Not long after the national — now global — financial upheaval dominated the news, I conducted an informal interview of friends and neighbors.

While chatting with someone at the soccer field or church, I would sometimes inquire, “Have you made any changes as a result of this whole big economic scare?”

They all answered, “No.”

I was surprised, because in these days of unsteady markets and financial bailouts, it seems like media sources assume we’re all trying to be thrifty.

At the beginning of October, Time magazine published an article entitled, “Real Patriots Don’t Spend,” by Nancy Gibbs.

Not long after, Kirsten Powers wrote in the New York Post about “Debt Dishonesty.”

Beth Teitell wrote “They’re Desperately Seeking a Beauty Fix” in The Boston Globe.

These articles take me back to the early ’90s and Amy Dacyczyn, the Frugal Zealot. Remember The Tightwad Gazette? I found both an interesting old article she wrote years ago and a more recent interview.

In the blog-world, there have always been coupon resources and CVS tutorials.

Now things are getting more extreme:

There was the Compact, where people resolve to buy (almost) nothing new for a year (people make their own personal exceptions such as toilet paper and underwear).

Owlhaven hosted 30 Days of Nothing: Spend Less, Save More in September. I saw the same concept here at “30 Days of Nothing” (a blogspot blog by Tonia) about a month ago.

And then I saw an article in Reader’s Digest about a family that spent nothing for one month.

All of these Internet stories were reassuring after my local, off-line survey left us feeling kind of alone. The Belgian Wonder and I wondered if we were the only ones who are trying to live even more simply.

Nobody I asked has made any changes or tightened their belts.

Have you?

Let me ask you the same thing:

What changes, if any, have you made as a result of this global financial upheaval?

If you’ve written about it, stick a link here at Mr. Linky or tell us about it in the comments.