It's hard not to believe this isn't a satirical piece:

Always concerned about staying in touch with her subjects, Queen Elizabeth II has invited the royal family to follow her example and tighten the purse strings during the financial downturn.

The 82-year-old monarch has warned her grandsons Princes William, 26, and Harry, 24 -- third and fourth in line to the throne -- that all ostentatious signs of living it up would be inappropriate, according to newspapers...

For example, she insists that the Buckingham Palace lights are turned off when rooms are vacated and left-overs from banquets are re-used...

For a state banquet in the the Slovene capital Ljubljana, the queen asked her dressmakers to make her a formal gown out of some material she was given more than 20 years ago during a tour of the Middle East.

For her walkabout in the city centre, she wore a red outfit already seen at an official engagement in April. In Slovakia, she appeared in the same pink wool outfit that she wore on Easter Sunday...

The queen has not been completely spared by the credit crunch. Her dressmaker Hardy Amies and favoured porcelain maker Royal Worcester and Spode have both filed for administration.

Oh no!

Flopping Aces has more.