I am frugal to the max when it comes to fabric. This does not mean walmart or double knits but does mean garage sales, estate sales, guild sales, and auctions. I also let my friends know to pass me the fabric and scraps they don't want rather than tossing them. I have even gone thru the trash at retreats to collect great fabric and selvages that were thrown out.
We are lucky here to have a large city with a lot of quilters who all love fabric. About four times a year or so, there is a fabulous sale of some kind that results in lots of interesting fabric. Since i am not all about matching fabrics and like to try mixing up and scrap quilts, this is great.
Right now I am waiting on a phone call from a gal that had a garage sale in the spring and called me to tell me she was having another. The great part is that she is a fabric representative for two companies and handles four states. She gets all kinds of fabric in precuts, packages of fat quarters, yardage, etc. and cannot use it all. She remembered me and wanted me to know. Hey, high end fabric at $3 per yard beats any shop around (except the wholesalers) and she has current stock. I got 60+ bright coordinated fat quarters for $36.
I told her about our charity quilt making for a residential children's home and she is going to give me her excess boy fabric for these quilts. She is great.
Someone here sent me a big box of scraps of kid prints for the cost of postage and I got enough for 3 or 4 (maybe more) twin sized quilts of wonderful colorful fabric once I cut it up.