The sight of ministers walking down Whitehall instead of stepping into their own chauffeur-driven limos, or top civil servants "slumming it" by no longer automatically travelling first class on the train, may help to make the coming public spending cuts more palatable.
Such economies in the travel budget will save around £15 million - only a fraction of the £6.2 billion that George Osborne and David Laws insist will be cut from Whitehall budgets this year.
But along with an immediate five per cent cut and then parliament-long freeze in ministerial salaries, it is an attempt to show that those at the top are sharing some of the pain.
As David Cameron repeatedly said during the election, "we are all in this together". He is even contributing to the cost of updating the flat above No 11 Downing Street that he and his family will move into later this week.
But the cuts announced yesterday are just a down payment - a first step along a much more painful and bumpy road to balance the nation's books.
The public is unlikely to be immediately affected by the freeze on civil service recruitment, the savings in information technology projects, cutting back on advertising or the axing of quangos.
These first cuts are the easy part. Whitehall has had plenty of notice that they were coming, as during the election campaign civil servants worked up strategy papers based on the Conservative Party's manifesto which warned that £6 billion savings would be needed this year.
Meanwhile the UK's devolved administrations pledged yesterday to cooperate in the face of central government cuts but warned that pain could not be avoided.
Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish parliaments must make £704 million savings following the announcement from the Westminster coalition yesterday.
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones and Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness met at Stormont yesterday.
The political leaders were considering deferring cuts to next year and called for Prime Minister David Cameron to respect their legislatures.
Mr McGuinness said: "There is going to be more pain ahead and what we have to do is prepare for it."
The three devolved administrations are expected to push for more cash to match some of the regeneration money being spent in London for the 2012 Olympics.
Northern Ireland faces £128 million in spending cuts following yesterday's emergency budget.