Consumers are reaching deeper into their imaginations, and their pocketbooks, as they seek ways to ease the strain of an economic slump evident at every turn.

Customers rush the cooler at the store when milk is advertised at $1.99 per gallon. Workers update resumes in case their job disappears. People try to do their chores in one trip on Saturdays to save on gas.

For a reminder of how bad things can get, all Sheri Fredianelli, of Schererville, has to do is glance at the foreclosed home next door that has a "for sale" sign planted among the dandelions.

"We've cut our expenses tremendously," said Fredianelli, 40, who also feels the pinch from high gas and food prices.

Fredianelli and her husband made the leap from Calumet City to a subdivision of new homes in Schererville two years ago, a move she said she'll never regret. With two incomes and a fixed-rate mortgage, the couple are better off than many.

But last year, she had her 15-year-old bicycle tuned up and now bikes to a nearby grocery to shop. Getting takeout is a once-a-week luxury. She's sticking with her paid-for 1997 car until "the day it dies."

People like Fredianelli have been e-mailing The Times after seeing a request for how they are dealing with high gasoline and food prices and a slowing economy at nwi.com.

That double whammy of sharply higher prices and a swiftly weakening job market has not been seen for decades in the United States.

Economists say people are doing the right thing when they cut expenses to deal with what could be a harsh economic picture for the rest of the year.

"The fact is, the last three or four months have been pretty ugly," said Don Coffin, an economics professor at Indiana University Northwest.

In the first four months of this year, employers cut 260,000 jobs in the United States. The national unemployment rate hit 5.1 percent in March. That was up from a seven-year low of 4.4 percent one year ago.

Nationally, consumer confidence has plunged to its lowest level in 25 years, as measured by the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index.

Since the second week of February, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline has shot up 64 cents per gallon to a nationwide average of $3.60. Egg prices have increased 83 cents to an average of $2.20 per dozen for large eggs. Milk prices were up 26 percent last year.

Consumers locally are coming up with strategies to cut their gas and grocery bills. Sometimes they have to decide between the two.

"I think gas is the biggest problem," said Angela Christy, of Crown Point. "I will always spend money for groceries, but gas is the one that hurts."

Still, she's taken to shopping just once a month for groceries for her family of four. She hits discount stores and picks up groceries last.

Last year, Christy made joint trips with her mother, Pat Bertagnolli, of Munster.

"I used to have an extreme amount of everything in the cupboard," Bertagnolli said. "I'd say to myself, 'I need more ketchup,' and I'd go to the store. Now I wait until the ketchup is out."

Christie Stricklin, of Munster, said her weekly grocery bill for her family of four has increased $25 in the past year.

The squeeze on household budgets is prompting some to return to practices of an earlier era. Last year, Christy kept a vegetable garden.

A number of people said in e-mails they have cut out what they once thought of as necessities, such as high-speed Internet, cell phones and cable television.

Some have gotten philosophical, finding a silver lining in living simpler.

"A lot of the things we are doing, like shutting off lights, saving on electricity, it's all good for the environment," Fredianelli said.

"A lot of this is good stuff we should be doing anyway. Maybe we'll all get back to our core values, more like our parents had."