Time to reflect a moment and realize that things are not as bad as they used to be , like during the Depression... YET ! 
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Sa ... Bills.aspx
"Emptying the attic to pay the bills
Desperate for cash, strapped sellers are using online auctions and flea markets to unload household goods, including possessions of great sentimental value.
By The Associated Press
For-sale listings on the online hub Craigslist have been coming with plaintive notices, such as one from a teenager in Georgia who said her mother had lost her job and pleaded, "Please buy anything you can to help out."
And a seller in Milwaukee wrote in one post of needing to pay bills -- and put a diamond engagement ring up for bids to do it.
Struggling with mounting debt and rising prices, and faced with the toughest economic times since the early 1990s, Americans are selling their prized possessions online and at flea markets with rising frequency.
To meet higher gas, food and prescription bills, they are selling off heirlooms like Grandma's dishes, as well as other belongings. Some of the household purging leaves sellers agonized.
"This is not about downsizing. It's about needing gas money," said Nancy Baughman, the founder of eBizAuctions, an online auction service she runs out of her garage in Raleigh, N.C. One formerly affluent customer is now unemployed and unloaded Hermes leather jackets and Versace jeans and silk shirts..."
