Americans are digging deep to save money

— -- Spendthrift (spend' thrift') n. a person who spends money carelessly; squanderer.

Frugal (froo' gel) adj. not wasteful; not spending freely; thrifty.

As economic news has worsened and recession appears inevitable, Americans' spending habits have swung from one definition to another.

Spendthrift to frugal, in record time.

After years of free-spending and saying "charge it" at every turn, Americans are using words such as "scrimp and save" and "scrape up some cash." Now, they're cutting back on almost all fronts, regardless of how much they earn. According to a recent USA TODAY/ Gallup Poll, 55% say they've cut household spending as a result of lower prices in the stock market and fears about the economy. Just slightly more say they'll spend less on Christmas gifts this year than last.

They're cutting back on travel for the holidays (63%), eating out at restaurants (81%), entertainment such as going to movies (72%), and household services such as housekeeping or lawn service (37%).

But the easy savings are over, and Americans are digging deeper. They're selling old gold jewelry and ransacking closets to find "stuff" to put up for sale on eBay. More are using grocery coupons and buying holiday gifts on layaway.

"We're hoarding every penny and trying to pay off some credit card debt," says Nichole Black of St. Louis.

She sold a "kinked-up" gold necklace she hadn't worn in 20 years and put the money in her savings account. Her husband found a carpooler on Craigslist to share gas costs, and they didn't buy any new school clothes for their daughter this year. "I'm just trying to hedge against any bad times," Black says.

Even the relatively wealthy are trimming unnecessary spending, says Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL Strategic Retail in New York. Her company just surveyed 1,500 adults and found that high-income consumers are being stingier as they've watched the value of their stock investments plummet.

People with incomes over $100,000 a year are cutting back on eating out at restaurants, picking up takeout, buying home furnishings and even drinking specialty coffees, according to the WSL survey.

That may not seem like much, in comparison to those who can't afford to buy gas to drive to work. But "emotionally and financially, (the wealthy) are feeling quite shattered by this as well," says Liebmann. "Now, they're in the soup with everyone else."

The government says consumer spending fell off a cliff starting last summer, with the largest drop since the early 1980s hitting in September.

Retail sales in October were down 2.8% from a year earlier, a record drop.

But those statistics don't show just how tight-fisted the U.S. consumer is becoming. Here's what some people are doing:

Selling extra stuff

Americans typically have about $3,200 worth of goods at home they could sell to raise cash, says eBay CEO John Donahoe.