People Who Lived Through The 2008 Recession Shared What It Was Like, And It’s A Harrowing Warning

(Cont.) “We didn’t have heat that first winter — thankfully before we moved somewhere where that would be deadly — but we would still have a thin layer of ice form on top of a water glass if we left it near the exterior wall on the counter. The cold was the most miserable part for me. I’d sleep in layers, with a toque, inside a sleeping bag, with a blanket. Getting out of bed in the morning was rough.”

“I couldn’t eat rice for a couple years after because we pretty much survived off that and whatever we could grow or forage. I’m talking down to the dandelions in our yard. To this day I distinctly remember wanting milk one day, and just laying in bed crying because it cost $3.86 and I couldn’t afford it.

I essentially didn’t see my husband for nine months because our shifts were opposite. Once in a while we’d cross paths as one of us was coming home and the other was leaving.

The last three months of that nine months I was chronically sick probably because I was always working, never sleeping.

We were ready to walk away and let the house go into foreclosure. But then we both found better jobs again and got a handle on things. We crawled out of the debt we had dug ourselves in. Never lost the house.

It sucked. Honestly it sucked for a few years having to dig ourselves out and get back on track, but none as bad as the first year. But we got through it and are in a much better place now.”

—Rheila