Am I the only one who finds these comments ludicrous? Buck up ladies. I do feel for those whose husbands have been laid off. It is a shock to the system and the job scene is not good right now.
But as for those who are crying over their cable and cell phones and day care....oh please. Have you heard of the library? And how about your Internet connection? I agree with the fast food....you can get a pound of deli meat (good meat like turkey or chicken) and a loaf of bread for the same price as a Big Meal at any of the fast food joints.
For all the people with the mortgage problems...sorry, no sympathy....no one made you sign those loans and I am sure there were less expensive homes on the market.
How about hooking up with a few families and start a coop for vegetables or what ever is local in your area. How about each of you cook a dinner a night and share half thereby cutting your food bills.Coupons, anyone?
As for the gas prices, they are what they are. Deal with it! Carpool or mass transit. Yeah, they do work!
Health care is my only point of sympathy. It sucks but children can get vaccinations through your town/city and look into state plans.
Don't get me wrong....I'm affected also. But I live in house that is 40 years old in an older neighborhood. I drive a 2000 energy efficient car. My husband drives a Dodge neon. We manage with car seats, strollers etc.The Y or the rec center have some great preschool classes for a reasonable amount of money. Walking in the neighborhood is just as good as a fitness center.Sorry, the buck will not stop here. I've scrimped and saved - we have a retirement account that's taken a major hit and a 401K that also is suffering but you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start each morning fresh.

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The Accidental Housewife - I agree. At some point we have to rise up and realize that we can get through this.

I am a Boomer's child, not a Boomer, but in hindsight I look back on what my parents were trying to provide us, and realize how little some of it really mattered. We didn't need the best clothes. We didn't need the extra cars. We needed more opportunities to grow, learn, discover our strengths and interact with our communities.

I have pretty much come to realize that my family may never be as well-off as parents' was. Even now, the lifestyle I live is greatly pared down compared to my folks'. Its really not so bad. Don't be embarassed of your small apartments or junky cars or outdated clothes. Work on strengthening your relationships and living up to your best values. That's what gets me through all this.

Also, some tips I use everyday:
- Ride a bicycle to get around (use a backpack to carry things)
- Shop at garage sales and resale shops
- Craigslist!
- Think less, but better, higher quality
- Teach yourself to cook, and get your kids involved EARLY
- Teach yourself to cook by ingredients, not just recipes, so you can plan whole menus around sale items
- Eat less meat, more beans
- Learn to appreciate local tourism

Sometimes I miss my coffee shops and long trips and expensive trips to the grocery store and Bumble and Bumble hair products, but most of the time I don't. And my dad, who has to live frugally now, has rarely been happier. And my boyfriend now loves Aldi. He used to be too snobby for that.

Oh, and for the moms looking to barter for music lessons, think about putting up fliers around music departments at universities or high schools. I'm sure there might be some opportunities there. Maybe you could do the laundry of some poor college student?

Okay, here's my tip:

I save between about 50 dollars a month by not using my dryer. I hang clothes outside on the line, or inside (on doorknobs, on hangers, wherever) in bad weather. It's not that hard. Eventually, everything dries. I can't believe I've been wasting all that money for so long.

My suggestion is we get together on a date to do a nationwide swap meet. It helps in two ways:

1) We get to makimize the possessions that aren't working for us and help ourselves and other cash strapped families.

2) With all the talk about 'main street' it would give a real visual to the Wall streeters and policy wonks about how main street is feeling and coping. Any feedback?

Carlliz: It's not sympathy your comments are lacking but empathy (the ability to see into the heart of others). Cell phones, cable and the like are the expressible minatures of everyone's major fears that are too big to discuss. I'm sure you are honorable and hard working but so are you neighbors and they did not necessarily buy houses that were too big to get caught by this crisis, some refianced to cover college, illnesses, etc.
No one is weak or a dummy for having to face the unfamiliar or for talking about it. Bless everyone, let's keep supporting each other.

Stagnant wage growth will grind us all into the dust. Don't let it.

I am disgusted by the so-called fiscal conservatives who want to blame ordinary citizens and homeowners for this massive financial meltdown.

The reality is that anyone and everyone who has ever based a vote on a promised tax cut is a direct contributor to what will become the biggest problem of all - the national debt.

And before we get to that, there will be several more shock waves, of which the housing bust is merely the first. Next come the auto bust, the credit card bust, and the entitlement bust. State and local retirements will be first, followed by medicare, medicaid, and social security.

But hey, we all got our $300 tax cuts, right? As to the notion that overreaching homebuyers are solely responsible, Treasury Secretary Paulson put it thus: "There are approximately 7 million outstanding subprime mortgage loans. Available data suggests that 10 percent of subprime borrowers were investors or speculators. This figure is likely higher, as some investors misrepresented themselves to take advantage of a cheaper rate, and others speculated on a primary residence, expecting prices to continue going up."

And in a piece at CNN:

"Sharga said that more than 38 percent of properties in foreclosure through the end of April were classified as "not-owner occupied," meaning they were second homes, investment homes or rental property. That's roughly 280,000 of the nation's 720,000 foreclosed properties. The hardest-hit areas are California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida."

"What you had was dramatically overheated markets where people overextended themselves to buy overvalued properties and they used risky loans to get those properties," Sharga said."


Finally, there are two parties to every loan - one is extremely sophisticated and has a wealth of information and tools and charts and tables and graphs and formulas and software and experience and power. The other was often a financially unsophisticated consumer who was sold on the ideals of the Bush Ownership Society and seduced by the unctuous exhortations of the mortgage brokers, who got an extra 3 percent for steering him/her into a sub-prime loan, whether they needed it or not (and 40 percent did not).

I hope the "media" talks about Blackwater, faith-based funding, accountability, oversite, the penal system,.Who controls the GOP coffers filled will money raised by Bush and Chaney at fundraisers throughout their regime?