And consumers are making sure to get the last drop from their household products, said Ali Dibadj, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein who covers big companies like Colgate-Palmolive and Clorox.

“People are squeezing the last bit out of the shampoo. They seem to be adding more water to really squeeze out the last bit,” Mr. Dibadj said, noting financial reports from major companies showing frugality with things like razor blades, laundry detergent and toothpaste. “Consumers are doing their best to conserve  we’re seeing it again and again and again.”

Nancy F. Koehn, a professor at the Harvard Business School and a historian of consumer behavior, said she would bet her boot collection that the change was, if not permanent, at least lasting. She said it stemmed not just from a shaky economy but also from a sense that great institutions  like government and major corporations  might not be reliable saviors in a crisis.

“We’re not going back to a time of our grandmothers’ tales of what they kept and how they used things so carefully. But we’ll see a consistent inching or trudging towards that,” Professor Koehn said. “It’s a glimmer of that, a flickering of it.”

For Walt Truelson, a management consultant in Portland, Ore., that has meant a shift in his lifelong love affair with cars, specifically Jaguars. He typically bought a new or slightly used one every year or two, but has had his current car, a 1999 model in dark green, for four years. “It’s going to stay in my possession as long as it runs,” he said.

Mr. Truelson, who declined to give his age because he said he acts much younger than he is, also switched 18 months ago to paying for cellphone minutes as he uses them, rather than subscribing to an expensive monthly plan.