The Daily Reviewer | Portraits of an Economy

Portrait: Delaware

Jan 19, 2010 9:41pm

My wife and I have been married for coming up on 16 years and have three exceptionally brilliant children (mostly her doing.) For the better part of 20 years after college I sold commercial printing in the DE, PA, NJ area and lead a successful, yet very boring career killing...

Portrait: Central Coast, CA

Dec 12, 2009 12:32am

submitter's note: trigger warningI managed to score a wonderful job just as the recession hit. I am employed by a non-profit organization, and happily took a slight pay cut in order to regain a sense of personal satisfaction with my work.My non-profit assists survivors of sexual assault in various aspects...

Portrait: Prince George's County, Maryland

Oct 22, 2009 7:46pm

Last night my husband and I broke down and tapped into our very last resort. We emptied my 16 month old daughter’s piggy bank for money to sustain us for the next 10 days until our next paydays.Despite the dire straits that we might seem to be in right...

Portrait: Puyallup, Washington

Aug 31, 2009 10:07am

My husband and I have spent our entire young adulthood making what we thought were the "right" choices. He got me through nursing school so I could get a good job and I could, in turn, get him through chiropractic school so he could get his own great job....

Portrait: Vermillion South Dakota

Aug 24, 2009 5:13pm

A few years ago, I was 22 and enjoying my own quiet riot of excess and stupidity. I was mindless about everything. Mindlessly dating and sleeping with a man that didn't love me and vice versa. Mindlessly wracking up thousands in stupid debt, living off of my mother, and just...

Portrait Update: St. Louis Missouri

Jul 19, 2009 9:49pm

You published my story on Portraits of an Economy on Mother's Day. My husband and I were in the middle of what felt like a never ending adoption limbo, waiting to find out if we could keep our daughters and sacrificing everything we could to continue channeling money at our...

Portrait: Johannesburg, South Africa

Jul 7, 2009 11:30pm

I was laid off at the end of April. I am yet to find a job. I am married, I have a house and a child. Thank goodness my husband still has his job. I don't want to think about where we would be should he lose/have lost his job....

Portrait Update: Greenville, North Carolina

Jun 29, 2009 10:39pm

Back in February I gave my two cents to Portraits of an Economy. Now I only wish I would have put those pennies in my forever-empty coin jar.The truth is that five, six, seven months ago I somehow had more money. I somehow had more stuff. I somehow managed to dine...

Portrait Update: Olympia, Washington

May 25, 2009 10:11pm

I thought I would send you a little update on what's happened since my first post on Portraits. I wanted to let you, and the readers know that after almost 6 full months of job searching, I finally was able to find a new job! I start training tomorrow, and...

Portrait: Detroit, Michigan

May 25, 2009 10:10pm

I called my father the other day.Our nanny had quit on her first day - which happened to be my first day returning to work from maternity leave - and I wondered if he could help us out for a week while we found someone else.No, my sixty-year-old dad said....

Portrait: St. Louis, Missouri

May 9, 2009 1:57pm

I suppose in the grand scheme of things, I don't really have anything to complain about. My husband has a good job that provides insurance. He just got a raise and will (probably, hopefully) get a bonus in June. We can currently afford our mortgage (although thanks to a shady...

A Small Town West of Atlanta, Georgia

May 7, 2009 4:49pm

I’m 21 years old, and I’m incredibly grateful just to have a job, and a place to live. I’m the one and only customer service representative for a small medical supply company about 45 minutes outside Atlanta. My boyfriend also works with this company, and thanks to the economy we...

Portrait: Vancouver, Washington

May 6, 2009 4:33pm

Sunday, May third, was shaping up to be a typical workday for me and my co-workers at the salon I work at. We'd been steady throughout the day, but as the foot traffic tapered off, my co-workers went home. By 4:30 pm, it was just myself, our receptionist Dede and...

Portrait: Lee County, Florida

May 4, 2009 10:48pm

I'm 19 years old, and was born and raised in Manchester, NH. As a high school student, I never thought that I'd experience the face of homelessness, nor did I think that several others would be experiencing this. I also never took the time to think much about how the...

Portrait: Olympia, Washington

Apr 24, 2009 9:09pm

Unemployment has left me with many dark days. Days where my eyes burn from tears, where I ask myself over and over, “What am I doing wrong?” I have moments where I think I might never find a job, where I will be forced to give in and work in...

Portrait: Toronto, Ontario

Apr 20, 2009 9:39am

I spent the last 6-½ years working for a small non-profit organization. The money wasn’t great but there were perks in other areas. My business wardrobe was all jeans and Ts, so I never had the expense of pantyhose or dry cleaning. The benefits were beneficial; I rarely paid out...

Portrait: Attleboro, Massachusetts

Apr 2, 2009 10:43pm

I saw a strange man walking up the street Sunday morning. I had already been to Church and back. I was waiting for my boyfriend to call me to breakfast. I heard the strange man before I actually saw him. He was yelling at someone…someone I...

Portrait: Portland, Oregon

Mar 30, 2009 12:53pm

Three weeks ago, my fiancé and I were standing in our kitchen talking about the fact that money had become a huge topic for us. We made a solid six-figures, but there was never enough, we always wanted more, we wanted to save more, etc.... For some reason,...

Portrait Update: (A Silver Lining) Singapore

Mar 26, 2009 9:33pm

I wrote a while back about my uncle, whose is suffering through a second relapse in his long battle with cancer. He could barely afford the treatment, and it broke my heart that my childhood hero had to battle the financial demons along with his illness. I see how weak,...

Portrait Update: Good News, Detroit Michigan

Mar 25, 2009 8:49am

I wrote a while back about my mom, the provider of the family, losing her job after 25 years. She was applying weverywhere for a position but no one would hire her. She rarely even got an interview. Well...someone she used to know through work called her recently to tell her he had mentioned her...

Portrait: Phoenix, Arizona

Mar 25, 2009 8:41am

Everyone always says that it will never happen to you; you will never loose your job. And then it does. Twice. In seven months. I can understand loosing one job in a lifetime, but two in less than a year? I still don't quite understand...

Portrait: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Mar 19, 2009 9:13pm

My husband and I are both creatives (he's a graphic designer and I'm an ex-scenic painter/set designer, now interior decorator). We didn't start out like you and your husband. We met in college and were immediately best friends and roommates. Six years later we were married. I keep trying to reinvent myself career-wise, while C...

Portrait: Lee County, Florida

Mar 15, 2009 10:12pm

Lee County lies on the Gulf coast of Florida, about half way between Tampa and Miami. It saw a development boom a few years ago, but last year Cape Coral, a primarily residential area laced with canals, led the nation in home foreclosures. More than three quarters of the homes...

Portrait: Divorce, Connecticut

Mar 10, 2009 10:24am

I know most women won't argue with me when I say that even if you can't find it on a map, divorce is a state. Its a location, or, really, a dislocation. I should say upfront that it isn't my divorce, and this isn't my story. Its my mother's. My...

Portrait: Phoenix, Arizona

Mar 9, 2009 6:09pm

I am a 27 year old mother and wife. I love my husband and daughter as much as any wife and mother could. They are amazing and make me so happy. They fill my life with love, laughter, friendship and hope. Because I love them so...