We are on a plan to become debt free. It's a slow process, and (as always) there are a mess of setbacks, but we've learned some money saving methods along the way, including using coupons. Since most coupons are online now, I don't even buy a paper anymore. It takes some time to sit and search the internet, but its worth it. I now shop at Shop N Save (grocery store) when they have their "no coupon day". They have one/two day(s) a month where you save $10 automatically, once you spend $50. That, coupled with coupons and a budgeted list, saves me $10 to $29 each time. Not much, but every dollar helps when you are close to the edge! I used to sell on eBay, but closed my account when they bought Paypal and demanded you use them for each transaction. I have had good luck selling locally on Craig's List and Kijji. (disclaimer: you need to be VERY careful when using these sites and meeting people!) I also make my own laundry soap now. I was buying one bottle of ALL for $4-$5 every other week, and now my supplies to make my soap cost me about $10 and that lasts over a year. We don't smell like flowers, but we are clean. (though we COULD add essential oils, so we would smell like flowers) I also use homemade cleaners. I do buy a few cleaners like Lysol and bleach, but for most of my everyday cleaning, I use a vinegar/water mixture. Works just as well as the expensive cleaners where you pay for the name. One of the best things we did to save money was to shut off the hot water heater. Yep, you read that right. We flip the circuit off and only flip it on when we are ready to use hot water. It's on once a day for 15 minutes, and that gives us plenty of water for the 2 of us. Well, it's on all day when I'm doing laundry.
It's easy for us, since the breaker panel is in the bedroom, its easy to get to. It's an electric water heater, so it heats up in minutes. Shutting it off means it's not turning on all day long, keeping the water over 100 degrees 24 hours a day. We just don't need that much hot water!! It has cut our electric bill in HALF, and our home is 100% electric (except the wood burning stove we use in the Winter).
I would love to be able to drop our home phone and only use the cell, but cells don't work where we live so we need to keep our home phone. I purchased a TracFone/Net10 phone as a cell, so I have something on me when I go to work and travel. I pay $20 every 90 days or so, to keep it active, and the minutes roll over, so I'm set there.
Look for free samples. Get a free email account (hotmail, gmail, etc.) and set it up ONLY for freebies because you will get TONS of junk mail. Subscribe to as many free sites, yahoo groups, and forums as you can. Take whatever free sample you can use. I have so many sample packets of lotion, I haven't bought any in months. I have also received 3 full sized bottles of shampoo, and with all the sample packets and the 3 bottles, I haven't bought shampoo in almost 2 years.
All of this may seem like just change here and there, but believe me, it adds up. I have Dave Ramsey to thank for that.
Good luck with your savings!!