Prying another nickel from my cold clenched fist.

It takes me longer to shop Hy-Vee or Price Chopper as the recession continues.

More people seem to be taking time these days to stop and compare house brand versus name brand labels on soup, canned tomatoes and other stuff we stock up on than did before. Their carts block the aisles more often.

Even The New York Times has noticed. Atlanta's glitterati apparently have begun clipping coupons. Trend watchers are divided over whether frugality is a passing fancy or more permanent.

But there are some points of the frugal arts you might not learn on the back of a can of beans. Lots of good commentators like Kiplinger's crank out all sorts of lists of stuff we pay too much for.

What's trickier is that being frugal sometimes requires spending money too. Sometimes you do it just to shave a few more pennies on a tight budget, posts MyTwoDollars.com. Other times, as the editors at MarketWatch wrote recently, you need to spend money, even scarce money, to improve your situation later on.

Some days you do both. I'm heading down to FedEx soon after I post this, because they are printing free resumes today for job hunters. I'm stopping off for a cup of really good dark roast afterward too. I've got a coupon for a freebie.