No Longer Simply 'Chic,' Cheap Is Now a Badge of Honor

Sandy used to eat lunch out five days a week, indulge in premium cable on-demand and duck regularly into Starbucks for $4 coffees. Then the recession hit, and business at the jewelry boutique she had just opened tanked.

By the time she started her YesIAmCheap.com blog in January 2009 as a way to make herself more accountable for her spending, her busine…