Over at The Ice Flow blog, a vivid depiction of a couple of Manhattanites who once lived high-on-the-hog but are now feeling the effects of recent events:

I’m a dogwalker and a catsitter, which places me in a crawl space between the ‘Upstairs’ clients and the ‘Downstairs’ building staffs of doormen, porters and superintendents and the army of service people…and because I have a huge mouth…I talk to them.

*Phyllis, is 45, she’s a designer at an auction house, married with a kid and a dog. She lives across the street from Madoff’s place in mid-level luxury. In 2006, she made $250,000, working 9 months of that year and vacationing/traveling all over the world. In 2008, she made $41,000 and is desperate to sell her condo before she has to tap savings. Her daughter is in an expensive private school that costs almost as much per year as she made last year, which is more than she will this year. Her life was built upon assumptions that no longer exist. By any measure, she has ‘enough’ and is unworthy of sympathy, but simply of note, she will have to adjust and I suspect she will. But the private school tuition seems likely to evaporate and tough choices about where to live and where to school await.

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Our Best of Craig’s List post from last week was so popular, we decided to go to the well once more. The following include obvious satirical rants, well-crafted hoaxes, and some genuine public displays of anger and despair. Again, from the archives of the Best of Craig’s List:

I’ll wear your silly costume (Louisville)

Times are tough these days, and we all need a little help to get ahead. I’m offering my services to put on whatever costume your business uses, (gorilla costume, statue of liberty, etc.) to promote whatever you need to promote. I’ve got experience looking dumb and holding stuff. email me, lets make the magic happen.

Re: Ratan and Wood book shelf (Chico, CA)

For the love of God, must you post this same ugly bookshelf every single day? I’ve seen it on this site at least 30 times. Give us a break for a few days would you. Nobody wants it. It’s ugly. Try lowering the price. Try setting it in front of your house with a free sign on it. Try anything, but please get a clue…Oh and by the way it’s “rattan” with a double t, not “ratan.” Now please take a break!!

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In this episode of the EconomyBeat we are reminded that times are tough, but they could be (and have been) a whole lot worse. And we are also reminded that mines are a terrible place to work, especially if you are nine years old. Nate Dimeo’s Memory Palace gives us a snap shot of one of the worst jobs ever, and the horrors of child labor in the early 20th Century.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 4:16 — 3.0MB)

Culled from Flickr. Click on each image to see it full-size.

Our Best of Craig’s List – Economy Version post from Wednesday was so popular, we’re working on a new one. But this particular post from the new crop illustrates a very specific anger about the banking crisis and bailout, and the perceived double standard applied to corporations versus individuals. So wethinks it merits its own entry. It’s long but worth a complete read.

To the Debt Collector Harassing Me at Work (Pittsburgh)

Your voice is quite charming in a sleazy, condescending, I-Get-Paid-To-Harrass-People kind of way. You must be so good with the ladies – I can picture you on a date, with that deep “I am full of self-importance” voice, asking her “So am I to file you under deadbeat mistress because you won’t sleep with me after knowing me for an hour?”

I am assuming you are either 1. Just out of college and eager to prove yourself by threatening a faceless person on the telephone, 2. A wannabe lawyer who is not smart enough to ever pass the BAR exam and therefore miserable in life, or 3. Someone who was picked on a lot in high school and believes this job is his calling to get revenge on all those bullies who made life a living hell.

Ours is definitely a missed connection, because after the first threatening phone call, I instructed our receptionist to screen all calls from you. Sad, but where I work, as I informed you several times, I cannot continue to speak to you without raising my voice, and unfortunately I cannot tell you everything I really want to say, as I am in public and do not want my coworkers to hear the trash language I would use.

You see, debt collector, my bills have always been paid on time. I am not a deadbeat, nor do I avoid paying my credit cards. But when you have a bank like Bank of America, who gets $20 billion dollars of US tax payers money, then turns around and changes credit card interest rates from 10% to 29.99% with no explanation, increases the monthly minimum amount due from $150 to $675 and turns your account over to a bottom feeder collection agency after two months because their customer could only pay $300 each of those months, there is a problem.

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One of the extracts in our last entry about uncommon economic indicators, concerning Costco coupons, comes from this longer post on a Marist College history professor’s blog. Here is the entire post, which describes a fight over coupons at a New York City-area Costco:

I am a regular Saturday morning grocery shopper at the Costco in Yonkers. I inquired at the entrance about if the store had the coupons that they mail out to all members. An employee said yes, “they are like gold man!” He repeated the phrase emphatically, “they are like gold!”

He explained, earlier in the week a cop-calling fight broke out over Costco Food coupons. While shopping in one of the aisles the first customer stepped away from her carriage with a coupon book inside it to get something off a shelf. The second customer helped herself to the coupons, which resulted in a pitched battle in the middle of the Costco. My Costco informant said, the two women “got up in each others’ faces ready to fight!” The first women called the Yonkers police department on her cell phone to report a robbery.

When the officers arrived on the scene and the first women demanded the arrest of the coupon thief immediately. One of the officers responded, “Lady if you ever call us again over some Costco food coupons, we will arrest you!”

Exhibit A

A couple of months ago we did a post on the Brian Lehrer Show’s Uncommon Economic Indicators web page, where people submit signs of the recession observed around the New York City area. As we wrote, “these won’t show up in any government statistics or charts, but they turn the abstract gloom of macroeconomic numbers into a concrete picture of what’s happening in the community.”

