Rattled by Economy's Ills, Consumers Forgo Life's Little Luxuries

With No Great Crisis but Signs of Trouble All Around, More Coupons and Meals at Home for Area's Families

Charlene Hennessy cooked dinner one Sunday night at her Germantown home, in another act of downsizing her life. Six months ago, she and her husband relied a lot more on restaurants, buying takeout a few times a week. Now she is wary of every little splurge.

On her weekend trips to the grocery store, she is on the lookout for sales; for the first time, she clips coupons. "I'm very much more cautious," Hennessy said. "Very."

It is not that Hennessy, 48, faces any personal financial crisis. Rather, she is reacting to what she sees around her: rising gas and food prices, a housing market in decline, whispers of recession. At some point, she said, it all became too unsettling, warning signs that it was time to conserve.

This mood of uncertainty and budget-tightening has touched families across the Washington region, where many in a large and relatively prosperous middle class say they are rethinking how and where they spend their money. The changes -- a vacation postponed, a lawn-care service stopped, a switch to $1 movie rentals or a discount hair salon -- might not alter the bottom line much. But experts say these measures offer a sense of control and comfort in a faltering economy.

In North Potomac, a mother in her 30s turns down the thermostat and tells her heat-loving husband to don a sweat shirt. In Leesburg, a father in his 20s no longer makes the gas-guzzling drive to his favorite fishing hole. In Hyattsville, a professional woman in her 50s shuns her credit card, choosing instead to pay with cash and shop at discount stores.

In Potomac Falls, two parents adopt a household budget, but the idea is startling to their daughter. "Oh my God, are we poor?" the teenager asks her mother.

"There is a great anxiety among the general population, and people are making modest adjustments in their lifestyles and spending patterns," said Stephen Fuller, a professor at George Mason University and an expert on the local economy. This is not because most people have lost jobs or income, he said, but because "the economic news is bad, and they personalize that news."

Adding to the bigger picture is the reality of daily life: Houses stay on the market for months, even more than a year. Gasoline averages more than $3 a gallon. Milk is up by 19.3 percent over the past year and bread by 10.5 percent. In Maryland, utility costs have soared. Metro fares and fees jumped markedly in January, the largest increase in the transit system's history.

"It feels like a stretch now," said Mukesh Saini, 49, a father of two in Centreville, who works three jobs, including one preparing tax returns at H&R Block, and still finds himself short every month. Now he routinely dips into his family's savings to pay the bills.

Walter Moody, 61, who just retired as facilities manager at a District library, worries about the stock market and whether his 401(k) is losing value at the very time he needs it. "I'm afraid to look," he said, describing it as "the elephant in the room."

He has become more frugal, continuing to drive a 20-year-old Oldsmobile and scaling back on the restaurant meals he and his wife so appreciate. When they do dine out, Moody said, "I definitely won't be ordering the wine."

As Larry Compeau, a professor and consumer behaviorist at Clarkson University, sees it, a steady accumulation of economic distress has pecked away at Americans' optimism: the mortgage crisis, the housing downturn, the credit crunch, the stock market decline and volatility.