For the millions of Americans now facing the possibility of home foreclosures and unemployment, frugal living isn't just an option. It's an imperative. That sad reality doesn't make it any easier to actually do it, however, especially for the many individuals who have literally bought into the notion of buying now and paying later.

How, exactly, does a person go from living large to living within his or her means? The answer lies in "unhooking your thinking from consumer culture," say the authors of the classic personal finance tome Your Money or Your Life, which has been revised and updated since its original publication in 1992.

The timing couldn't be better. According to the book's introduction, the typical U.S. consumer is carrying a credit card balance of $3,000 and has saved little if any in more than three years. Health insurance costs are exploding, jobs are scarce and the environment is in peril. Clearly, something's got to give.

Or, if the tenets of Your Money are followed, some things have to be given up. That doesn't mean living like a pauper, its authors contend. It means living better and doing it with less. It's about embracing the idea of "enough" rather than constantly yearning for "more."

Such an outrageously common-sense concept is, of course, much easier said than done. After years of thoughtless spending, living with less requires a monumental shift in consciousness to force a fundamental and increasingly necessary shift in habits. In other words, it requires a complete reversal of how we, as Americans, have defined ourselves for decades, which is typically through our possessions and comparisons with others.

Timely as the ideas now seem, the nine steps in "Your Money or Your Life" were conceived almost 40 years ago as an early-retirement strategy for Wall Street financial analyst Joe Dominguez, one of the authors. Dominguez has died, but his ideas about conscious spending have been retooled by co-author Vicki Robin, who places more emphasis on consumers' beliefs about money and their individual value systems, in addition to specific strategies for saving money. In its updated version, the book is less strident, more realistic, and more necessary than ever.

If you follow the advice of the book, you don't even have to buy it to reap its rewards. Check it out from the library, and you've saved yourself 16 bucks -- money that most Americans need to start digging themselves out of debt.