Cheap, to me, is when someone holds back funds that they have because they are selfish or unwilling to part with their money. The case you are making is that we simply have less money to spend, which is not the same as cheap. Webster's says cheap in this sense means "miserly or stingy". That sounds more like Scrooge McDuck than a poor family trying to make ends meet.
Maybe we should start referring to ourselves as poor instead of cheap?