WASHINGTON -- A Time magazine cover this spring featured a glass jar partially filled with coins labeled "The New Frugality."

Months earlier, BusinessWeek featured a red cover cinched by a black belt. It declared the recession had pushed us into "The New Frugality" age.

A new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's project on Social & Demographic Trends found that 60 percent of all younger and middle-aged adults say they are doing more shopping at discount stores, or avoiding more expensive brands or reducing their cable service.

Pew said nearly a quarter of younger adults say they plan to plant a "recession garden" to trim their food bills.

Another Pew study released in April found that from the kitchen to the laundry room to home entertainment, consumers are paring down the list of stuff they say they can't live without. I loved the title of that report: "Luxury or Necessity? The Public Makes a U-Turn."

Is this dawning age of frugality here to stay?

I'm not so sure. Frugality isn't like your basic black dress that is always in vogue. Frugality is a foul-weather trend quickly replaced by rampant consumerism the moment the economy begins to pick up.

I'll be counting the number of months it will take before people forget this recession and return to their wasteful ways.

Still, for now, people are re-evaluating what's a necessity.

A majority of respondents to the Pew survey said that microwave ovens, television sets or even home air conditioning are not necessities. Similarly, the proportion that considers dishwashers or clothes dryers to be essential dropped sharply since 2006.

"These recession-era re-evaluations are all the more striking because the public's luxury-versus-necessity perceptual boundaries had been moving in the other direction for the previous decade," wrote Pew researchers Rich Morin and Paul Taylor.

The share of adults who consider a microwave a necessity was just 32 percent in 1996. By 2006, it had shot up to 68 percent. But it has now retreated to 47 percent. Similarly, just 52 percent of the public in the poll said a television set is a necessity -- down 12 percentage points from 2006

Ah, but the trendy thriftiness has not touched certain technologies. People may be willing to give up microwaving their food but they aren't parting with their cell phones.

The Pew survey found that 49 percent of the public, including a disproportionate share of young adults, considers a cell phone a necessity.

"A relative newcomer in the everyday lives of most Americans, the cell phone is among a handful of newer gadgets that have held their own on the necessity scale from 2006 to 2009," the Pew researchers said.

Sixty percent of adults under the age of 30 say a cell phone is a necessity, compared with 38 percent of those 65 or older.

I have the hardest time trying to persuade people to cut back on their cell phone plans for themselves and for their kids. And I'm talking about people who have lost their jobs or their homes or who are deep in debt, or all three. Continued...