Squeezed by surging gasoline and grocery prices, the Dentons and other middle-class families are looking to cut corners any way they can to keep their household budgets afloat. It’s become a daily struggle for those who exist in that gray zone between safety nets and Easy Street.
People are trading name brands for generic offerings, eating out less, pooling errands to avoid car trips, clipping more coupons ”” whatever they can do to save a few bucks here and there.
“We’re in some very uncertain times right now,” said Frank Hefner, an economics professor at the College of Charleston. “I don’t think we are going back to the ’30s where people didn’t spend money, but people are thinking more about how they spend their money.”