All your life you wanted to do something outlandish for a living. But that cushy corporate gig and the frills attached to it stopped you from turning your passion into a profession.

Enter recession, pink slips and voila your ticket to be your own boss.

Unemployed folks are taking the leap of faith and investing their time, energy and resources into entrepreneurial ventures. Yes, believe it or not, new entrepreneurs are on the upswing in this downward spiraling economy. While some took that layoff as an excuse, many are jump starting new ventures out of necessity.

Last year, the hemorrhaging economy cost 2.6 -million jobs, the highest tally in more than six decades. The bloodletting hasn't stopped yet. But laid off employees are moving on. They are providing that silver lining to an otherwise gloomy environment.

The term "frugalista" may be trademarked, but frugality is so hip the practice deserves a new, rights-free term. Let's call ourselves the "frugalite," as in, "frugal" and "elite." Or call it "thrift store chic."

We may be doing this because of the recession, but baby? Frugal is the new awesome.

The frugal run the gamut from the truly extreme (counting toilet paper squares, re-using plastic wrap, making your own laundry detergent) to the practical environmentalist (biking instead of driving, fixing old appliances and furniture instead of buying, re-using glass jars and plastic bags) to the hipster broke artsy (making hats out of holey sweaters and wedding gowns out of plastic newspaper bags).

Wherever you fall on the spectrum, however, it's clear that frugality has had a resurgence of the sort not seen since the Great Depression.

Americans won't be spending as much this holiday season due to continued worry about their finances, according to new research. The Discover Spending Monitor found that 56% of Americans rated the economy as "poor" in October, a 4% increase over September. In addition, 46% said the economy is getting worse, a 3% increase over September.

Overall, women are more worried about the economy than men. In October, the percentage of women who rated the economy as "poor" shot up by nine points to 58%, while the number of men calling the economy poor actually dropped from 54% in September to 53% in October.

I was helping my second-grader with his homework; he was reluctant to read a the little copy-printed book on bartering, saying, with full eye-rolls, that he'd already read it.

So we read it together, and worked through the questions at the end. Suddenly his eyes lit up. "You and dad barter!" he said.

Exactly. Here in Portland, Ore., I am such a regular user of the barter economy that the book's historical viewpoint (first came bartering, and finally came malls) seems passé.

The grocery co-op where we are member-owners holds an annual holiday barter swap, instead of a bazaar, and we look forward to the seed and start swap in the spring. On Portland's craigslist barter page, hundreds of offerings appear every day, and if it weren't for the constant request to trade something for an iPhone, you'd think it was 1972.

"VHS copies of your favourite horror movies that you replaced on DVD this year for Tokyo Long Scarlet Radishes," reads one ad, also suggesting the trade of an old window for a 10-pound Fielderkraut cabbage.

If you're wondering why it takes Congress so long to move forward with even the most popular legislation, look no further than the extension of unemployment benefits that passed the Senate yesterday.

It passed with 98 votes but the popularity of the final vote doesn't reflect the shenanigans that the measure had to endure in order to get there.

According to Huffington Post's Ryan Grim, first the Republicans tried to festoon the extension with unrelated amendments -- some of which having to do with further sanctioning ACORN, which, let's face it, isn't worth holding up unemployment checks for hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans.

There's no doubt that the current downturn has changed people's spending habits.

Since the peak in housing wealth, homeowners lost more than $5 trillion in equity and 15 million homeowners own homes that are now underwater (worth less than they owe). Unemployment is hovering near 10% with no clear signs of falling.

Homeowners' previous piggy bank -- home equity -- is no longer available for spending. Even if people still hold a job, many are worried that their jobs are at risk and won't spend except for necessities.

People, afraid for their future also changed their savings habits. In the first quarter of 2008, before the recession took hold people saved about 1% of disposable income. By the second quarter of 2009 the savings rate soared to 5% of disposable income. But now that we appear to be near the end of the recession the savings rate dropped back to slightly above 3% in the third quarter of 2009, as people see the end of the recession in sight.

While economists now don't believe this recession will be as deep as the Great Depression, its depth and length will certainly change people's spending and savings habits for a long time to come.

Despite mainstream media predictions about the election hinging on the president's performance, it appears as though the economy was a much greater factor in the two key gubernatorial races yesterday. The economy was the anvil that crushed the chances of Democrats Jon Corzine and Creigh Deeds.

