when they'll see their next check.

For Beckner, it's the uncertainty of it all that's hardest to handle.

"I feel like we've been forgotten," she said.