No cable for us, over the air. We do have a fairly high level of Internet and get the NY Times when we are home. We use the croc pot a lot, and cooking beans from dried is cheaper then canned. Also learn how to use a pressure cooker for tough meat cuts and shorter cooking times.
In winter, we use a heated mattress pad, and keep the thermostat on low. In summer, I just have to have it at 72 or I die (on antiestrogens for breast cancer, tho I get to stop this month, I'm dying to see if my 5 yr hot flash will fnally be over :wink: ).
When I worked, I set aside a day every couple of weeks and did home made spaghetti sauce (now a can at $.99 is probably about as cheap as home made unless you've got a garden and we can't), also 2 lasagna casseroles one to freeze for later, one to eat the next couple of days, chili, beef stew, whatever enough to serve for 2 meals. As long as I was chopping onions for 1 dish, I figured I might as well do it for 4 or 5. Otherwise we would wind up throwing out part of a bag of onions or what ever.
Now, if I can find a precooked chicken on sale, we get 2 full meals plus stock/soup leftovers, it's just us two. I buy frozen veggies in bags to cook just what we want, usually store brand no sauce. I can't tell the difference in most things so I get store brand butter, if money is really tight, buy it in a chunk instead of quarters and there are recipes to stretch it by adding canola oil to it and it's really not any different then soft butter.
We are very lucky in not having to penny pinch (yet), but I still like to try to keep a handle on what we spend. With us, travel is our biggest expense, but we try to do that on the cheap too. We do a lot of camping, but will find a cheap hotel room if needed like right now it's too hot so we are piled up in a Red Roof using a coupon that we get at the welcome centers. Those coupon rates are super and we've learned you can call ahead and ask if they have any rooms left at the coupon rate and I haven't yet had one refuse to answer!