Surviving The Great Depression of 2008

Times are getting tough for everyone with the financial crisis. Working Girls and Boys are cutting back on food, clothes and entertainment. But a girls gotta eat, look nice at work and after a long hard day, a girl needs a drink. Here are a few tips to survive the financial crisis without becoming a hungry, poorly dressed hermit.

Entertainment
Movies in Manhattan are $12. Add popcorn and a soda and that's at least $20. Per person! One cocktail costs anywhere from $10 - $15. Other cities are cheaper but still more expensive than we Working Girls would like. Drinking with friends at your apartment is a great savvy choice for having fun and saving money. Some of my favorite moments with my friends are around a table, drinking wine and playing cards. Easy. Cheap. Fun.

Or, just do the college thing when going out. Get your drink on at home then go to the bar and nurse a fun cocktail. And if we're going to get all college here, I'll have a Vodka 180.

Food

Eat less! Just kidding.

My mother has been clipping coupons for as long as I can remember. I tried using coupons at one point in college but I ended up purchasing items I never ate or didn't even like and therefore, didn't save any money. Now that I (a) moved to the city where I pay an absurd amount of money on groceries and (b) am penny pitching out of fear of a great depression, I'm back to clipping coupons. In addition to finding coupons in the Sunday paper, try visiting your favorite food brands websites for coupons or special offers. Coupons.com also has a number of savings on brand name grocery items.

I recently checked my online banking to see how much money I spent a week at my work cafeteria. I found that I was spending $45 to $60 a week on breakfast and lunch. That's a new shirt or a weeks worth of groceries (if I have a lot of coupons). Last week, I brought breakfast everyday and lunch four times. It's not as glamorous as purchasing sushi from the cafeteria but I'd rather save the money for dinner with friends.

Speaking of dinner with friends, that's not so cheap either. For me, that's due to alcohol. A month or so ago, two girlfriends and I opted for a quaint French BYOB in the West Village. The food at Tartine was reasonably priced and because we brought our own wine three of us had dinner (with an appetizer), dessert and two bottles of wine for about $80. Which is almost unheard of for a nice meal in Manhattan.

Clothes

My working wardrobe is in dire need of a makeover. I have one pair of pants to get me through the fall of winter and I'm already wearing them once a week. In a prefect world, I had own enough dresses to wear one everyday and only have a repeat or two each month. But in a prefect world there probably wouldn't be a financial crisis to begin with.

You already know how much WG2 and I love bargain shopping at places like Target and H&M. It's time to add a few more stores to our go-to list:

UNIQLO is the Japanese hybrid of American Apparel and H&M. With lots of basics (in lots of colors and styles), sweaters, jeans, dresses and a few fun pieces at reasonable prices I think I might just start making the trip from The Upper East Side to SoHo a little more often.

TopShop is what my friends in the UK swore by when they studied abroad and stuck using the Euro or the Pound. Prices have gone up over the past few years but it's still cheaper than designer duds. TopShop is coming stateside something this fall with a store opening in SoHo. The opening has been postponed but you can get your fix now that items can be purchased at US prices online.