Downturnaround Deals: Wine.com, Gaiam, HP, Beauty.com, Expedia

Some of us are starting to spend again (a little), but it’s smart to keep it frugal. So every week, we’re going to 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!

Nothing better than a free weekend at a friend’s country house. But of course, you have to pony up a present. Top wine gifts are 10 percent off at Wine.com. (expires 8/31/09)

Homeworking these days? You need a printer now that you can’t use the jumbo one at the office…take $30 off when you spend at least $150 at HP. (expires 10/31/09)…

Cabin Fever? Meet at the Apartment.

Even with the sun finally shining, starting the week alone in the city can be a drag. On the first Monday of every month, Meet at the Apartment, an uber-stylish meeting space in Soho, is hosting a day of workshops and hanging out for consultants, freelancers and job hunters.

Throughout the day, there will be interviews with entrepreneurs on how they launched their businesses, and a lesson on networking from One of Those People Who Knows Everybody. They’re throwing in free wifi, coffee, snacks and office supplies. Please don’t embarrass us by walking out with your pockets stuffed full of Post-It pads…

Living the Weisure Life

Thanks to the fadeout of 9-to-5 workdays and technology that keeps us reachable 24/7, more people are able to work hard and play hard … at the same time.

“Weisure” is the cute buzzword coined to describe the combo of employment and enjoyment. Not only are we Facebooking in the office, but we’re also checking our Blackberries on dates and emailing clients while watching “The Office.” NYU sociologist Dalton Conley, who created the word, explains that Americans’ increased workloads make it easier to take a quick work phone call after hours than wait till you get to the office in the morning when you have more to do.

And now, our “social” networks like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are tools we’re using at work, too …

Home Office Organization on a Dime

No matter how small your home office space, there’s room to be organized. Take it from me, a woman whose office is about three feet square.

I’ve already explained how Kacy Paide, founder of The Inspired Office in Washington, D.C., helped me designate and arrange an area in my den. But the next hurdle is building an infrastructure to keep it organized. Many of her go-to solutions are so inexpensive, even the unemployed can afford them…

An Inspired Home Office on the Cheap, Part 1

Last month, I lost my job as chief operating officer at a multimedia startup; because it’s my second bout of unemployment in two years, I have some idea of what works and what doesn’t. And one thing’s for sure: using the kitchen table as an office does not work.

For starters, snacking is a constant temptation. Then, there is all the paper: multiple revisions of resumes (with and without snack stains), fliers from networking events, business cards, letters from the unemployment office. During my last jobless phase, the table would be a mess at the end of each day. I’d shuffle the papers into a pile, but it never really went away, and it was never organized. So this time I consulted an expert, Kacy Paide, founder of The Inspired Office in Washington, D.C…

Take a Holiday, Unemployed People!

Are you taking your own calls, drawing up your own memos, filing your own documents, buying your own office supplies? Why, then, this Administrative Professionals Day is for you!

Your hard work and that of those like you has been celebrated since 1952, when the holiday was created by Young & Rubicam exec Harry F. Klemfuss and the National Secretaries Association.

Here’s what you might do to celebrate…

Love in the Time of Layoff: Coming Home Again

On Tuesday, my husband found out that his freelance work with the firm that picked him up three days after the Layoff is now drying up. Yesterday was his first day “back” at home.

“So, does this make you, like, laid off times two?” I asked in a lame appeal to mask my panic with humor.

“Nah, it’s much better,” he said. I asked him to explain.

Turns out, there are Layoffs and there are layoffs. Technically, of course, this latest downsizing of my beloved doesn’t count as a layoff at all, since Marco hadn’t been on staff at that firm. When his supervisor told him there was no more work for him right now, there was no sense of betrayal, no dark questioning (why me? why not him or her?), nothing personal. Other freelancers had been slowly disappearing. He knew things had been winding down.

Recession Briefing 4.7

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Americans’ confidence in the economy jumped from 15% in January to 39% who felt more optimistic — even while 70% of respondents worried that someone in their household would lose their job, 40% had cut spending on luxuries and 10 percent had cut back on necessities. (New York Times)

Growing economic optimism and a strengthening U.S. dollar is impacting the price of gold, which fell 2.7% after the G-20 meeting. (Wall Street Journal)

First quarter corporate earnings reports are expected to be grim and investors are bracing themselves for the reports, which kick off today with Alcoa. (CNNMoney)

If you come across a good article or blog post about the recession pass it on.

Love in the Time of Layoff: Her Expendable Career

Those who read this column know that I’ve been writing very personally about how the downturn has affected my relationship. In all honesty, I’m starting to fear that by focusing on what’s happening inside relationships, we may be losing sight of larger contexts—what could and should be happening in the structures that govern our lives.

Whoever invented the notion that a wife who earns less than her husband has a career that is, by definition, “expendable”? The ubiquity of this sentence—“she has an expendable career”—was brought home to me once again when I read Diane Clehane’s “Recession Marriage Wars” in yesterday’s Daily Beast…

Love in the Time of Layoff: Of Uncertain Times

Last week marked the two-month anniversary since my dear husband got the axe. A lot can happen in two months’ time. We canceled a family pilgrimage to Puerto Rico and put the apartment up for sale. Marco quit the gym. Our cat died. We both have gained some weight, but other than that, we’re actually doing okay. Fat but happy, I like to say, with a roof over our heads (for now). We’ve got our love to keep us warm.

The other day, Marco came home from a day of freelancing feeling blue. I tried the usual—kissing it away—but no go. “You don’t like it when I’m moody,” he said. “I’m going to be moody sometimes.”