According to exit polls in Virginia and New Jersey, around 90% of voters said that they're concerned about the economy, while only around 18% said that their vote had anything to do with President Obama's performance so far.

Through no fault of their own, the recession is giving people more reasons to worry.

Along with the constant worries of death and taxes, the recession is adding worry lines over keeping a job, finding a job, paying bills, affording necessities such as food and shelter, and other basic needs in the first two stages of Abraham Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs."

Once upon a time, two or three years ago, when the housing market was robust and homes sold in a matter of days, people seemed to move a lot.

Or ,even if they didn't move, they thought they might. Everything seemed so temporary. We had "starter homes" and people were "trading up." Homes were financial investments rather than investments in something far less tangible -- our community.

If there's one side effect of the recession that warms my heart, it's the fact that people are less mobile, less likely to move so much.

Homes aren't selling, employers aren't recruiting and paying relocation costs at the same high rates, and people are settling into their homes with the knowledge it's going to be awhile before moving becomes an option.

On this week's "Your Job Will Come" podcast, WalletPop's Aaron Crowe talks with branding and networking expert Thom Singer about how to network while you're company is undergoing layoffs, and how to network after losing a job.

Among the tips are staying positive, networking early and not saying anything bad about your company after a layoff.

I just bought my airline ticket for my friend's 100th birthday party, which she's anticipating with considerable excitement. Life has been quiet since she gave up competitive ballroom dancing at 85. Planning a party spices things up.

The oil wells that my friend's husband left her have kept her lifestyle comfortable – until the last couple of years when she developed a need for 24-hour care after the car she was riding in was broadsided.

Even a couple of active oil wells don't gush enough money to cover all the expenses of extreme aging. My friend and her children, who are old enough to be contemplating their own retirements, can see the day when it is all going to run out. If mom's still around – and the doc says she very well could be – longevity is going to be an expensive problem.

For the 138 million Americans who still have jobs, the recession is changing the way they work.

Work furloughs are common, pay cuts are mandated to save jobs from being eliminated, four-day work weeks are gaining popularity, and companies are cutting benefits such as matching 401(k) contributions.

It's enough to make someone quit.

When the 15 million unemployed Americans do find jobs again, they'll return to a workplace that is likely to have grown accustomed to less pay for more work, or at least working less hours in a week. The raises that were once part of an annual employee review, if not entirely gone, will take years to get back to where they were before the recession.

Survey after survey confirms what you and I already know: Staycations are stupid. You and I don't just hate the stupid word, which was dreamed up by opportunistic marketing departments to sell old things in a new way. We also hate the idea of them, and as soon as the money starts flowing again, we're outta here.

But there's also no doubt that more of us are staying closer to home right now. Due both to a downturn in personal spending and a cutback in business travel expenses, America's hotels and airlines are dramatically less full nowadays than they were three years ago.

The urge to explore, being an inherent and eternal quality of mankind, hasn't left us; only the means to explore have. Still, it's also true that the longer this mess persists, the more travel will be changed forever. Some shifts have already been cemented into place.

Perhaps Janis Joplin said it best: Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. While there have always been people who, when handed a pile of lemons find a way to make lemonade, this recession is proving that we may indeed be a nation of lemonade-makers.

The unspoken motto: Make unemployment, funemployment.

Some use the time off to travel the world, visit friends in faraway places or just chill. But others see the break from the daily grind as a chance to chase a long-deferred dream, take a gamble with starting up their own business and test the limits of their creativity.

Californians like me will see less money in their next paycheck because, like it or not, we're being forced to give an interest-free loan to the financial basket-case of a state we live in. As of November 1, California is withholding 10% more in income taxes from residents' paychecks. The move is expected to reap $1.7 billion that will be used to plug the holes in the state deficit and keep some money in its rapidly-dwindling coffers.

So officially it's not a tax increase. California will repay the extra withholding in April when it calculates tax refunds -- those getting a refund will get a larger one while those who owe taxes will owe less. And state tax officials who say the increase will hardly be felt by workers. A worker earning $51,000 with no dependents and one withholding allowance will see his weekly withholding rate go up $4. (The Sacramento Bee has a chart of withholding increase scenarios for some single and married taxpayers.) Still, with nine weeks left to go in 2009, that $36 could come in handy for a holiday present or a utility bill.