Right now we are fortunate that we haven't really had to cut down much. But (and this goes with the other thread about generations living together), my daughter lives with me, I take care of her and my youngest son also lives with us. Even though my daughter and I are on fixed incomes (her-disability, me-pension and ss), we are fortunate that we pay a small amount yearly for home tax. We are seeing a higher cost of electricity and will soon see our gas/heat bill jump. I do her food shopping and definitely see the increases in prices, especially eggs, butter. We have cut down the driving as gas prices are still over $5 a gallon here. What I don't understand is when did working at McD's, etc become a living wage to support a household? When I was growing up and into my 40's, it was extra income, teenagers, etc. The only people that it was a living wage for was the store manager. I worked at Jack in the Box as a teen, then McD's after married for extra income and as a vault manager for a retail store. Not one of those jobs was a living wage and I never expected it to be. If I wanted to rent an apartment and pay bills, I had to either get 2 jobs or look for something better.