Weighing a contract offer against waiting

I got a contract offer for 8 months as an IT help-desk technician and I am unsure whether to accept. There are 8 people counting on me, so I am trying to be careful. I have 4 months of savings left. How did you handle benefits?

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