I definitely feel the stress of the economy. I have 17 week old baby boy. (Can't wait till he is old enough for camping!) You want to talk about a drain on finances when your wife isn't working for several months. ;-)

I just try to budget very very carefully. I tried the cutting everything out bit, but that didn't work. I agree with BillLiptak in that you need to put aside a little bit of "play" money to help keep your sanity.

I like to play video games myself. Play some old titles online for a bit of freshness. I will pick up some new books I want to read. Relatively inexpensive as far as things go.