(MONEY Magazine) – When Peter and Mary Ann Bloom of Scottsdale, Ariz. drive to nearby Tempe each week to shop at a discount food co-op, they're not just searching for plump peaches and organic lettuce. They're hunting for the kind of bargains that have helped them slice their expenses 20% in the past year. "With the economy the way it is, we felt that cutting our spending would give us better control over our financial future," explains Mary Ann, 43, who is studying to be a teacher, shown below with Peter, 41, an insurance auditor, and sons Zachary, 10, Matthew, 9, and Richard, 6. The Blooms are hardly alone. Our ninth exclusive Americans and Their Money survey -- the most comprehensive annual study of national attitudes about personal finances -- shows that despite the current wave of consumer optimism (described at left), Americans remain generally cautious about their own finances, though hopeful about the future. Among the highlights from our mail survey of 2,154 adults conducted last October and November: -- Cost cutting is up. A whopping three out of four Americans say they trimmed their expenses in the past year, nearly a third by more than 10%. -- Expectations are down. Although people are about as satisfied with their personal finances this year as last, just 35% think their finances will be better a year from now -- down from 41% in our last poll. What's more, only 14% of poll respondents think they will be better off financially at the end of President Clinton's term in January 1997. That's down from 26% a year ago. -- Everyday money jitters are easing. The proportion of Americans who say they worry often about money declined slightly to 61% from 63% a year ago. What's more, just 48% say they would have trouble paying an unexpected $1,000 bill, down from 51%. -- There's a craving for saving. Americans plan to save or invest an average of 7.6% of their incomes in 1994, up sharply from the 5.9% they say they socked away in 1993. -- And the American dream remains alive. This year, 52% say the American dream is still a reality in this country, up from 48% last year. And more than six in 10 (63%) think their children will live better than they do now, a far greater share than the 53% who expressed such optimism just a year ago. The details of the poll, conducted by Willard & Shullman of Greenwich, Conn. (margin of error: plus or minus three points):

THE ECONOMY. Doomsayers alert! A majority of respondents (56%) say they believe America is in a long-term decline, up sharply from the 43% who saw the sky falling last year. And only one in four think the economy will improve in '94.

CONCERN ABOUT JOBS. With corporate layoffs still making headlines -- more than 600,000 people got the ax in 1993 (see "Go From Pink Slip to Paycheck" on page 74) -- many people remain understandably nervous about their jobs. Nearly three out of four working people say it would be hard to find a new position if they lost their current one, up from 69% last year. Blue-collar workers are especially gloomy: 47% say it would be very difficult to find a new job, compared with 26% of white-collar workers. Most people (56%) say that even if they could find a new job, it would be difficult or impossible to get one that pays as much as they earn now. That view may be overly pessimistic, though, at least for white-collar workers. Craig Dreilinger, president of the Bethesda, Md. management consulting firm Dreiford Group, predicts that between a third and a half of the 1.4 million managers laid off during the past five years will be rehired by their employers as consultants, frequently with higher pay. The hitch is that many of these rehirees won't come back with company-paid health and life insurance and other such benefits. "So they may earn more," he says, "but get to keep less -- if they choose to pay for benefits out of their own pockets."

THE TAX OUTLOOK. Even though last year's federal income tax hike hit only upper-income filers (individuals with taxable incomes exceeding $115,000 and couples above $140,000), most Americans (54%) expect their IRS bill to go up in 1994. People are even more dour about prospects for their other taxes: 74% of homeowners think their property taxes will rise in 1994, and 68% of those whopay state or local income taxes expect them to go up this year.

HEALTH REFORM. More than half of Americans (52%) think Congress will pass a major health-care-reform plan in 1994. But as was the case with taxes, a majority of people (67%) expect their health-care bills to go up as a result. And for the third year in a row, our poll respondents ranked doctors' fees as the most overpriced item from among a list of 12 goods and services. Runners- up: car insurance and credit-card interest charges.

MANAGING DEBT. Perhaps because they are worried about the high cost of using plastic, people say they are more careful now than in the past about how they handle credit cards. Fully 93% say they pay cash whenever possible -- up from 89% two years ago -- in order to avoid running up charge-card tabs. And one in four switched credit cards during the past 12 months, mostly to pay a lower interest rate or to avoid forking over a high annual fee. Their wariness about debt appears to be paying off, since the median monthly household credit-card balance dropped by more than a third to $187 from $284 the year before. "But the majority of credit-card debt is still on cards charging at least 17% interest," says Ruth Susswein, director of the consumer advocacy group Bankcard Holders of America. We also asked whether people have ever been denied credit and found that a striking one in five have; those under age 35 were twice as likely to have been turned down as older Americans. The rejections often resulted from credit bureau mistakes, though -- such flubs were the main reason people ages 50 to 64 were denied credit. Indeed, although credit rating firms say they do everything possible to keep their files accurate, the Federal Trade Commission says it continues to receive more complaints about credit reporting than about any other issue. "Based on the number of complaints we're getting, errors are clearly still a problem," says the FTC's Peggy Twohig.

SPENDING CHOICES. For the first time, this year we asked couples how they make their buying decisions. It turns out that, like the Kalens of Westfield, N.J., who are pictured at left checking out pillows at a nearby furniture store, they usually talk over prospective purchases before springing for them. Our respondents say that they usually consult with their partners before buying items that cost more than $134, on average. But 62% of Americans say they buy their own clothes without consulting their significant others. And just over half purchase their own jewelry alone.

MONEY VS. SEX. We couldn't help asking again whether our respondents think more about sex or money. Guess what? The almighty dollar is even more on people's minds today than in the past. In our latest survey, 47% say they think more about money, up from 43% a year ago. The proportion who think more about sex stayed flat at 17%, far below the 24% response we heard in 1985. Men, as you might expect, are likelier than women to think more about sex -- or at least to admit it. Finally, we must point out that it seems sex in America is getting worse. Last year, 40% said they enjoyed sex more than money. This year, only 35% say that. And remember, we took the poll before the Bobbitt trial.