by Joseph Kenny | 11/20/08

Tough times call for tough measures, and the citizens of America have learned that in order to survive during economy hardship, you have to cut corners and pull the reins on spending in order to keep the budget balanced. It's especially tough these days, so Americans are learning to get tougher on their checkbook and lifestyles.

The general feeling people have in regards to the economy is one of uncertainty. Wall Street took a dive recently, which further lends to the unease people are already experiencing about the economic situation in the country. Couple the tumbling stock prices with the mortgage industry and real estate, and it's easy to see how people are approaching their personal finances with skittishness and a desire to make every penny count.

Even at the gas pump, where prices have went down considerably, people are not driving any more than they have in recent months. In fact, studies have shown that weekend driving has taken a plunge of roughly 10% compared to a year ago. That's a significantly lower number of miles being spent on the road. Furthermore, automotive dealerships are not doing any better with the sales of their bigger vehicles. Even if gas is showing signs of reducing in cost, people aren't buying into it. Instead, they're maintaining a sense of discipline and conservation.

People are currently in the mindset of consuming less, now that the economy has been getting increasingly worse since the beginning of the year. An issue that lends itself to this conservative approach is the lack of loan options due to the crunch. This of course is the result of the housing bubble and the massive credit expansion banks drove into the economic structure with subprime mortgages.

Taken altogether, people are doing what they can to make things stay together financially in times of trouble. Even though certain sectors of the economy are doing well, such as healthcare and software, and gas is going down, the general feeling people have is that they need to save their money in case things get worse. With a sense of precaution to make things work down to the dollar, they're not going to jump on any immediate changes.