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" Racheal Jama, 28,Soroti, Uganda Occupation: Assistant accountant Annual income: $7,200 (converted from Ugandan shilling) Average income for a woman in Uganda: $1,216 Home, sweet home: &amp;quot;I live in a single room with a washroom. I sleep on one side and cook on the other. There&amp;#039;s no actual kitchen, so I use a hot plate and a gas cooker. My rent is $44 a month.&amp;quot;  Bills, bills, bills: &amp;quot;My utilities, which include water and electricity, cost $13 per month. Here, everyone buys a mobile-phone handset, and you pay as you go. The phone costs $22, and I spend about $9 biweekly on phone credits.&amp;quot; Meal plan: &amp;quot;I have an hour lunch break, during which time I will go to a restaurant for a typical Ugandan meal, like matoke [steamed plantains], which costs about $1.30. I eat a light dinner at home, usually milk and a piece of cake.&amp;quot;  The weekender: &amp;quot;On Saturday evenings I&amp;#039;ll go to a friend&amp;#039;s house and watch DVDs. I don&amp;#039;t drink \u2014 most young, single women here do not go to bars.&amp;quot;  Only in Uganda: &amp;quot;At home, I boil my water and keep it in a clay pot. That&amp;#039;s how we keep our water safe and clean.&amp;quot; Shoe index: &amp;quot;I bought a pair of black open-toe high heels for almost $9. They are only for special occasions.&amp;quot; The road to recovery: &amp;quot;We felt the recession here so much. No one went to the shops or bought anything. It&amp;#039;s slowly getting better. I am grateful to have a job.&amp;quot;  Checks and balances: &amp;quot;It is so hard to save in our culture. I have tried and failed. Still, my top priority is to buy my own home. I&amp;#039;m not sure how, but I will do it.&amp;quot;  Audrey O&amp;#039;Connor, 31, Brussels, Belgium Occupation: Event planner Annual income: $60,000 (converted from euro), plus perks, including a daily meal stipend Average income for a woman in Belgium: $20,683 Home, sweet home: &amp;quot;For $900 a month, I rent a spacious one-bedroom apartment in the lively African quarter. I once had a party here that was so crowded, the floorboards started to creak!&amp;quot;  Bills, bills, bills: &amp;quot;My mobile phone costs me about $50, plus I pay about $200 a month, in total, for water, gas, electricity, and Internet access. I don&amp;#039;t own a TV, so no cable bill. Whatever I want to see I download from the Internet.&amp;quot; Meal plan: &amp;quot;I usually pack my lunch, but now and again I&amp;#039;ll go to an all-you-can-eat Lebanese restaurant for 25 euro ($34), which is cheap. There&amp;#039;s a very high standard for restaurants here. We don&amp;#039;t go to buffets to stuff ourselves.&amp;quot; The weekender: &amp;quot;Salsa dancing is huge. My friends and I dance at the clubs till 6 in the morning. I&amp;#039;ll spend about $85, which includes the cover charge, champagne, and the 50-cent fee to use the public bathrooms.&amp;quot;  Only in Belgium: &amp;quot;Most companies provide employees with food checks for about $10 per working day. You can use them in restaurants or at supermarkets. I use mine for groceries.&amp;quot;  Shoe index: &amp;quot;I bought $220 sandals in Ireland. They have bright-pink-and-purple straps and a gold wedge heel. They go with everything.&amp;quot; The road to recovery: &amp;quot;Belgians are very conservative when it comes to money. Our recession was nothing like in the U.S. I never really knew what all the fuss was about.&amp;quot; Checks and balances: &amp;quot;All my savings goes toward traveling. And when I go, I do it well. I don&amp;#039;t travel on a shoestring anymore!&amp;quot;  Anna Desmarais, 33, Seoul, South Korea  Occupation: Voice-over actress and gym owner Annual income: $75,000 (converted from Korean won)  Average income for a woman in South Korea: $16,931 Home, sweet home: &amp;quot;I rent a two-bedroom town house for $900 per month. The big selling point was the garden in front. South Korea is so overpopulated that it&amp;#039;s rare to find any green space.&amp;quot; Bills, bills, bills: &amp;quot;My cell phone is about $88 per month; utilities are another $100. Taxis are also a major expense for me \u2014 $350 a month. I take them often for work.&amp;quot;  Meal plan: &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t cook \u2014 ever. I don&amp;#039;t enjoy it anyway. I&amp;#039;ll rarely spend more than $5 for lunch, unless it&amp;#039;s for Western food, which can cost twice as much as Korean.&amp;quot;  The weekender: &amp;quot;Going out is an eight-to-10-hour ordeal. You&amp;#039;ll start with dinner or drinks, then hit a couple more places before ending up at a &amp;#039;singing room&amp;#039; or going out to eat again. You&amp;#039;ll always be sharing two meals together in the course of an evening. Big Saturday nights run me more than $200.&amp;quot; Only in South Korea: &amp;quot;The pace of life is extremely fast and can be stressful. So people are really into wellness, yoga, and detoxing. Last year I did the Master Cleanse for 13 days. It was hard-core.&amp;quot;  Shoe index: &amp;quot;The most I&amp;#039;ve ever spent was $300 on a pair of Nine West boots. They wouldn&amp;#039;t have been expensive at all in the States, but import tariffs here are really, really high.