OK, so the economy is tanking, unemployment is rising, and Americans love to spend.

Remember that old idea of Yankee ingenuity? Thrift?

The more industrious among us, from Depression-era seniors to families living on single incomes, say a little pre-planning, a little creativity and a little bit of reflection before a purchase can go a long way in saving money.

So tuck away your credit cards and take note:

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'MAKE DO AND MEND'

"Make do and mend" — that's what 83-year-old Gillian Paterson's mother taught her as a girl growing up in London during World War II.

Paterson still remembers the weekly, per-person rations list: 4 ounces bacon or ham; 8 ounces sugar; 2 ounces tea; 8 ounces meat; 2 ounces cheese; 2 ounces butter; 4 ounces margarine; 2 ounces cooking fat; 1 egg every other week; 1 packet dried eggs every four weeks; 2 1/2 pints of milk a week.

"We did eat a lot of bread and vegetables and potatoes," said Paterson, who now lives in Cape Coral, Fla.

Her mother would stretch the rations by making stews and shepherd's pies and casseroles. They grew what vegetables they could in their garden and bought what they couldn't at local farmers' markets.

Clothes? Wool was rationed, so Paterson unraveled old sweaters and reknit them, turned a second-hand blanket into a dressing gown and made her lingerie out of an old silk parachute.

"Of course, nowadays it's fashionable to have rips in your blue jeans," she quipped.

She's not advocating going back to such meager times, but Paterson would like to see young people cut back on "excessive consumption," as she calls it, and maybe encourage more schools to adopt uniforms — a definite money-saver for pinched families.

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"I learned to butcher meats from my father and economize from my mother."

There isn't much in Maria Groneman's Cape Coral home that doesn't have her mark of thrift on it.

Let's start in the kitchen, where she makes three meals a day, seven days a week for her family of five.

Instead of buying deli meat at $8 a pound, she buys a 10-pound turkey breast for $22.58, slices it on a 30-year-old slicer and freezes what won't be immediately eaten. She buys butcher-sized cuts of meat from wholesalers and chops them into roasts and stew meats and whatever else the family might enjoy.

She'll let you in on a little grocery secret, too: Save the weekly fliers and ask store managers to match their competitors' prices. It works, she insisted.

"We don't call her 'frugal,' " confided friend Shelley Roggio. "We call her 'cheap.' "

Groneman just nodded. You can't counter that when your used freezer bags are hanging to dry inside the garage until future reuse.

The curtains in her daughter's room? Created out of an unused bedsheet.

The dining room chairs? Salvaged from a garage sale, repainted and recovered in seashell-themed fabric that match the handmade valance.

The handsome suits her 16-year-old wore to a leadership conference? Found at a thrift store and adjusted to fit.

"I get what I can get, and I alter what I can alter," Groneman said.

Her frugality comes out of necessity. A back injury forced Groneman out of the workplace, and she learned to make do instead of do without.

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'A DOLLAR OR TWO ADDS UP AFTER A WHILE'

That's the mantra for Janet Jones and her husband Don, of Alva, Fla. They scrutinize just about everything.

Like sharing a plate when the pair go out to eat, carrying water from home on shopping trips, looking for low-cost services such as dental care from the local community college, buying foods that are in season, tending a garden and consolidating trips to save gas.

The couple looks beyond the obvious. They hired an inspector to audit their home to measure its structural soundness. Their homeowners insurance dropped from $1,600 to $600 with the inspector's report.

If the couple notices a scratch on a new appliance, they ask for a discount. If they're not happy with the price of merchandise, they'll barter. If they believe their property tax bill is too high, they call an appraiser and then, depending on the appraisal, ask the county to adjust it.

"It doesn't cost you anything to ask for a discount," Jones said.