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"  For months now, the daily headlines have read like an unbelievable horror story \u2014 except it&amp;#039;s all true. A record number of homes are going into foreclosure. Stocks have plummeted, and major portions of retirement portfolios have vanished overnight. Two million jobs were lost in 2008 alone. In December, the government finally determined that the United States is, indeed, in a recession, and has been for more than a year \u2014 an announcement that surprised no one. &amp;quot;The past decade built up to a perfect economic storm,&amp;quot; says financial expert Beth Kobliner, author of Get a Financial Life, now in its third edition. Banks had been giving loans, mortgages, and credit cards to folks who simply didn&amp;#039;t make enough money to keep up with the payments. Consumers were charging more and more just to get by, and digging themselves even deeper into debt. Basically, we&amp;#039;d all been spending way more than we could afford \u2014 with the help of some reckless decisions on Wall Street \u2014 and the bubble finally burst. But there&amp;#039;s a silver lining to this black economic cloud. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re finally returning to normalcy,&amp;quot; says Kobliner. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re back to learning how to live within our means and saving for what we want, and if we&amp;#039;ve made financial mistakes in the past, there&amp;#039;s no better time to correct them than now.&amp;quot; Even if you&amp;#039;re lucky enough to still feel that you&amp;#039;re on solid financial ground, you&amp;#039;ve got new motivation to live on less and save more. &amp;quot;Everyone knows someone who was affected by these changes,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Now we&amp;#039;re all hunkering down together.&amp;quot; Now, meet four women and learn about the unique challenges they are facing as a result of the recession, the everyday changes that have helped them adapt, and the tough decisions they&amp;#039;ve made to ride out the storm. &amp;quot;We wouldn&amp;#039;t have known how strong we are.&amp;quot; Downsizing to get by Andrea Philpotts-Davison, 47, unemployed; married to Malcolm Davison, 47, corrections officer. Kids: Elijah, 17; Malcolm, 5. Atlanta Over the years, I&amp;#039;d lost a few jobs, but I always found a new one within a couple of months. So when I was laid off from my job as an auditor in September 2007, I just assumed I&amp;#039;d find another position relatively quickly. But I still haven&amp;#039;t found a new job. Since our family lost my salary, which was four times larger than my husband&amp;#039;s \u2014 Malcolm&amp;#039;s monthly paycheck is only $100 more than the rent we were paying on our four-bedroom home \u2014 we absolutely had to downsize. Now we&amp;#039;re renting a smaller three-bedroom house, and we sold our truck and van, replacing them both with one older, used car. We&amp;#039;ve had a complete 180-degree turn in terms of our finances: My husband and I used to talk about buying our son a car and where we&amp;#039;d send him to college, and now we&amp;#039;re just worried about paying our bills each month. I don&amp;#039;t know when things will get better. But because of this challenge, I&amp;#039;ve realized so much about our family. I didn&amp;#039;t know we were as strong as we are \u2014 that we could pull together like we have. My son Elijah gives us his paycheck from his part-time grocery-store job every week so that we can afford necessities. He&amp;#039;s always been a generous kid, but he&amp;#039;s really surprised me with his selflessness. I never would&amp;#039;ve seen that otherwise \u2014 and he might not have known he had it inside him. He&amp;#039;ll say, &amp;quot;You never know what&amp;#039;s going to happen tomorrow, Mom. Something great could happen.&amp;quot; I feel the same way about my husband. Malcolm has always been very easygoing and relaxed; I&amp;#039;m the one who&amp;#039;d work 15-hour days, but he&amp;#039;d come home right on the dot. He&amp;#039;s never worked overtime. Now he&amp;#039;s the first person to volunteer for extra hours, without complaining. He&amp;#039;s really stepped up to the plate. I think it&amp;#039;s because for the first time, he&amp;#039;s the sole provider \u2014 our family&amp;#039;s financial burdens rest on his shoulders. He takes more pride in his work now than ever before. And while I&amp;#039;ve always been the spiritual one, now Malcolm is turning to God too. These days, we talk about our faith together; he even got baptized. These transformations have been amazing, and I know I wouldn&amp;#039;t have seen them if we weren&amp;#039;t going through this rough patch. We&amp;#039;ve found a lot inside ourselves that we didn&amp;#039;t know was there. And I have faith that I&amp;#039;ll eventually find a new job and we&amp;#039;ll get back to where we were.  Letting go of a dream Christine Randle, 38, public relations account executive; married to Chad Randle, 38, bartender and waiter. Kids: Terin, 3, and Cameron, 18 months. Smithburg, MD Chad always dreamed of owning a restaurant \u2014 and that dream came true in 2004, when we opened a popular local Italian bistro. It did so well that in September 2007, we opened a second location. But renovating the new space took way more time and money than we&amp;#039;d expected. Then, thanks to high gas prices, we were paying two or three times more for ingredients than usual \u2014 and people weren&amp;#039;t eating out as much either. Even though Chad worked 90 hours a week to save the businesses, he&amp;#039;d stopped paying himself, and we had to break into our retirement account to cover the bills. So we decided to give up and close both restaurants. A week after we shut them down, another restaurant in town hired Chad to bartend. It&amp;#039;s like he went from being CEO of a company to being a line worker. Our old customers see him at the new job and say, &amp;quot;Wow, you&amp;#039;re...bartending?