Time to check in again on recent submissions:

Odd job applicants – Brooklyn

I am helping a friend who is sick and getting treatment in Boston by packing and moving his belongings out of his apartment in BedStuy. I posted an ad on Craigslist, offering to pay 100 dollars to 3-4 people for several hours of work just to pack the place up. I received 92 postings in the last 24 hours – not just from the expected recent grads, musicians and writers, but also from engineers, architects, PHDs, construction managers, ex-Military, etc…I was shocked.

Old pennies are back

I remember this happening in an earlier recession: sort of old coins, such as wheat pennies from the ’40s and ’50s, are turning up in my pocket change. I think people are busting the penny jars open.

Chase desperate for customers – Manhattan

I was at the Chase ATM in the Chrysler building and the customer service reps were staking out the lobby for potential customers. There was a woman next to me using the ATM with a non-Chase card and the rep approached her in mid transaction to pitch her into opening a new account. He was standing over her shoulder pointing at the screen telling her she could save the $3 service fee AND (earn) $100. Clearly an invasion of personal space. She declined, saying she had to be somewhere but he persisted, almost dragging her into the office. I know that retail banking is getting competitive but these tactics are more aggressive than charity workers on the streets….

Costco coupons: Golden Tickets – Yonkers

I am a regular Saturday morning grocery shopper at the Costco. I inquired at the entrance about if the store had the coupons that they mail out to all members. An employee said yes, “they are like gold man!” He repeated the phrase emphatically, “they are like gold!”

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Ever check out the Best of Craigslist? These are posts that the site’s users have nominated as particularly interesting and/or humorous. They also can be telling indicators of the horrendous economy.

Dear Future Hipster Neighbor (Portland)

Dear Future late 20/early 30 Hipster Neighbor from the Mid-west/South/Idaho:

I know you are the coolest kid in Iowa/Ohio/Idaho/Texas/Florida/etc but…

While scanning CL for a cool vintage apartment near Hawthorne or Alberta, a sweet barista job and a new fixie to ride around on once you arrive, please reconsider your decision, and please do not move here.

There aren’t any jobs for the people who already live here….

Regards,

Your previous future neighbor

Small space for right roommate (SF Bay Area)

We have a limited time offer for a “nook” in our living room. The nook is currently home to my bike and is 6′ x 3′. It is perfect for someone who needs a little respite between apartments and has a comfy sleeping bag. The nook has wall to wall carpeting and has a window to private patio. Though it’s located in the main living room, you will be assured privacy by the entertainment center and nearby couch. We have limited space in our closet for your things, mostly it’s a room for the water heater, our suitcases, and a baby doll on a stick…

The rent: Negotiable per above standards
Availability: Now through mutually determined date

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The frugal debtor of the last post links to this post totalling up the cost of a daily visit to Starbucks:

…I know people that come in to my office with one of these 20 oz. Starbucks coffee concoctions every stinking morning.

I wonder if my co-workers took the time to consider the money they are wasting on a glorified cup of java? Let’s assume they average two weeks of vacation, and another two weeks of sick time and holidays each year. That means they come in to work with their Starbucks brew 48 weeks a year, 5 days a week. That is 240 trips to Starbucks at roughly $4.50 a pop, or $1080 annually for a stinking cup of morning coffee! Remember, this doesn’t count the days they go to Starbucks when they aren’t working.

Even worse, if you consider the 10 minutes you have to wait just to get the drink, that means you also waste one entire 40-hour work week each year at Starbucks standing in line!

So can anybody tell me why waiting in line to spend $4.50 for a cup of the foo foo coffee you get at Starbucks better than making your own Folgers at home, or walking in to your local Quickie Mart and taking a minute to pay a buck…?

I mean come on, folks. Is going to Starbucks really worth 40 hours of your life each year and the annual $780 premium?

I’m just askin’.

Good question…

Last week we wrote about Blogging Away Debt, the chronicle of a woman who started out $38,000 in the red and has since whittled it down a fair amount. But let’s up the ante with Drowning in $166,356.75 in Debt, which starts out this way:

I did something dumb, dumb, dumb. I went to an expensive undergraduate school, then I went to an even more expensive law school. A year and a half out of law school and one year into my first attorney job, a public interest job that is my calling but doesn’t pay much, I am up to my ears in debt. So six months ago I decided I wanted to get rid of it. All of it…This blog is intended to chronicle my journey.

That was in February, and our heroine has since managed to trim 10k off her tab, which now stands at $156,754.33. So this blog may outlast the Internet. But still, tha’s an impressive 6% reduction. How did she do it? Well, first and foremost, as she acknowledges herself, by being really, really thrifty.

Only throw out your clothes when you have a hole in the butt

I’ve done a couple posts about my rather extreme thriftiness. Some people may call it cheap, but I laugh last when I’m able to put that extra several dollars a month on my debt.

Anyway, a favorite pair of boxer shorts of mine that I’ve had since middle school and wear to bed when it’s hot bit the dust yesterday. Tore a whole right down the butt when I sat down! That is when it’s time to wave the white flag and throw that piece of clothing out. I got over 10 years out of those shorts, not too bad.

Don’t waste your money at Starbucks

Today at McDonald’s they are giving away free iced or hot Mochas (definitely go with iced). No purchase necessary, you just have to drive through and ask for it! I’m going this morning on my way to work. It’s until 7 p.m., and they’re doing it next Monday too.

Starbucks eats your money. It’s a sweet treat that sucks you dry. Give it up for financial reasons like you should give up smoking for financial reasons. I gave it up, and as you can see I still find ways to get gourmet coffee without purchasing it myself, although I can’t get it nearly as often.

Free coupons

For whatever reason, for the past several weeks my neighbor has been throwing out his edition of the Sunday paper into the recycle bin every Monday morning, unread, still wrapped up in its tie. So I’ve been helping myself to his paper, and the coupons!

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