These are all great ideas. We have been hit really hard here in Kodiak. (Gas finally dropped below $4.00/gallon here this morning). We only have a
Wal-mart (original, not super), Safeway and one other local grocery for food stuffs, so shopping at bulk stores isn't a solution for us.
We don't coupons in our paper so the only way to get them is online or from buying a magazine (which costs more than you save). I also find they are often for things I don't use.
So, here's what we are doing. We live a very subsistence lifestyle. We fish all summer and have halibut and salmon in our freezer. DH put 2 deer (ours are very small) in there this fall as well as a hind quarter of a beef. We have eggs from the chickens and ducks and are starting to sell a few.
Unfortunately, growing even the simplest of things on this rock is not easy. We tried a garden but we had virtually no summer so it didn't do well.
I am making bread from scratch, as well as most of our desserts. I will shop all the flour and sugar sales during the holidays and store those.
We turn lights of and keep the temp at 67 degrees. When fish or meat gets freezer burnt we cook it and use it for dog food.
Plastic on the windows, weather stripping on the doors.
I have also started buying the cheaper brands of things that aren't as important, such as shampoo, hand soap, etc. Although the off brands might not work quite as well, they work good enough and the savings is worth it.
There is a sawmill near us and we get our bedding from him. He funnels the sawdust (spruce) into a truck and it's free if you scoop it yoursef.
We also shop at the thrift stores for kid's (and our) clothes. SaraF, I had a big problem with this as well, because I grew up in hand-me-downs. However, when I had my daughter and realized how fast kids grew and how dirty they get, I made a vow to myself that I would not spend a fortune on clothes for her and I would let her be a kid - dirt, fingerpaints and all. I do buy her new school clothes at the beginning of the year and one nice dress (
wal-mart variety) each year, but otherwise her clothes are used and she can abuse them as much as her little heart desires. I'll never forget how amazed her preschool teachers were when I went to pick her up one day and they hesitantly told me she had gotten paint on her shirt. I smiled and said that was fine, that's what kids do. They were shocked. Apparently many of the other parents, who buy name brand clothes for their kids, would have meltdowns when they discovered stains on the kid's clothes.