The Financial Times of London reports that over 80% of the wealthiest Americans have begun looking closely at their budgets and seeing what they can cut out. The business for "mys" -- as in, "my therapist," "my personal trainer," "my personal chef," etc. -- has been taking it very hard.

Likewise, over 80% of the wealthiest also said they passed up buying something right now until it went on sale. Over 50% report not buying a big-ticket item that they were planning to purchase.

So why should you care what the wealthiest Americans do or don't do? Simply put, the ripple effect of their spending is significant. It can actually lead to a further slowdown of the economy.

On the other end of the financial spectrum, Aldi is about to open its 1,000th store in the United States. Aldi typically stocks 1,500 items -- instead of the nearly 40,000 carried by a traditional grocery store. That allows them to keep costs low and pass the savings on to consumers.

It's been said that Aldi is the only retailer that Wal-Mart fears. In fact, Wal-Mart is poised to open a wave of small grocery stores to compete with Aldi. The real winners of this battle will be consumers as the 2 try to undercut each other in price.