(Sorta) feeling the pinch - Yahoo! News on Yahoo! News

As businesses cut back on employees and perks and households rein in spending and travel, it seems most of America is getting used to making do with less — even rich people. After muddling through his tax woes, newly appointed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was recently spotted buckling up in the coach section of his flight. As far back as June, before the economic crisis truly became epic, The New York Times reported that small changes in lifestyle were becoming increasingly necessary — if not yet popular — among the well-off.

So New York's very wealthy are addressing their distress in discreet and often awkward ways. They try to move their $165 sessions with personal trainers to a time slot that they know is already taken. They agree to tour multimillion-dollar apartments and then say the spaces don't match their specifications. They apply for a line of credit before art auctions, supposedly to buy a painting or a sculpture, but use that borrowed money to pay other debts.