&amp;quot; The road to recovery: &amp;quot;I can honestly say the recession didn&amp;#039;t affect me much. I still enjoyed the same lifestyle.&amp;quot; Checks and balances: &amp;quot;I definitely live a comfortable lifestyle and still manage to save. I have about $40,000 in cash, and the rest is tied up in my business. I never worry about money \u2014 there are so many business opportunities here.&amp;quot;  Asli Tolon, 31, Istanbul, Turkey Occupation: Cofounder of a Web-based medical tourism company Annual income: $57,000 (converted from Turkish lira) Average income for a woman in Turkey: $5,352 Home, sweet home: &amp;quot;Last year I bought a two-bedroom apartment in central Istanbul for $210,000. I renovated it for another $21,000. Now I have no money for anything else.&amp;quot; Bills, bills, bills: &amp;quot;My utilities are very expensive. The water bill is about $70 per month, and electricity is another $85. I pay $145 per month for my BlackBerry and $55 for cable. Since I have two dogs, I also have a cleaning lady who comes three times a week \u2014 I pay her $530 per month.&amp;quot; Meal plan: &amp;quot;I work from home, so I usually make a sandwich for lunch. If I feel like something special, I&amp;#039;ll get sushi. But one roll costs $14, so I don&amp;#039;t do it very often.&amp;quot; The weekender: &amp;quot;I have two dogs \u2014 a lab mix and a golden retriever. I&amp;#039;ll go jogging with them to Bebek, a popular district in Istanbul right next to the Marmara Sea. On Saturday nights, the young crowd will hang out in the hip nightclubs along the water.&amp;quot;  Only in Turkey: &amp;quot;I own a Honda station wagon, but I avoid driving at all costs. Gas prices are high \u2014 it would cost $135 a week to fill up the tank. Everybody owns a car here, even people who can&amp;#039;t afford to.&amp;quot; Shoe index: &amp;quot;The most expensive pair of shoes I own are $220 Stuart Weitzmans \u2014 nude with a tie over the ankle. My dogs have chewed up some expensive pairs \u2014 devastating!&amp;quot; The road to recovery: &amp;quot;Economically, last year was terrible. But now things are picking up. I can tell because a lot of my friends are getting interviews and job offers.&amp;quot;  Checks and balances: &amp;quot;My savings are gone. That&amp;#039;s not a good place to be \u2014 31 with nothing in the bank. But at least I own a home and a business. I invested $10,000 of my own money in my company. I may enroll in an MBA program, which would cost about $25,000. It&amp;#039;s my backup plan if this start-up fails. Or marry a rich guy. You have to have a plan B, right?&amp;quot;  Heidi Dickson, 26, San Francisco, California Occupation: Project manager for a health-care company Annual income: $102,000 Average income for a woman in the U.S: $36,278 Home, sweet home: &amp;quot;I live in a 900-square-foot two-bedroom in Russian Hill with high ceilings, big windows, wood floors. We even have a washer/dryer in the bathroom, which is rare. The rent is $2,800 per month, which I split with my roommate.&amp;quot; Bills, bills, bills: &amp;quot;Though I have a BlackBerry for work, I also own an iPhone \u2014 can&amp;#039;t live in San Francisco without one \u2014 which costs me $95 per month. Pacific Gas &amp;amp;amp; Electric is $75 per month, as is cable. My student loans are $150 a month, but I&amp;#039;m paying $200 so they get paid off quicker.&amp;quot;  Meal plan: &amp;quot;For lunch, I grab a salad from a caf\u00E9, which costs between $9 and $14. After work, I&amp;#039;ll head to happy hour, have a few drinks, maybe buy a round for friends, then go out to a restaurant. I&amp;#039;ll take a cab there and back. A night out like that costs me between $75 and $100.&amp;quot;  The weekender: &amp;quot;Last week I went on an art crawl. On Saturday night I hit the bars. Last call is at 2, and then we&amp;#039;ll grab a bite to eat. If I go over $150, that&amp;#039;s a bad night.&amp;quot; Only in the U.S.: &amp;quot;I grew up on a farm in North Dakota. When I first got to college and saw that you could order pizza without driving 30 miles to get it, I went crazy. We used to have family dinners at home; my mom would cook them, and they were great. But now I&amp;#039;m all about going out.&amp;quot; Shoe index: &amp;quot;I own a pair of cute leather Hispanitas boots that were originally $300, which I got for half that because a friend of mine worked in the store. I do not spend a lot of money on shoes. The only thing I&amp;#039;ll spend real money on is jeans. The perfect pair makes you feel amazing.&amp;quot; The road to recovery: &amp;quot;The recession hasn&amp;#039;t affected me at all. Same for my friends. Restaurants are still open, people are still going out. Have I changed my behavior? Nope.&amp;quot; Checks and balances: &amp;quot;When I first joined the working world, I got into $4,000 worth of debt. Paying it off was horrible and took the fun and joy out of my new job. I promised myself I would never do that again. Now I rarely ever have more than a $100 balance on my card.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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