You will spend time or spend money...that's the trade off from doing shit like cutting your own hair, growing your own pot, etc. You need to determine how much time it will cost as well. I found that when I crunched the numbers, I was better off working a 2nd job ten hours a week than trying to do shit like that. Focus: If you call your insurance, cell phone, cable, phone providers and bitch for a better deal, often they will give you exactly that. Specifically, with a cable or phone company, they will put you on a temporary "package" deal that will lower your cost for a few months. Insurance is another good one, but the legwork behind shopping around can be extensive. Buy a small crock pot. It will take anything you throw into it, cook it for 4-12 hours and give you delicious and healthy meals. I have dumped many a chuck of beef heart, random veggies, some sauces and spices and had dinner for 2 days thanks to my slow cooker. Less planning for meals meant I wasted less food, had a more varied diet, and made cheaper meats and veggies (canned and frozen stuff) more tolerable.
Somebody told me Wall Street fell, but I'm so poor I couldn't tell. This time last year I was broke and lived quite some time without internet at home, cable was off till I found a roommate that wanted it, and the thermostat was set at 60. GREAT money savers in the kitchen. I never go out to eat, so being pretty good in the kitchen means I have an extensive herbs and spice collection. Instead of buying the brand name, or even generic brand on aisle 5, bounce over to the Mexican foods on aisle 7. They have the same shit at close to half the price most of the time. And don't sleep on dollar stores for dry goods. Learn to make sauces, stews and soups. You can make a NICE chicken soup for about $6, and just cook the noodles as you eat on it. The soup will last you a good week if you don't freeze it. Same with sauce. Anything you can just add half a box of 75 cent pasta too saves you lots of cash.
I've been cutting down on beer significantly. A year/year and half ago, I would regular buy any random beer, not mind the price tag and go "meh, I love beer!" Hell.. I bought one of those overpriced Heineken 5L kegs just because I could, even though the beer tastes like piss (well Heineken on its own is drinkable, but in the mini-keg form is fricken flat). So I went from mini kegs, regular random trips to the liquor store for 6s of Unibroue's La fin du monde to buying 6s of Molson Dry and Lucky Lager. Molson Dry and Lucky Lager are the discount beers here. 6 for $7 Canadian isn't a bad deal. In the end of the day I wish it was $13 La Fin du Monde.. but either way, it helped me get buzzed by the end of the night anyways.. but with worse consequences than with "good" beer. You get what you pay for.