I started discussing this in another thread but thought that it would be more interesting to start a new thread on the subject to share & learn methods that I & others here use to save money. I'll start...

Food: We're shopping at several stores within a 5 mile radius instead of just one which saves us money because all of them are cheaper on certain things than others. We're making everything from scratch because in the long-run it's cheaper (bread, crusts, sauces, etc.). Yesterday I made 2 quiche crusts, some chocolate chip cookies to give away as Christmas gifts & today I'm making Beignet (French donuts) to use for breakfast for the rest of the week. We're buying things that are on sale, generics instead of name-brand (when it's just as good) & we're using coupons that come with our receipts & we receive in the mail or from friends that get them from their newspapers & don't use them. We're growing herbs in our windowsills, fruits & vegetables in our parents garden & we're going to start going to farmers markets again because they're cheaper than grocery stores. We also get a discount on fuel from our grocery store because we spend more than $100/month. We're also eating less meat because you really only need a fist-sized portion per day anyways. For instance, instead of buying a whole damn fish in a package, we go to the butcher counter & have him give us only 1/3 of a fish instead. This way we get more variety & still save money. We're also collecting nuts & persimmon from the forest behind the home of my parents. My father even collects mushrooms on occasion (he used to do this for a hobby in the 80s & is familiar enough to do it safely).

Utilities: We cancelled cable television & increased our internet speed from 10 megs to 20 megs so that we can stream media over the internet instead. This took us from about $100/month to about $50/month. We lowered mour Netflix payment from $16/month (6 movies per week & unlimited streaming) to $8/month (2 movies per week & unlimited streaming). We lowered our cellphone payment from $100/month to $70/month for 2 lines by changing from the 700 minute plan to the 550 minute plan. We replaced all of our light bulbs with more eco-friendly ones, we turn everything off when we're not using it, we're keeping the temperature lower in the winter & using blankets & wearing more clothes to compensate & opening the windows more in the warmer months instead of using the air-conditioner to save on electricity. We're taking shorter showers & turning off the faucet while not rinsing when brushing our teeth & washing the dishes.

Miscellaneous: We've been selling everything that we don't need or use. I've sold several books, video games & audio CDs. I'm selling a guitar, a bookcase, old computer equipment, etc. I simply don't see a reason to save a lot of items that are simply losing their value as I don't use them. We're using our more fuel-efficient car for everything & are looking in to selling our old car.

Feel free to comment or to share your ideas & methods for saving money. I think that this could be a very interesting discussion & could be very helpful to all of us.

This is a little bit extreme, but the lady next door to our apartment says she spends about $30 on groceries a month using this method:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20932252/10-Secrets-to-How-She-Saves
(note that she's a super religiousified fuzzy wuzzy)

Haven't tried it, haven't read it, but my wife (whoa weird, I have a wife) is going to give it a shot during the month of January and see how it goes.

Don't buy **** I don't need. In other words, I don't buy stuff and then look for a purpose to use it. I also repair everything I have and basically never buy anything new until what I used before is broken beyond repair. Aesthetics be damned, if it still works I use it.

Buy food when it is on sale and freeze whatever I can. Pretty much buy food that will go toward filling me up (i.e. I don't buy desserts or drinks because the fact they aren't great for satiety). It's healthy and affordable! Also I have to carry my groceries home, so yeah.

I have the luxury of living in a city with great mass transit, and I don't mind walking, so that eliminates a great deal of transit expenses.

For entertainment, Hulu is great, and my tastes in games allow me to still play Sven Coop, Diablo, etc with my friends. I feel no impetus to buy from the new gaming generation when I still haven't finished the great stuff from two generations ago.

Yeah, when I move out of my parents here in the next few months I'm not getting cable TV. I'll miss the discovery channel, but not enough to cough up the money for it. I'll keep Netflix for now, as that's a lot cheaper than renting movies proper and it's great for TV shows actually.

I also have the cheapest phone plan I could get for my smartphone, no need for more/unlimited minutes (especially since Sprint went nuts and just gives unlimited minutes for calls to any cell now, regardless of network). I wish they actually had even less minutes, I use so little :/

I strictly download all my movies illegally now and I've saved no money, because I never bought movies before or rarely go to the threatre.

You could also switch to geiko and save %15 or more on car insurance

You should check out Dave Ramsey's book, Total Money Makeover. I don't necessarily recommend getting it here, but here it is: http://www.daveramsey.com/store/Books/dave-s-bestsellers/The-Total-Money-Makeover/prod326.html

I've also been w/out cable tv since I got laid off last December. Between netflix and netflix streaming, I don't miss it.

We also saved a lot of money when my wife realized we could get a 20% discount on our verizon cell bill because her workplace has some sort of agreement with them (I think it's pretty common).

