Loved discovering you all on Charlie Rose~ I’ve noticed that I have been on many interviews for various Part Time jobs and come up against roughly 40 others vying for the same $10-$12 an hour position! Worst of all, we are all grossly overqualified!

The nice part of living in a small town is that when I don’t know what I’m doing, someone else does. Anon.

p.s. The submit button seems slow to respond and may be the reason some comments are repeated — a glitch to fix, perhaps.

yes, liz, just moved out of murray hill and too many ‘for rent signs.’ just saw another in gramercy park, a very nice antiques shop, closed. my company just laid off 50% of our sales force. it’s hit closer to home than usual.

I work at a large midtown firm and last year my department was told they had enough “budget” for this year. We have not been told that about next year. Oh, and it has been a banner year for them. I guess they just think they can do without the “little” people who keep it going. I will not say be saying good luck on my way out the door.

I have a mail order, online gift business and posted an ad for p/t seasonal help on Craig’s List last October. Response is usually high but I received more replies than usual — about ten percent from neighboring states.

Real Estate in Florida is stagnant. A child in Naples failed to sell her house in 2006. Another child moved to Baltimore and failed to sell his house in Tallahassee. With so many absolute auctions in Florida, troubles abound in the state. Troubles hit the state government with a 3 billion short fall in tax revenue. Recession comes to mind in the face of the facts.

Change occurs all of the time. Think of the 4 seasons. Now it happens to be about money and jobs and too much corporate greed and a thoughtless administration. We are a creative people and resourceful. We have peaked in our production of oil and there will be many products affected in the future, not just a shortage of gasoline. As Americans we are excessive in our wants and desires. If we focus on our needs for a while we will be ok. Our mental, emotional and physical health is what is truly important. Better to concentrate on the present moment and the near future when required to deal with the practical aspects. Use the public library for books, magazines and newspapers. Plant a bulb and watch it sprout and flower. Begin a list of all that works and be grateful for your aliveness. Ann 4/09/08

I’m in a rural area, Berkshire County, forty minutes from Albany. For the first time in renting my apartments in thirty years I had a tenant tell me he would have to move out soon because he could no longer afford the four hundred dollars a month he was spending in gas to get to work. I put an ad in for an apt. for rent in Craig’s list for a summer vacation rental and I haven’t gotten even one inquiry. This also is a first for me because usually an apartment rents very easily as a summer rental as there aren’t many of them. A new addition on my house needs painting so I put an ad out for that on Craig’s list (don’t we all just love free advertising on Craig’s list) and I got 23 applications! That for a part time position paying only $12 an hour. I think we are just beginning to see and feel very troubled times.

Business at The Greenbrier, WSS, WV is at an all time low - creating lay offs and more expected in the near future.

What a wonderful site! This is my second time today visiting WOWOWOW. I’m hoping that as you update and revise, you will change how you post comments. I would like to see the most recent comments when I long on, rather than the first.

I live in southern New Jersey, I an disable, on soc.sec. I see 5 doctors all but one are specialists ($50.00) a shot. And now my Family doctor wants me to see an Infectious Disease Dr. with my white blood sells up and a fever that goes up then down….. So I have seen the price of co-pays go up and the medicine that I use had cost $5.00 now it is costing $12.00 or $25.00 or $40.00. I take 13 pills a day. I have tried to not take them but then I end up in hospital $850.00 a shot. last time I was in for 14 days. My husband would go to work and then come visit me, then at 10:00 leave and go home to eat and sleep. When he goes to the grocery store he does not by what we use to. We have one grocery store, Acme. Every Thursday I have Dr. apts. I try to book at least two sometimes I can get in three. Next week we start at 7:45a.m. and do not end until 6:45 p.m. But with gas so high we have to do what we can. I want a ramp out the back door so I can get some fresh air and meet our neighbors. But he does not have the time. He is up early to drive 45 minutes to work, but before he leaves he sets everything up for me. He even set a runner from inside the house so I can let our little dog out and in. We live in a mobile home park with a good piece of land and a double wide. The lot rent goes up $15.00 a year. My husband plants tomatoes and peppers. My husband’s job is working on cars. He works 50 hours a week. So I think we will be okay I just worry about the cost of my Health care. I read all that you have written and I know it is hard believe me I miss our house. But like Mugsy says work together and see what we all can do. I have tons of clothes that I am sure someone could use. And I ran a Day Care Center in Vermont. When I was well I have all sorts of ways to entertain children that is really cost effective. Pick my brain. I would really like to use it. lol

Immediate signs of a recession (or fears of)? People being laid off at my husband’s educational company and me asking how secure his job is. Seeing layoffs at the company for which one of my writing students works. Seeing everything get lean & mean. Since gas is so high, staying at home to work unless I have to go out & looking at how far I have to drive to see whether looking for a job or going to an audition is worth it. Took the subway downtown to avoid parking fees. But I have lived this way for a long time and successfully made a lifestyle out of it. If you reallyl want to get the pulse of the frugal heartland, check out www.thriftyfun.com where mostly women share their interesting frugal strategies. I have my frugal blog parked there at www.myfrugallife.com/blog_pamphyila.html in which I tell about my stylish pennypinching occasioned by my career as an artiste. (Just was interviewed on internet radio at bbstalkradio.com on Sam & Manu’s California Dreaming show.) For so long I pinched pennies quite successfully, but in the closet! Now it’s become GREEN and FASHIONABLE and I am going back to my book project, which was rejected in “more prosperous” times. I was lucky that the lessons of the Great Depression were passed on to me by my mother - which I have embroidered on in my own way. Too many of my contemporaries either never received that sort of knowledge or ignored it. I fear the same for this next generation. This “correction” is going to be a real shock for the middle class who are finally waking up to the transfer of wealth started in the Reagan years - and it wasn’t into THEIR pockets…

I love this site - great I live 1.6 miles from Stanford University and in the middle of the upper echelons of Silicon Valley. I have never heard people here talk about the price of food or or anything relating to cost. I am hearing it now. I call our Safeway “Tiffanys” as the price of eggs has quadrupled, Starbucks is still going strong but my 28 year old son wants to swap cars as gas is the most expensive here than anywhere in the country. He would never have asked if things weren’t so surreal.