Career change after a layoff, where to begin? - any advice?

After 3 years as a sales associate I am thinking about moving into a different field. I have read a lot of threads here and could not find my exact situation. I have a little time and a small budget for training. Did you take a pay cut?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it last year, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.