I'm in an Economic Funk

I'm afraid I'm in a funk today.

I've been paying too much attention to politics and the economy. It's a good thing to have knowledge, I guess. But it is still depressing. I had to pay some bills today and make a bank deposit. Of course the deposit wasn't bigger than the bills, so more out of our savings. I did the grocery shopping and even with coupons it was $118. I try to keep it under $100 but it is getting harder and harder to do. Thankfully one of our local grocery stores, Publix, has staples at a lower price all the time. Ground beef for $1.97, milk $3.79, bread $.89. It helps. I used to shop Winn Dixie because they had marked down meat on Mondays. But they stopped that about a month ago, so no bargains there.
We don't buy a lot of "stuff". The kids are too old for toys. They have electronics from birthdays and Christmas so we don't spend on those. Clothes are at the beginning of the school year and when they need them. Hubby and I buy clothes when ours fall apart. When we do need clothing, we hit the thrift stores first.

So when you already buy on a "need" instead of a "want" basis, and all you see is everything going downhill, what do you do?

How are you managing in these times? What do you do to be frugal and pinch those pennies?

I have a few websites that I follow:

Thriftyjinxy.blogspot.com has great tips and coupon codes
Mybargainbuddy.com also has codes.
Hillbillyhousewife.com has frugal ideas for cooking but doesn't seem to be updating the site.
Frugalabundance.wordpress.com is written by the original writer of hillbillyhousewife.com.

Where do you look for ideas?
How do you keep happy about all this? I try to be an optimistic person, but the news just slams you with more each day.
I think I'll wallow in self pity for tonight and make a good start tomorrow.