With 2009 just days away, many people across Long Island say they'll be happy to just put 2008 behind them.

It was the year the stock market collapsed, home foreclosures soared, retail sales took a nosedive and the Big Three automakers came close to going belly up. And the lean economic times are affecting people's plans for the biggest party night of the year.

Donald Zauner runs the Harbor Links Golf Club in Port Washington, where their all-inclusive New Year's party has been sold out for three years running. He says this year the reservations did not start coming in until they dropped their price by a third.

In downtown Huntington, some say they're not going to forgo New Year's completely -- they'll just stay closer to home and do it on a budget.

"We're just going to go over to [a] friend's house, maybe watch the ball drop,? says Commack resident Nicole Lennon. ?You know, kind of save on money.?