&amp;quot; As frustrating as that is for Chad, he&amp;#039;d never let that stop him from supporting his family. In a way, losing the restaurants was a blessing in disguise. Now Chad watches our younger daughter, Cameron, while I work. Besides cutting our child-care costs in half, this is letting them forge a new bond. I can already see the change in her \u2014 the confidence that comes from spending so much time with her father. Going through this has been a good learning experience for our family: We&amp;#039;re making a lot of little changes, many of which are good for the environment and things we should have been doing anyway. Now we&amp;#039;re more careful about turning off the lights, and I don&amp;#039;t throw my jeans into the wash after wearing them once. We don&amp;#039;t buy expensive premium foods anymore; we shop at bulk stores like Costco and Sam&amp;#039;s Club, and I&amp;#039;m more careful about using coupons. It feels healthy to tell my daughters &amp;quot;no&amp;quot; at the store; I think it&amp;#039;s an important lesson for them to learn. We don&amp;#039;t eat out \u2014 except for my Friday-afternoon ritual of taking the girls to McDonald&amp;#039;s. And since joining an informal network of mothers of young kids who hand down clothes, books, and toys to other moms, I don&amp;#039;t need to spend as much on my daughters as I would otherwise. Sure, I&amp;#039;ll buy them new clothes but always from the sale racks. Recession and all, aren&amp;#039;t we much more fortunate than most of the world anyway? Yes, it&amp;#039;s hard, and I&amp;#039;d be foolish to think that we won&amp;#039;t struggle. But no matter what happens, I&amp;#039;m sure that we&amp;#039;ll get through this and move on. At some point, we&amp;#039;ll look back and this will all just be a blip in our life. Small changes, big difference Try these money-saving ideas from financial guru Beth Kobliner. USE LESS ELECTRICITY. You&amp;#039;ve heard these tips before: Turn off the lights when you leave a room. Take shorter showers. Turn your thermostat up 10 degrees in the summer and down 10 in the winter, especially when you&amp;#039;re not home. Let this recession be your motivation to actually start doing these things. You&amp;#039;ll save money and help the environment at the same time.  MAKE A NIGHT AT HOME FUN. Instead of those pricey dinners out, try out new recipes. Rather than going to the movies, reinstate family game night. Spend Saturdays at the park. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re back to doing the simple, fun things that families used to do,&amp;quot; says Kobliner.  COMPARISON-SHOP AND CLIP COUPONS WITH PRIDE. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s trendy to be frugal now,&amp;quot; Kobliner notes. Before buying, check out comparison-shopping sites, such as smartbargains.com and pricegrabber.com. Find coupons on retailmenot.com and dealsofamerica.com. Don&amp;#039;t be afraid to negotiate with a retailer \u2014 any retailer \u2014 for a lower price.  WATCH YOUR BANK FEES. If you use an ATM that&amp;#039;s not connected to your bank, you could be paying $3 a pop, so use only your bank&amp;#039;s ATMs. And because banks pile on overdraft fees \u2014 often up to $40 a check \u2014 make sure you can cover every check you write.  Struggling to save their home Donna Johnson, 36, freelance business coach; Rodrick Walker, 37, manager at a temp firm. Kids: Nastasja, 14; Rodrick II, 6. Austin, TX When we bought our home in July 2005, Rodrick and I qualified for zero-percent financing, so we didn&amp;#039;t have to put any money down. Of course, I was ecstatic about that. Since we had a combined income of $80,000 and solid, full-time jobs \u2014 I was working for the state, managing legal assistants, and Rodrick was a construction superintendent \u2014 I wasn&amp;#039;t worried about the mortgage payments. But within six months, Rodrick and I were both laid off. A temporary agency helped us find short-term jobs, but our annual income was still cut in half. We couldn&amp;#039;t keep up with the house payments and the rest of our bills, and when we started to receive calls from our lender, I knew we&amp;#039;d have to take drastic measures to save our home. Ultimately, the bank repossessed one of our cars, and we had to hire a mitigation company to help us work with our lender to lower our payments. Then, our income began to stabilize: The temp agency hired Rodrick full-time, and he also took a part-time job at Macy&amp;#039;s. Meanwhile, I decided to start my own business as a career coach. I&amp;#039;m still looking for a full-time job, but after getting laid off and almost losing my home, owning my own business makes me feel more in control of my career and my future. It&amp;#039;ll be whatever I make of it. It&amp;#039;s a chance to reinvent myself, to be an entrepreneur. Even though we&amp;#039;re staying in our home, we&amp;#039;re just able to meet our payments. So we&amp;#039;re cutting back in other ways too. Instead of going out with our friends most weekends, we&amp;#039;re simply catching up over the phone. I&amp;#039;m using coupons and buying store brands rather than name brands, and I don&amp;#039;t get pedicures or salon haircuts anymore. I still don&amp;#039;t feel like we&amp;#039;re in a comfort