Grosse Pointe Moms Club

Under Siege
Kids play at Huchingson's house. The frugality in Grosse Pointe is but one example of the economic struggles in the Detroit suburbs, where the grip on middle-class life has for some families become tenuous. The losses of hundreds of thousands of jobs among families without any real nest eggs have imposed painful and unfamiliar choices, like which bills to delay or stop paying, how to sign kids up for Medicaid and when to register for food assistance. For $35 a year, the Grosse Pointe Moms Club offers something that, for these families, is quite valuable: how to foster frugality without embarrassment.

• The Remains of Detroit