When is cheap not enough? Uh, when the global economy is melting down faster than an ice cream cone on I-95 on a mid-July Miami afternoon? Yes.

So in this space’s relentless interest in pinching pennies until they scream, wail, and beg for mercy, we’ve goosed our already skinflint ways a few notches flintier in preparation for the onslaught of another South Florida summer. Heat that will make your face melt, humidity that turns life-giving oxygen into lungfuls of wet clay, hurricanes ready to spin-dry your neighborhood and scatter its pieces from Hialeah to Guam -- all reasons most of us use to get out of Dodge, if only for a few days or weeks.

Not this year, unless a suitcase full of newly minted Jacksons magically turns up in our closet. So it looks like we’ll be sticking it out, and we need all the help we can get. More specifically, all the good, not just cheap but even cheaper, white wine we can get. More specifically than that, all the good white wine we can pour down our gullets for $9 a bottle or less.

Really, if we’re all in this hot, humid, storm-threatened, recession-ravaged boat together, it’s the least we could do.

Let’s start with two terrific deals on wines that are equally at home sipping in your dining room with chilled stone crab and swilling on the beach with your posse. Rene Barbier’s Mediterranean White (nonvintage) is a truly remarkable value at $5.99. A blend of Spanish varietals, it’s simple and light-bodied, with crisp, refreshing notes of grapefruit and green apple. Buy it by the case! You won’t be sorry.

For a buck more there’s the 2008 Nobilis Vinho Verde, an even lighter wine with the slight carbonated fizz that’s characteristic of this Portuguese product. It’s only nine percent alcohol, perfect for drinking on a brutal SoFla summer day.

Also inhabiting the cheap seats are the 2007 Ruffino Orvieto and 2008 Mendoza Station Torrontes. One of the secrets to low-cost quaffing is to drink lesser-known varietals and blends -- Torrontes, for example, Argentina’s signature white wine grape. The Mendoza flaunts a fruity, almost floral nose, with an unexpectedly creamy texture and faintly sweet, citrusy flavors. The Orvieto is a blend of Italian mutt grapes but delivers a fair amount of complexity -- smoky, minerals, tasting of citrus and pear -- for its $6.49 price tag.

At the upper end of our cheapskate limit are the 2008 Chateau Montet White Bordeaux and 2007 Villa San Giovanni Pinot Grigio. Both reveal another secret of drinking below the radar: Watch what’s on sale. At a reduced price of $8.99, these two wines deliver even more value. The Montet is classic Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc -- bracingly crisp, with intense lemon-lime and grapefruit flavors and a long, lemony finish. The San Giovanni drinks like the more expensive wine it normally is, with richer, more mouth-filling lemon-lime and mineral flavors than the usual run of cut-rate Pinot Grigios.

Getting more than you pay for. Now, that’s change you can believe in.

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