As we all know, the media are herd animals and as befits these ‘hard’ times the Columbia Journalism Review has been tracking what it calls the ‘frugality beat’. 

We’ve seen a bit of this stuff locally too. For instance, the Gladstone Observer has a useful piece, “Tackle recession blues with books“, the fairfax media recently had a piece on the trading-down phenomenon that is now confronting retailers and the Australian has a piece arguing that savings has become fashionable again. The Shane Warne musical is the latest recession victim. Earlier this month we had the frugal fashion week (an oxymoron surely) and, my favourite, the return of ‘nanna know-how’:

DID you know that cold tea makes a great furniture polish? Or that half a cup of bicarbonate of soda in the tub makes a relaxing, effective — and extremely cheap — bath wash?

No I didn’t and I don’t think I wanted to know either.