zone \u2014 and I don&amp;#039;t know if we ever will be. Even though it was hard to admit that I made a mistake by buying more house than I could afford, I know a lot of other people did too. We&amp;#039;re not alone in this. And really, it&amp;#039;s not the end of the world. Right now, we&amp;#039;re just happy to be staying put in the house we love. Recession do&amp;#039;s and don&amp;#039;ts DON&amp;#039;T get caught up in sales and discounts. Yes, it&amp;#039;s amazing that those jeans you covet are now 50 percent off, but that doesn&amp;#039;t mean you should buy two pairs \u2014 you&amp;#039;re trying to cut spending and pay down any debt, not add to your load. DO continue to contribute to your 401(k). And don&amp;#039;t withdraw the money. Even though the stock market might be going haywire, stay put. The market will eventually settle, and you will lose a significant amount of any retirement money you&amp;#039;ve already saved in taxes and fees if you withdraw the money early. DO pay extra attention to your taxes this year. Instead of filling out the simpler forms, itemize: You might qualify for tax breaks you hadn&amp;#039;t thought of. And don&amp;#039;t take a &amp;quot;refund anticipation loan,&amp;quot; a high-interest loan offered by some of the tax-prep chains. DO pay down your debt \u2014 no matter what. At the very least, pay the monthly minimum. Falling behind with your creditors now will mean major headaches in the future. (Even potential employers can check out your credit report.) DON&amp;#039;T feel guilty about saying no. It&amp;#039;s no longer taboo to say, &amp;quot;I can&amp;#039;t afford that.&amp;quot; Nixing the invite to that fancy restaurant or expensive travel to your annual family reunion is an investment in your security and your children&amp;#039;s future.  Cutting expenses to the bone Jennetta Penner, 35, wedding and real estate photographer; married to Jon Penner, 36, data analyst for Sony Corp. San Diego My husband and I were both photographers: He shot real estate, I shot weddings. Five years ago, our income was steady and increased about 20 percent every year. I assumed it would just keep inching up like that. So in late 2005, we decided to take advantage of the cash coming in and renovate our house. We added 800 square feet, and even though we did a lot of it ourselves, it was much more expensive than we thought it would be. We ended up putting a lot of it on credit. You think, We have to finish this now \u2014 we can&amp;#039;t have a gutted bathroom! At the same time, Jon and I were both getting fewer and fewer work calls. We assumed it was a phase, but the amount of work never picked back up, and our income plummeted almost 60 percent from 2006 to 2007. I expect we made even less in 2008. We decided I would take over the real estate photography business and Jon would look for something new. He spent a year finding the job he has now \u2014 and it&amp;#039;s only a short-term position. This past April, we realized that we had to stop the renovations. We just couldn&amp;#039;t put anything else on credit. Now our house is livable, but there&amp;#039;s no carpet; we have concrete floors. It kills me not to have carpet, but we can live without it. We also sat down together, looked at our budget, and made some major changes, including one final trip to the salon to give me back my natural hair color! Now I share my office with another freelancer, which saves us $250 a month. We cut our cable plan, negotiated a lower monthly fee on our home-security system, and stopped car washes. Jon reduced his gym membership. We&amp;#039;re not eating out anymore, and we&amp;#039;ve sold a lot of furniture we don&amp;#039;t need on eBay. We even transferred our credit card debt to a lower-interest credit card. We could be completely stressed out, but if we thought about our finances all the time, we&amp;#039;d be curled up in a ball in the corner. So this recession has taught me to take one day at a time. And since I&amp;#039;d always liked to search for discounts and freebies online \u2014 it was kind of a hobby \u2014 I even started a blog (frugalfreebiesanddeals.com) dedicated to finding Web deals on cosmetics, entertainment, groceries, and home supplies. Through the blog, I&amp;#039;ve become part of a community of coupon-ers, and I love getting comments from readers who&amp;#039;ve found great deals through the recommendations on my site. It&amp;#039;s comforting to connect with others who are also struggling financially, and to feel good in a not-so-great economy. 8 good things about bad times Tighter times don&amp;#039;t necessarily equal doom and gloom \u2014 and cutting back doesn&amp;#039;t have to hurt. Here, a few reasons to love living on less: You finally have the time to check out your local museums, historical sites, and parks during your staycation. You discover that you&amp;#039;re still killer at Boggle/Scrabble/gin rummy. Rather than wasting time shopping online, you waste time filling your Netflix queue: Much cheaper, and everything fits perfectly! You&amp;#039;re no longer stressed out about what you don&amp;#039;t have. Instead, you feel good and grateful for what you do have. You realize that generic products really do work just as well as name-brand ones. Spending less and saving more gives you an incredible feeling of control over your finances. (Priceless!) Who needs Starbucks? Folgers is better than you remembered! You actually have a good excuse to invite your girlfriends over for a cheap bottle of wine: Instead of shopping, it&amp;#039;s clothing-swap time. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/money-career/advice/a4753/benefit-from-recession/>