I have to add my 2 bits to the conversation! It tickled me to see the old milk trick I used to do too- adding one half a jug dry milk to the regular, and kids never noticed!
I don't go quite that far anymore, but do a lot of the same things you do. One thing that for us saves a bit of money is that we compost food scraps (vegetarians), recycle anything that is recyclable, and take our own garbage to the dump. It isn't that far, and for 7.50 2 times a year, it is so much cheaper than service. Without the nasty food scraps in it, it just sits in our shed in bags until we are ready to make the little journey to the dump.
My quilting strategies are much the same value system- reuse, and recycle, enjoy creating with what I have and donate, donate, donate, so it doesn't fill up the house!!