Caroline

Housing

How to live paycheck by paycheck with a smile

I am a senior in college and only have a couple of months to enter the real world with debt like everyone else in my generation. For the first three years of college, my family has helped me with school expenses, rent, utilities, food, and among other bills. Now that my family has lost funds and savings I have been working as much as possible and still going to school full time. Yes my grades have dropped big time and yes I have credit card debit and yes I owe many people money. I have paying bills on my own. I don't think I'll be getting out school yet. I owe the school money for parking tickets and for this I cannot fill out the graduation form. All I can do is smile and laugh. I cannot cry anymore because there are no more tears. I don't blame anyone for my situation but only myself. But I do smile because everything is a learning experience. I laugh because I dont think it can get any worse. I really dont think anyone cares about my generation anymore and that is why I laugh sadly but then I smile for hope.

Rutgers, the State University of NJ

lamar treadwell

Bright

the best beer doesn't shrink

In response to the listener who said that the good beers are downsizing to 11.2 oz--this country's oldest brewery, Yeungling in Pottsville, PA, makes several fine beers. Their porter happens to be, in my opinion, the best beer on the planet. Not only are 6 packs of Yeungling among the cheapest (besides bud, coors, etc which i never notice anyway), but they are definitely holding steady at 12 oz.

Ra'ayah

Commerce

Bottle Check

The man who called in about the new size of bottle opening is definitely CORRECT. I noticed the same phenomena on my face soap. But unlike the guy who checked, I did not check. When I heard his comment on the radio, I ran to my bathroom because I had both the old bottle and the newest one and sure enough on my face cleanser the aperture on the bottle purchased last summer was 1/16" and the bottle purchase this winter 1/4". Wow.

Lisa

Behavior

Uber-early rush hour

I am on the Garden State Parkway several mornings a week by 5:15 a.m. Before the economic down turn, I shared the road with builders, plumbers, and electricians. Now? The roadway is packed with sedans filled with people going to work way early. Been there done that. These are the people who need to be seen at their desks bright and early, appearing to be diligent and irreplaceable.

Ocean County New Jersey

June Fenniman

Commerce

Knit One, Purl Where?

I work as an Art Director, but in my free time I have always drawn, painted, sewn, quilted, crochet & knitted. Over the years, the stores that sell these products have been shrinking in size. Now I've found several small stores have just disappeared overnight. These products can be found on the internet, but it's such a tactile experience to browse the piles of yarn or fabric, during the process of deciding what to create with it. Is creativity going to be completely squeezed out of all budgets?

Westchester, NY

Robert Kolins

Swindlers

Senator Charles Schumer

I went to Senator Charles Schumer’s web site to contact him. Even though he is a ranking member of the Banking and Finance Committees of the Senate and is in part responsible for the lax oversight that allowed the melt down of the world financial system that now requires everyday people to bail out the super wealthy he omits from the topics to contact him on banking and finance. Where is the outcry from the general public that those responsible for the accountability of accounting firms and regulating the regulating agencies allowed the country to be endangered? After Enron what did they do to right the system to protect the public? Where is Schumer’s program and plan to correct the system now? Where is Obama’s plan other than saying trust me and giving the wealthy vast amounts of money? Why are those who swindled the public at AIG being given more millions and billions in reward for putting their country at risk?

Karina Ioffee

Commerce

A Call for Shopping Local

I live in Astoria and over the weekend as I was walking on 30th Avenue, I saw fliers posted on storefronts, urging neighbors to buy local as a way for stabilizing the economy. I got to wondering if the economic situation has gotten more recruits for the "buy local" movement.

Also, the Kinko's near Bryant Park last week was offering free resume printing, which the manager said many people were taking advantage of.

