Strike "Can't" from your Dictionary

Single mom says there's hope for recession blues

Ivy Lupacchino, mother of five, in 1996 found herself drowning in a $3300 mortgage, an imploded marriage, multiple car payments and nonexistent child support.

What does a longtime homemaker who can't afford day care for five children do?

Lupacchino set up a small piano studio in the basement of her Daleville rental house and recruited four students - children of friends. Word spread, and within a year her business, Eighty-eight Keys, was serving 47 students a week.

She now works two jobs, her piano teaching business and waiting tables, both of which take up 7 days a week. She copes with her 7 day work week by dividing her days into sections - a practice she continues today.

Lupacchino's advice for the newly unemployed: Strike the word "can't" from your vocabulary.

"You can either stay in bed crying, or you can come up with something you can do to keep yourself from starving."

Also: Never, ever admit you can't do a prospective job. Lupacchino recalls interviewing for a part-time bookkeeping job a few years ago; the interviewer wanted to know if she knew the computer programs Excel and WordPerfect.

"I'm like, 'Yeah, of course,' and then I immediately drove to Books-a-Million and bought two books ... and she never knew."

"Denial is handy," she adds. "A good therapist will tell you not to be in denial, but I think it can be a great survival technique."

No matter how badly off you feel you are there is someone in more dire straits who survives. Read the Beth Macy Article here.

No Job Frugal Living - Frugal Ideas