A REPUTATION as a "fiendish" shopper earned Madalene Chu a "most gen Y" award in her workplace in 2006.

"I'd spend [money] on concerts and designer clothes and just eating out and a lot of things like that," she said. "Now I find I'm hitting Coles as soon as everything gets red-ticketed."

Madalene's shift from $500 shoes to $5 dinners was prompted by the credit crunch in September, when the small publishing company she was working for went into receivership and she lost her job.

"It was a pretty big shock," she said. "I always thought that 25 was going to be the year where I was secure in my employment and my career and it would be the age where I'd have no major financial responsibilities."

Instead Madalene said she was now living at home in Campbelltown, temping, spending time at university with her friends, and looking for a new job in publishing.

"There's work out there but I'm finding it quite difficult to find," she said. "It was a different time [a year ago] - you wanted to hold out for a position that would advance your career and now it's kind of like we'll pretty much take whatever we can get."

Madalene said she was aware of the reality of the market, but was confident in her abilities and that her skills base would see her through. "It's just hard times at the moment but you have to kind of think of how to survive, basically," she said.

And she had already picked up one important lesson to bring to her next job. "I'd start to save," she said. "It's the one thing I didn't do when I was working."