To be honest the recession has affected me personally in a good way. More than every I feel happy with my lot, and for a while there I was starting to forget just how lucky I was. I have a house that I love and can afford and due to the recession I no longer feel the pressure to have a bigger more expensive house, I now think gosh wasn't I lucky that I bought a house that I can afford and thankfully the unexpected large hike in my mortgage repayments won't affect me too much. I will be hanging on to the old car for a while longer, I have no loan on it, its very reliable and I now no longer feel the need to buy something newer and trendier just for the sake of it or because all my friends are getting nice shiny new cars. I know it sounds very shallow but I would listen to this and that and suchabody got a new car or have friends saying how long can you see yourself in this house before you upgrade (I'm only in it a year!) and its amazing how they have all changed their tune now, while I am sitting pretty and delighted with myself for being so sensible! I don't complain about my job as there really is very little I should be complaining about, and I am in the lucky position of having a job. I am also avoiding superquinn (dread to think how much I spent there while just popping out for milk!) and am doing the bulk of my shopping in Aldi and Lidl. The other half actually gets excited when he sees how many items we can buy for 20 euros! Its the simple things in life that make us happy now