Lemonade Maker: Lori Chalmers, Downturn Designer

At the end of 2007, Lori Chalmers was laid off from her main graphic design gig with one day’s notice. Scrambling for income, she took a shot at turning her hobby—designing and making handbags—into a business. The 30-year-old talked to us about how she created her Toronto-based fashion company, Cha Cha, from scratch.

One day?

Well, as a freelance you have no protection, no severance, nothing.

I came home and had locked myself out of my apt. So I was waiting for my landlord, thinking about how I could make some money quickly. I had been making bags for my friends and for myself. It was my one skill…

Save Money with the 30-Minute Rule

The 30-Minute Rule has nothing to do with eating food off the floor.

It’s a way to keep your spending in check by curbing impulse shopping — especially important as some of us are starting to feel flush again.

Maybe you’ve just found a job after months of unemployment. Maybe you just feel like the economy is starting to wobble towards a recovery. It’s hard not to unleash all that pent-up desire to buy. But over-spending is not a habit we want to return to as a society.

The 30-Minute Rule is ridiculously simple….

Video: America’s “Great Unwind”

One should always be skeptical when a guy who makes his living from selling people stuff they don’t need starts talking about “empowering” consumers and how great it is that people are shopping less.And there are some annoying, ad-guy aspects to the talk John Gerzema, chief insights officer of Young and Rubicam, gave at the TED conference.

That said, he’s not wrong. From the start of the downturn, we saw changes developing in society—people would think differently about money…

Screwed: 525 in Delaware

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Today’s Total: 1,036

Delaware is eliminating 525 vacant jobs…Bath Iron Works says it will lay off 191 workers this month…Denver will let go at least 170…Sitel call center in Tennessee will lay off 112…

Downturnaround Deals: Victoria’s Secret, Ghirardelli Chocolate, Foot Locker, Crayola

Every week, we post online deals hand-picked for Recessionwire readers by the nice people over at Savings.com. Feel free to pass them along, and if there’s something you’d like to see, let us know!

Get 15% off orders of $100 or more at Victoria’s Secret. (See more Victoria’s Secret Coupons.)…

No Comeback for Credit Cards

In case you haven’t heard, Americans are plunking down their gold (and blue and red and green) cards a lot less. And it looks like some of us are swearing off them altogether.

Almost a quarter of people said they had permanently changed their attitude towards credit cards and would not be using them anymore…

Lost Your Job? Tell Your Landlord.

Sure, he jacks up your rent, ignores your calls about vermin and takes two days to get the toilet fixed. But your landlord (or lady) is really nice.

In fact, two-thirds of small, independent landlords say that they would reduce rents to help tenants stay in their homes, according to a new survey by the National Association of Independent Landlords. And a third say they already have…

Is New York Less Affordable Than Ever?

The snarkists over at Gawker used the I Can’t Afford to Love NY tee-shirt to bash hipsters (and fair enough). When we saw it, we first wondered why it hadn’t made the rounds during the boom, when real estate prices were hitting the ozone layer, instead of now, when rental and sales prices are coming down.

Maybe this is why…

Win $1,000 for bills, $2,000 of Gear, or a Book (Yes, Last One’s From Us)

We wouldn’t advise counting on contests for income, but the way things are still going in the employment market, you might be more likely to benefit from a sweepstakes than a jobs site.

Has the downturn has turned you into a “Digital Nomad”? Nomadesk is giving away $2,000 worth of gear, including a Dell notebook and a Blackberry Bold…

Downturnaround Deals:

Every week, we post a handful of online deals hand-picked for Recessionwire readers by the nice people over at Savings.com. Feel free to pass them along to your friends. And if there’s something you’d like to see, let us know!

Get an exclusive 20% off your entire order of fabulous beauty products at Bliss. (See more Bliss Coupons.)

Get 20% off sitewide at Sephora. (See more Sephora Coupons.)

Take 10% off hotel bookings at CheapTickets. (See more Cheaptickets coupons.)…