i stay on top of the ways i spend by car pooling to work to save on gas, bringing lunch to work and not eating out, and re-purposing household items to fit other needs as much as possible. also, when my bf and i make our grocery list for the week, we make a "menu" that lists what we will eat each night. i try to use some of the same ingredients a few nights a week so i don't overbuy and have spoiled produce. nights that we hit the gym, instead of cooking, we'll throw together a big salad in the essence of time.

also, don't be afraid to shop at several stores in order to get the best value for your $. there are local shops that stock meats & produce for almost half as much as big-name grocery stores. and you don't have to be a june cleaver to clip coupons!!

Somehow my boyfriend and I manage to spend less on food than my grandma who lives on her own.
Do we eat less than an 85 year old woman? Definitely not. In fact, we eat more, and we definitely eat way more meat. We just make sure that we're shopping on the best days (first tuesday of the month is 15% off day at most grocery chains), clipping coupons, and cooking things from scratch.
We save on meat purchases mostly because my boyfriend's grandparents run a farm in Saskatchewan and we get our beef for free (delicious free range beef) and we buy our chickens from the Hudderite farms. Their whole chickens are always gigantic and only $10.

We buy staples in bulk (like canned tomatoes and other pantry staples), but the rest we usually pick up twice a month. We eat out maybe twice a month, and usually it's just pizza that we share with friends.

It's easy to be frugal. You just have to really like to cook!

I can go a little overboard in the frugality department but I never compromise on the quality of food (eat out maybe once a week). For me it helps to have saving targets -- say, to save $$$ per month. It's not possible every month but we designate some months "tight" months when we know we will not be on vacation or anticipate making big purchases (like furniture or appliances). We really hunker down those months. Usually, we seem to need around four tight months a year to hit our yearly saving targets.

Liked this post. Clearly this is a topic close to my heart!

I too have a neglected gym membership and an undying love for fancy yoga classes. I recently started cleaning the studio in exchange for free classes. The studios that have an official workstudy program didn't have any openings. But on a whim I asked at another one that doesn't advertise, and the owner was psyched about the idea. Point is, it can never hurt to ask -- for yoga or whatever else it is you're trying to do. I also recently took up babysitting after work, two/three days/week. This is bringing in an extra couple of bucks a month with which I'm trying to pay off my credit cards (for real this time!).

I'm using Mint.com right now and it's helping with categorization. But I still do overspend and waste money on food. I'm getting better but it's still maddening to see that I've gone over my food budget this month and have 7 days left and not enough in the pantry for me to make until October 1.

There are two different ideas going on here - tracking spending vs. cutting spending.

Tracking what you spend your money on can give you a picture of where your money is going & what areas you can cut.

If you want to get more bang from your buck (so to speak) then track your spending as you go. Get a notepad (electronic or otherwise) and record *everything* you buy - write down as you buy that pack of gum. It's a bother to track this way and that in itself can help to cut spending. Buying becomes more of a hassle & the value of the item gets weighed against your time to track.

This is what I did & I found it useful to see how I spent my money as well as to eliminate a lot of unnecessary cash outflow.

Its easy to not spend money when u dont have any, I get stressed when I have money because that means u have to decide what to do with it. Me and my husband live on $500 a month, most of that goes to gas, and we still live at his mums house, shoot me now!

Economic ups and downs have had very little impact on my spending as I have always been very budget concious and kept revolving debt to a very bare minimum (as in any outstanding balances are paid within 90 days).

Hopefully, people will rehaul their finances for the long run and not just the short term until conditions improve. Then again, hope was the only evil to remian in Pandora's box.

revolution9, if I could get free meat then I'd certainly spend a lot less money and eat a lot of meat :)

I use mint.com to keep track of all of my spending. It's nice, cause it updates automatically from my bank and CCs, and automatically categorizes everything (there are a few hiccups here and there, but it's nice to not have to enter EVERYTHING manually). It's really REALLY helpful to log on and see "oh hey, I spend $300 on clothes this month. I should probably STOP buying clothes!"
And the GREATEST part about it is that it's freeeeeeee. :)

I have been going through and changing / canceling things that are unseen money sucks - like a cell phone account I didn't use, too low deductible on car insurance, unused gym membership... All stuff that was auto-deducted from my bank account, so I never took a moment to think 'maybe I shouldn't send this check.' I fear the under-utilized netflix account is next on the chopping block...

The cornerstones of reducing your spending are:

1. Cook for yourself from real food ingredients (never pre-mixed, pre-bagged, or pre-made).

2. Don't buy new clothes or shoes unless you need them (never buy because they are attractive to you or you think you'll look good in them).

3. Never shop to entertain yourself or to mitigate unrest in your life.

If you follow these, your spending will be dramatically reduced. Most people waste their money on incidental items they rarely need or use, convenience, and the momentary "high" of obtaining something novel. If you scrutinize the pleasure your spending habits bring you, you'll likely see very few of the items bring long-term pleasure or fulfill recurring needs.

Most people can't get past the idea of "deserving" the reward of buying something they want so they justify wasteful spending as a way of making working worthwhile. They feel empowered by the freedom of obtaining what they want when they want it and choose the immediate small sense of freedom over the long term freedom that comes from financial stability and security.

I'm not judging anyone for this, mind you. We all make stupid decisions for short-term benefits because life is hard sometimes. However, if saving money is important to you, you have to change your entire mindset about shopping and the acquisition of possessions. I did quite awhile back and now save 20-40% of my income every month depending on how big the income that month happens to be.

Orchid, I think you are on the right track with your assessment, but it gets much more interesting. It's not so much about feeling empowered by instant gratification and a childish sense of "I want what I want and I want it now"...it's the fact that most people are miserable in their jobs, and working a job that makes you miserable just to provide the minimum necessities isn't very motivating. Studies have actually shown that people who hate their jobs the most also tend to spend the most, because that is their pacifier. It is a temporary high to drive that expensive car to the job they hate...a temporary high to wear a killer pair of heels out to the bar after getting off of the job they hate. It justifies continuing to keep this job for them, because they need the high income to pay for their after-work lifestyle. While people who enjoy their jobs tend to spend less because they are more fulfilled overall. Overspenders are typically trying to fill a void with the temporary high shopping provides...

Visit MSNMoney...go to MSN.com and click on Money. They have a ton of articles on the psychology involved in living beyond your means and how to rein it in without feeling deprived. They also have message boards that are really active. It was my AA :) I am a reformed overspender. MSN Money is a bit slanted towards financial armegodden with everything that is happening now, rather than encouraging that it will get better like it aways has, but as long as you can ignore some of the fear-mongering that goes on over there it really is a very useful personal finance tool. It focuses more on getting your mind right than on technical tools.

We use good old MS Excel to log our expenses; a pivot table sums the categories by month. Just the act of logging helps us keep spending under control - knowing that I will have to log that impulse buy makes me think twice.