In Rambouillet, France, about an hour’s drive from Paris, a French executive and his wife have given up their customary weekend evenings in the capital because the price of a show, a restaurant, gasoline for the drive and a babysitter until the wee hours of the morning has become prohibitive.

In a prosperous Long Island suburb, the wife of a fund manager says she has heard gossip that several women in her club have had to borrow to pay their annual dues.

Lesser the needs, happier we can be.