Christmas really set alot of people back financially this year. Recession?

I agree. That's why this past christmas, i only bought stuff for immediate family and set a limit of 10 bucks for each person. Everyone thinks it's all about presents, but it's not. and plus I made some homemade items such as scrapbooks and coloring books for the children. It's about the joy and being with family, not how much you spent. Because of this, I still have a little bit of money, since I lost my job a week ago. The job market out here is really bad, there's no jobs coming in for general labor or entry level. It's all been high level stuff that you need a degree for.

I know exactly what you mean! My credit card bills are late and I have been paying the electric bill on the disconnect date becasue I had to let my kids have a nice Christmas. I am hoping to catch up bills with our tax refund. I am happy that I have a nice warm house to stay in with a roof over my head though I know some people are not that lucky.

I hear you Diva, am in similar situation. I made it throught the Christmas and gave my kids and all a wonderful christmas and no pay the piper lol. I never charge stuff on credit cards though so this two weeks is really tight. I well be okay next week after payday . However these two weeks with nothing has been awfully hard. But we will survive Diva because we are givers and survivers. Happy new year to you. yes I count my blessing to cause there are a lot worse off than we are I agree. God bless and all the best to you.

We skipped Christmas this year. Large part because my share of the income is coming from student loans (yes, at my age, I am going to college). The sad part is everything is getting more expensive (the last couple of years, we managed to survive without me taking private loans; not this year), gas, milk, food in general, and don't mention the light bill. I am not sure of the technical definition of recession (I think it is no economic growth), but it doesn't matter. I haven't been this bad off since I was growing up, and we were really poor. The sad part is I do know people who are worse off.

I feel you on this subject. My husband works for his dad on the farm and in the winter there is not much work. So just my kids got presents this year. The gas is out ragous and i hope it goese down. We have two truck on desel and the other gas with big engines and I live 20 min from town. Its hard. hang in there. Let all hope things gets better.