Hi Moab - As a family we decided to downshift as much as possible a while back. We got rid of our car and TV license (just watch DVD's), the car due to the environmental and financial impact and the TV because of the colossal amount of s**t being shown!
As finances are very tight we do the best we can with what we have.
Shopping locally, make do and mend, fixing, growing what we can to eat, cooking from scratch, sometimes foraging, No flying, using bikes/feet and public transport etc are all things we do as a matter of course.
I would clarify what you mean by 'simpler way of living'. It can be simpler in that you can rid yourself of the bits of modern life that drive you mad (for me it's consumerism, advertising, waste, 'aspirational living' idiotic TV and media, fashion, dumbing down of society and political apathy) but it is harder in that you have to spend more time thinking about how you go about doing everyday stuff that a trip to the shops/supermarket would normally take care of.
We live in the city centre so transport is not the problem it would be rurally, and I can't say life is particularly easy, but it's alot easier than people in other countries have it!
Also, without opening a massive can of worms, with peak oil, climate change and financial meltdown all on the horizon, simpler living is the way things are going to be soon enough anyway.
I think that the 'Good Life' ideal (self sufficiency) is very very difficult to achieve unless you have alot of capital to start with and to fall back on, but I like living this way, and am always looking for ways to live more environmentally with less impact.
Hope that helps
Magentus