30th Avenue, Astoria, Queens

billy fleurima

Employment

i'm an artist

Editor's Note: This artist reached out to Your Uncommon Economic Indicators to ask for help with employment. To see his post and offer him some advice, visit our Bulletin Board. Copy and paste this URL: http://issues.wnyc.org/wiki/index.php/Bulletin_board#Employment

Nancy Peters

Behavior

Banged-up Bentley

Spotted near Lincoln Center: A Bentley with a banged up driver's side door that had been patched up with duct tape. But the really noteworthy thing was that the duct tape was silver and the car was black. How bad have things gotten if you need to do some car repairs and you can't even spring for a roll of tape that matches the Bentley?

63rd Street and Columbus Ave

Ray Franks

Employment

tools, tools, more tools

I have a small woodworking business that I operated out of my brownstone basement. I a 500 square foot shop, with steady, but low output. I've noticed three things the past couple of months. 1) More requests for repairs. 2) Since the new year I've had around a dozen cold calls or emails from experienced woodworkers looking for work. 3) As I browse craigslist daily, I've noticed a huge uptick in tools for sale, especially "shop going out of business" sales.

257 W. 123 Street, #1

Barnacle Bertha

Commerce

A Chicken in evey pot

At the end of the day, Fairway used to sell their leftover rotisserie chickens 2 for the price of one....

Alas, it is offered no more.

480-500 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn

Shoshana Wolfe

Behavior

Burial Plots for Sale

While trolling Craig's List, I couldn't help but notice an awful lot of burial plots for sale (by owners) upstate. Seems like due to circumstances, people are prioritizing quality-of-life while they're actually still alive.

AP

Behavior

Breaking News: Camping is Cheap!

7 Hoffman Avenue, 12209

Susan

Swindlers

Your Car is Smoking

Scam in the 14th St area, south side. Just as you finish parking your car, a guy comes up to you and says it's smoking. He offers to take a look, opens the hood, the radiator, steam comes out. Says he'll take a look underneath the car. Goes under, lots of banging. Comes back up, says it's fixed. If you offer him a few dollars for being a good samaritan, he says he's a mechanic and he just did a job that would be $180 in the shop. Demands more $. Tell him all you have is $20, get his name, address -- and scam him back. He neither fixes nor breaks the car. Nothing was wrong with it in the first place.

17th street, 3rd avenue

Marjorie Van Halteren

Commerce

empty French stores

Small town, North of France, more empty stores than ever before.

Place Charles de Gaulle, Morbecque France 59190

Alyssa

Behavior

The Ice Cream Section

My local grocery store in Astoria has a decimated ice cream section. The interesting thing is that shoppers seem to be going for the pints, not the big tubs of generic. Since I go to the store fairly often, it doesn't seem to be a stocking issue. My guess is that young professionals in the neighborhood are springing for smaller pick-me-ups instead of cheaper gallons. Buying a gallon is sort of like admitting defeat.

2215 31st Street Astoria, NY 11105

Alexis Higgins

Behavior

Telemarketer Takes No Prisoners

I recently received a call from a telemarketer asking for a contribution to a fireman's fund. After I heard his spiel I began to explain apologetically why I couldn't donate any money this year. Mid-explanation I heard a click-- he had hung up on me! I'd like to think that this was because many charities are especially hard up right now and pressed for time, or just exasperated by people's newly tightened pockets. I'll try to give him the benefit of the doubt!

Kristin

Employment

Even the toilet paper is affected...

I know times have gotten tough as my company has replaced our normal toilet paper with this super-cheap stuff that just tears instead of rolling down from the roll.

Leila Ferioli

Behavior

Parking in Park Slope?

I live in South Slope and over the last few months I've noticed that it has been dramatically easier to find a parking spot (I use my car daily). I figure that people are having second thoughts about owning a car when that monthly insurance bill comes due.

339 15th st

chessie

Behavior

Wholesome Savings

You can now find a parking space in the lot of the Greenwich CT Whole Foods at noon - formerly filled to capacity (with a line) with general grocery shoppers and local workers stopping by for a ready-to-eat meal. Suggests more people willing to pay for "whole" foods, and fewer workers out for lunch.

Whole Foods, Route 1, Greenwich, CT