And to make that more affordable, she's all about coupons, coupons, coupons.

"I don't care if it's 50 cents off or a dollar off; if it's diapers, I'm cutting it out," said Askew, 26, of West Philadelphia.

She's also looking for ways to save on staples, scanning store circulars for sales and spending time each Sunday with newspapers and scissors in hand.

Much is being made about the rising cost of gas, but consider this: Food is essential, and the average American family spends significantly more on filling its pantry and refrigerator than it does on filling its gas tank. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says a family of four on a moderate shopping budget averages a $904 monthly food bill, up $80 from two years ago. Food prices rose 4 percent in 2007 and could rise 5 percent more this year, the USDA says.

The prices on some items have exploded even more: The USDA says eggs cost 25 percent more in February than they did a year earlier. Milk and other daily products are up 13 percent, and chicken and poultry rose 7 percent.

More people are looking to offset these increases with the time-honored ritual of coupon clipping - or printing, as the Internet brings a whole new aspect to the savings game. Hitwise, an online measurement firm, said visits to coupon Web sites like coupon.com had increased by 56 percent for the week ending June 6 compared with the same week in 2007.

The Promotion Marketing Association Coupon Council said that in 2007, 86 percent of Americans used coupons, an increase of 10 percent over 2006. About 1.8 billion grocery coupons were redeemed in 2007, up from 1.7 billion in 2006. The average coupon was 99 cents.

"The average family grocery savings can easily be $1,000 a year by spending 20 minutes cutting and organizing coupons each week," said Charles Brown, vice president of NCH, a coupon clearinghouse.

Teri Gault, CEO and founder of the grocerygame.com, boasts that users can cut their grocery bills by half using the tips and guidance she provides on her Web site.

The site, which tracks sales and available coupons, currently has 100,000 subscribers who pay about $1 a week. Others visit the site for its non-subscriber features, such as chat rooms where people share their best deals. Traffic has more than doubled this year, she said, and the demographics of the visitors are changing.

"Before it was mostly stay-at-home moms and primary grocery shoppers," Gault said. "Now it's more professionals, people who used to eat out a lot and now need to cut back, people who just went out and shopped and liked savings but never did anything active about it."

Coupon use is highest among those 65 or older - as many as 91 percent of whom are involved, according to a PMA survey. But even among 17- to 24-year-olds, more than 70 percent say they've used coupons.

"There's a common misperception that it's always retired people using coupons," Brown said. "But any way you slice and dice it, between 70 to 80 percent of each age segment uses coupons."

Kristen Waskie, 37, of Langhorne is the sole coupon collector among her friends.

"They're always griping and complaining about the cost of groceries, but it takes a certain degree of commitment," said Waskie, a married mother of a 2-year-old. "The only way you're going to save money at the supermarket is by planning ahead of time."

Waskie uses her subscription to thegrocerygame.com to plan her weekly shopping trips. She also keeps files and collects coupon circulars from her local newspapers, as well as those sent to her mother, aunt and mother-in-law. She estimates she slices $60 to $70 off her weekly grocery bill.

"I've always been of the mindset that if it can save me a buck, I'll do it. Now it's almost a part-time job," she said.

Traditionally, advertisers spend more money on coupons during recessionary times, said Suzie Brown, chief marketing officer for Valassis, one of the country's largest coupon distributors. They will cut back on unnecessary advertising and "go back to what really works: giving incentives to purchase," she said.

Red Plum, the company's direct-mail branch, launched www.redplum.com in January and has seen traffic on the site, which offers printable coupons and money-saving tips, increase steadily since.

"I'm not happy about the economic times, but our timing was very good in being able to provide consumers with what they really desire, which is a lot of offers and deals to help them in the current crunch," Brown said.

The problem with printing coupons off the Web? Not all major supermarket chains will accept them, fearing counterfeits. Others have policies limiting the use of online coupons. And not everyone looking for a bargain has access to a computer and printer.

So for some, the old-fashioned ways remain the best. Eleanor Alcaro, 87, collects coupons from free circulars, keeping her stock attached to a piece of cardboard with a paper clip. She looks for savings on her staples: coffee, orange juice, milk, eggs, chicken. It pays off: On a recent weekly shopping trip, she saved about $20, a significant amount, since she and her husband, Peter, live on a fixed income of $1,400 a month.

"It's very, very important I get the best buys," said Alcaro, of South Philadelphia. "Everything's so expensive now, but no one cares. It's an outrage."

Alcaro said if she can't get certain foods cheaply enough, she'd rather go without. That's one of the few places she can cut costs, she said, as she refuses to give up her health insurance, which runs the couple about $500 a month. Her husband is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, she said.

"I'll cut anything that's not necessary," she said.