We struggle because we eat out a lot. Ugh.

I spend less money than I make. It's radical, but it works.

TV antenna to get channels in (most in HD too) instead of paying monthly for it.

On a note to the grocery shopping, with gas prices as they are, if you're not saving over $30-$60 or so per grocery cycle (some people buy weekly, bi-weekly, monthly), you might be losing that effort in cost of gas and wear on vehicle plus your own personal time.

I waste a lot of money, so there's plenty of places that I could cut back, but you sound like you have made a lot of necessary cuts. You can also do things like up the deductable on your insurance to make it lower, or ask if there are any discounts you are eligible for but not recieving, some you can even do Defensive Driving courses and get as much as 15% off.

In the long run, if you have old appliances (older than 10 years) such as a fridge or freezer, something that runs all the time or quite often, replacing them will pay for itself in a few years.

You might also try reinsulating your house, expensive, but if you live in an older home, it can make a GREAT difference.

If your attic/crawlspace/whatever applicable is uninsulated on the roof section, a good way to go for insulation is to buy one or two rolls of insulation a month to put up in there, then in a year or two it will all be done. thats my plan once i move into my new house with my new wife next year.

The internet is my only luxury. Car paid off. Cheapass rent.

You need 20Mbps internet to stream stuff?

My 1.6Mbps can (barely) keep up with Hulu...pretty sure 10 should do you fine.

Not that I'd say no to 20..

My god, that woman is over the top. I couldn't imagine living like that.

I like to be able to get decent speeds while my wife is streaming a show over Netflix. I had considered knocking it down to the 10 meg but I honestly noticed improvement in the things that we do with the better package when we upgraded. It's about $10 extra per month. Also, the good thing is that once the 30 meg package rolls out in the next few months, 20 meg will become the new minimum package & I'll be getting 30 meg for the same price that I pay for 20 meg. If I feel that it's overkill, I'll just knock it back down to 20 meg. I hope that's not as confusing to read as it was to type.

I pay maybe $50 a month in groceries for two people. And I make that back every couple of months with a garage sale where I sell the excess product I got for free and rake in about $300-500. In short, by being smart with coupons you can actually make money grocery shopping.

This takes a bit of commitment though due to the learning curve, but once you've got it figured out, you'll wonder how you ever did without. It's all 100% legal too
http://www.abundantfoodsavings.com/
http://slickdeals.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=38

Course, it helps if your frugal wife does most of the work

Also, if you live in California or Oregon and have one point or less on your driving record, get a car insurance quote from Wawanesa.

For two drivers in their 20's, 2 newer cars, I pay $820 a year ($68.33 per month) for FULL coverage.

Geiko = FAIL

My wife & I performed an experiment in the grocery store the other day. We purposely sought out items that were expired & then at checkout we asked if we could have the items for free. The answer was yes every time so far. I obviously wouldn't recommend drinking milk that was 3 months out of date or anything like that but there are a multitude of items that are relatively safe to eat a little bit after the expiration date.

I'm going to have to try several of these ideas that have been posted. There are quite a few good ones.

Also, I noticed that Brian mentioned that eating out is often a problem for them. If you must eat out, I would recommend using restaurant.com. You basically purchase gift cards for various restaurants at a discounted price. My brother uses it often & loves it. For instance, I can get a $50 gift card for Cocos Lokos in my home town for $20 or a $25 gift card for $10. The downside is that often you must buy 2 gift cards but you'll benefit in the long-run if this is a place that you eat often.

On topic of eating out, if you have young children, take advantage of kids eat free nights...

kidsmealdeals.com

[shameless plug]

How's things on the job front?

GAHHHH! My insurance is $215ish a MONTH for full coverage...

No tickets, one wreck... but it never went up after the wreck, its always been that much...

yeah i know right... just crazy thing to do spending within your means

also limping along with a computer from 2004 helps

It's not really about spending within your means. It's about being responsible with your money, padding your bank account in case things go sour. Loose your job, wreck your car, unexpected medical bills. It's about not blowing your money just because you have it.

My family has Geiko and it's only $200/mo for 3 cars and 3 drivers...

Vin, are you kidding me? I Have Geico too and my insurance is about 1/3 the cost, adjusted to one driver.

Then again, I only have liability..

I'm paying ~80/month for two people, two cars, full coverage + roadside assistance and higher-than-the-legal-requirement for liability. That's through american family, although I no longer recommend them because they screwed me out of ~$80 on my last motorcycle policy (but I couldn't save 80 by switching to the other companies I checked so I stayed with them). We're in our 30s now though, clean records.

$2 video games on Steam are the exception to this rule.