WATERVILLE -- Constance Fortin, 85, remembers happier, healthier times when she'd go downtown, browse the stores and buy anything she wanted.

She also ran into many people she knew and would stop to chat.

But on Tuesday, Fortin looked lost, struggling to walk against a cold March wind.

She attributed the empty Main Street to a faltering economy in which people can not afford to spend money.

"I don't go anywhere," Fortin said. "I'm going to be 86 and I don't feel good and I'm just talking a little walk. I used to go in the store and buy stuff but I can't now. It's awful."

Fortin, who worked 46 years in the children's department at the now defunct Stern's Department Store downtown, says seeing Waterville so different than it was many years ago is frightening.

"It's terrible. I don't know what's going to happen and it seems like it's getting worse all the time."

With fuel costs skyrocketing, food prices increasing and the housing market in a slump, central Mainers are cutting back, big time. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that American consumers are gloomier about the economy than at any point before the U.S. invasion of Iraq and consumer confidence is at its lowest level in five years.

The average retail price for regular gasoline -- $3.2625 -- increased 6.9 percent in the past two weeks, according to a Lundberg Survey of about 7,000 U.S. gas stations.

"I don't think people should have to pay so much money for gas," said Jared Gadeberg, 23, as he waited downtown before to going to a job interview at Orion Ropeworks in Winslow. "It's way too high and I hear it's just going to keep going up and up and up. I'm actually going to start riding my bike to save a little."

Gadeberg, who divides his time between Waterville and Corinna, said his father pays $4.15 a gallon for diesel fuel for his Volkswagen Jetta, and that price is becoming prohibitive.

"We've been staying home more. I've cut back on going out to the clubs, going out to eat."

Amie Williams is doing everything possible to cut expenses, including frequently walking rather than driving from Winslow to downtown Waterville to work, buying clothes at second-hand shops, renting movies instead of going out and going to the dollar store to find deals.

She said that she and her fiancˇ have five children between them and going out to eat is completely off limits.

"We end up spending more on our heat than on rent," said Williams, 33.

"I can't remember the last time that I went to the hairdresser to have anything done."

A cosmetologist, Williams said the couple's children are ages 5 through 10. They think of all sorts of little ways to scrimp.

"Saving change is really big," she said, adding that they roll coins to buy gasoline and the children look for change people have dropped or lost.

"They do find change," she said. "If they want a candy bar, they scrounge all over for a dollar in change. You'd be amazed at what they can find."

Martha Wentworth, 38, an insurance producer for GHM Agency downtown, said she has started paying more attention to her cable and phone bills and recently switched her phone service to digital, through high-speed Internet, so that she will have no more toll calls. She also re-evaluated her cell phone plan and reduced it to decrease her cost.

Wentworth, of China, said she and her husband and son like outdoor activities such as snowmobiling and riding all-terrain vehicles, and they are working on ways to be more frugal on that front.

"I've started putting aide money for camping this summer, which I hadn't done before," she said.

"We're looking at more local campgrounds versus traveling."

She said they were thinking about selling her husband's motorcycle, but decided to keep it so that he can drive it in the summer to curb costs. They also are holding off on buying another load of fuel for their home to wait and see if the price goes down, she said.

For Carl Sheesley, 48, of Waterville, spending money on luxuries is not an option. He is unemployed.

"I get disability, so I have to make it go, month to month," Sheesley said as he stood on the stoop of his downtown apartment.

Sheesley said he doesn't drive, so he buys groceries at Joseph's Market on nearby Front Street.

Sometimes he gets a ride to a larger supermarket or to Caswell's Liquidation Center on Armory Road, where prices are lower than at regular stores, he said.

Amy Calder -- 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com