'It's really hard not having the money that we used to have'

EUGENE, Ore. -- A trip to the mall is a luxury for the Hermann family.

"We've had to cut back on doing family things," Time Hermann said.

Tim is getting fewer hours at the mill, and Mandy is studying to be a nurse, leaving little money to entertain 3-year-old Tyson and baby Lane.

A year ago things were different.

"We didn't really worry about it," Hermann said. "We had the rent paid, the power paid -- now four months will go by before we get the power paid."

Like so many local families, the Great Recession has dramatically changed the way they live.

"Just trying to live it day by day," Hermann said.

Economists say the recession is over, but it may not feel like it for the thousands of people still out of work or stuggling financially.

The economic downturn hit Oregon hard, and even as things improve, our new economy has forever changed the way many of us live, spend and save.

In 2009, 72,000 Oregon jobs disappeared. In Lane County alone, 4,500 people lost their jobs as the major industries like semiconductors and RV manufacturing collapsed.

Just this month, the last of Country Coach RV -- a company that at one time employed 1,200 people -- was auctioned off.

"It's like those movies when all of a sudden everybody is gone, everything just stopped," said Ray Beal with Commercial Industrial Auctioneers, the firm that liquidated Country Coach's assets.

The surge of layoffs swelled the ranks of the unemployed in Lane County, peaking at 14.2 percent in May 2009.

Many of those people, like former Hynix Semiconductor employee Brandon Fox, headed back to school in search of a new path.

"When you're in school, there's really not much time for much else," Fox said.

Enrollment at Lane Community College jumped 25 percent last fall.

The housing slump also forced people from their homes. Last fall, 6 percent of Oregonians with mortgages were in foreclosure. Houses sit on the market now for 6 months instead of weeks.

The building slowdown put construction worker like Alexander Seaman out of work.

"We had to cut back a lot," he said.

Seaman and his fiance and daughter cut back on eating out, vacations and shopping.

"All the fun stuff," he said. "We don't get to drive around, we don't take as many trip, don't rent as many movies."

Consumer spending in oregon dropped .05 percent last year after years of large increases, sometimes as much 7 percent.

People are buying less and buying cheaper. Thrift stores like St. Vincent de Paul see more customers shopping for necessities like clothes.

"If I can save a little bit, maybe I can take the boys out one more time to dinner," said Gary Lammert, a St. Vincent shopper.

Seaman's family now relies on food stamps. They aren't alone: Last year in Oregon, food stamp requests jumped 32 percent. Demand for help like emergency housing and food boxes soared 75 percent at St. Vincent de Paul.

"Thirty percent of the people we're dealing with consider themselves as middle class and having never expressed a need to having help," said Terry McDonald, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul.

For many, the new economy means putting the American Dream on hold.

Alexander and Veronica Lee were in escrow to buy a house, but then the stock market collapsed, and their downpayment evaporated.

"It's really hard not having the money that we used to have," said Veronica.