So what do you cut back on?

I have a feeling that all of you are as weirded out by the economic news as I am. And I say this knowing that I'm in relatively good shape--Doug and I are both employed, at least for now. (Though believe me, that could change in a heartbeat; my old paper let eight people go last week, without warning. Two of them had been there 15 years.) We don't have kids in college. We didn't buy a McMansion. We pay off our credit card bills each month.

But it still feels so tenuous.

We don't have big savings. I still have a pension (for now) but Doug's employer got rid of theirs. We both take part in a 401K plan through work, and I have to tell you, I am very tired of "riding out the bad times," because in the ten years since I've had that 401K it's pretty much been nothing but the bad times. I got in right after those wild years when the market went up up up, and my second or third year it was like a bucket with a hole in it; I contributed every payday but whatever I put in just dribbled right out again, and for a whole year the amount never changed.

So what to do? Keep pouring money in and hoping that eventually it will start growing again? (That's what our financial planner says, oh she who thinks we just need "another million dollars" before we can retire.) Move it into the savings, where it won't grow but at least it probably won't shrink? Or just spend it while we have it?

On Tuesday, as I walked to Loring Park on my lunch break, I tried to think of things we should cut back on. I couldn't think of very much. We don't go out much. We aren't much for new clothes, or gadgets. My car is six years old, and Doug's is nine. We have cable, but only basic cable, no premium channels. We don't have cell phones. We don't have a lot of expensive habits; we are pretty much the most boring people I know. We work, we walk the dogs, we watch the Twins, we go to bed.

Still, we have made some adjustments. Doug takes the bus to work now, instead of driving. I no longer swing by Marshall's on my lunch hour, just to check out the bargains (which I used to succumb to). We're much more judicious about grocery shopping, and for our big tenth anniversary we aren't taking an expensive European vacation but are just going hiking, which is basically free (except for the rental of the cabin, and the gas to get there).

What about you? Are you scared? Are you sanguine? Do you hope this $700 billion bailout happens? Are you cutting back?

Are you the grasshopper, or the ant?