A few easy ways I've found to save a bit of money.
Firstly, whatever your heat is set to in the winter, turn it down a degree. Give it a couple of days and if you're still comfortable turn it down another degree. Keep going until you find a new lower baseline temperature that's acceptable. Likewise in the summer back off the air conditioning a degree or two and find a comfortable temperature that's higher than it was before. I was surprised one summer because I'd always set my a/c to 68. A friend said they set theirs to 73 and I didn't think that would be comfortable but I tried it and it was comfortable. So at a stroke there's a double saving - firstly because you use less power to run it, and secondly because it's likely to last longer because it isn't working as hard.
When boiling a kettle, only boil what you plan to use. It's remarkable how many people fill the kettle, boil the entire kettle, then use a single cup to make a cup of coffee. They boiled six cups of water and used one.
If you've got local farmers markets or similar, buy quality fresh produce in season and freeze it. One year I visited a produce auction and had a slightly unfortunate misunderstanding regarding how it worked, and ended up buying 47 bell peppers. Even that huge stack of peppers cost me less than $5 (which was just as well, since I was visiting the area and couldn't use anywhere near that many before I had to go home). But a few weeks later, around the time I left, the grocery stores were selling individual peppers for $1.50 so I like to think my host got some benefit from a pile of peppers I didn't get to use.
Seriously consider the optional utilities you're signed up for. I had my cable TV turned off nearly five years ago and for the most part I don't miss it. Every once in a while I'd like to watch something that I can't get any more but given the savings I don't miss it that much.
Check out cellphone plans that don't come with a phone. In the UK they are called SIM-only, I think in the US they call it Bring Your Own Device. Use the cheapest phone that works for you- not very many people really need that $1000 iPhone. Keep the same phone until it doesn't work any more, rather than paying for an upgrade just because the phone company says you're entitled to an upgrade. Watch for the habits that lock you in to expensive plans - a friend of mine some years back was on a hugely expensive plan that he'd convinced himself he needed. He wanted an expensive phone and found a plan that gave him the phone "for free" but only in the sense he put no money down for it - he had to commit to an expensive contract for two years. Because he was paying for the contract he figured he might as well use it, and by the end of the two years he thought he needed an expensive contract because he was "a heavy user". It worked really well for the phone company - they basically loaned him the money to buy an expensive phone and got him hooked on their most expensive monthly plan.
Of course the biggest thing to do, as far as humanly possible, is not to take out credit for anything at all. If you use a credit card and pay it in full at the end of the month that's often a good thing but paying interest on anything is dead money. Sometimes it's a necessary evil - few of us can buy a house without a mortgage or a car without some form of loan - but look to minimise the payments. I've known a couple of people who seemed to be constantly struggling to find money for essentials but then showed up in a brand new car, bought on credit. One guy I know bought a huge great truck on credit, and ended up not driving it because he couldn't even afford to put gas in it. Last I heard he still had it, a vehicle that depreciated daily while still soaking up money for insurance, inspections etc, and tied to a loan that charged interest. If you have loans, overpay them as much as you can - sometimes it's worth paying penalties for early redemption rather than the interest for the remainder of the term.
As far as possible make food for yourself and avoid buying things like coffee. I'm often surprised at people who buy a $5 Starbucks every day and wonder why they never seem to have any money. It's easy - $5/day during the work week makes $25/week, $100/month. On coffee. And it's worse than that, because the $100/month comes out of your post-tax income so, depending on your tax rate, accounts for maybe $12-1500 of your annual salary. Throw in a $5 sandwich every day and you just doubled that. If you're wanting to get together with friends, invite them to your house rather than meeting them at a restaurant. Yes, it means you have to cook and clean up but you get your own dedicated space, you don't have to worry about poor service or annoying other diners, you get far more (and better) food for your money and you don't have to tip the waiter.
Before buying anything, ask yourself whether you really want it. It's amazing how easy it is to pick something up and talk yourself into buying it, only to get it home and wonder what you're going to do with it. If you don't buy it in the first place you save all those problems, as well as saving the money. I lost count of the number of times I bought a book with every intention of reading it (despite the pile of unread books I already had), only to put it on a shelf for a couple of years and then give it to the charity shop, having finally accepted that I was probably never going to actually read it. So it cost me maybe $20 to give $1 to the charity shop. I'm sure the publisher didn't care.
