... and yes, I have no life, but I also read this thread years ago, so I had a head-start.
Some things I know weren't anywhere in here... because I read it... ouch...
- I have a "gift closet." It is an entire closet in our home-office, where I keep all the rolls of gift-wrap, the cards you only use one from the pack of 8, the ribbon that would otherwise get tangled and ruined, etc. This is also where I stash things all year for gift-giving events like the winter holidays. Gently used gift bags go in here until I can re-use them, too. Right now next year's valentine's day cards are hanging in plastic bag from a hanger pushed to the left and stuff for stockings is slowly building up on the right.
Which leads me to my MOST IMPORTANT HINT!!! -- put a LOCK on it!!! It doesn't save you any money if the kids steal it or wheedle it from you...
Also helps preserve the element of surprise.
Also in my home office, I have big book shelves, and when we get big cardboard boxes during the year, I fold them flat and hide them behind the bookshelves (we don't have a garage,) those save me about $3.50 each when I need big boxes for shipping at Christmas time.
Whenever we find food we like at a restaurant, I try to make a copycat of it... example-- I LOVE the carne asada at a gut truck near my work... but not enough to drive 28 miles from home on the weekends and pay $10/plate... and I love potato salad at Red Hot and Blue, but the rest of the meal is nothing special, so I figured out how to copy it... We still eat out (too much), but it could be worse.
Speaking of which, after a trip to a museum and a scene in a movie led to a discussion of the concept of war rationing, I finally found a way to cut back on my daughters' fast food addiction. They get one "ration" per week that we can use anywhere they want... DD5 usually uses hers the moment the week rolls over (she's crazy for McD's french fries), but DD8 saves it until she's really in the mood. We have a long drive home every day, and it wasted a lot of money getting drive through EVERY day...
Whenever we make spaghetti (pretty much once a week) we always have leftover spaghtti sauce, so I freeze whatever is left, and keep adding to the bottle/can whenever we have more left-over. When the jar gets full, I either use it for more spaghetti, or make a lasagna (substitute dandelion greens (only chem free!!!) for the spinach, no one will ever know!). Leftover salsa, taco meat, teetering-on-the-edge tomatoes, and the extra liquid from canned tomatoes go together in a container that turns into chili once it's full--oh, leftover manwich goes in the chili dish, too-- chili pepper is a STRONG flavor and covers a lot! That last serving of chili then goes into a chili-mac casserole... you get the point.
One thing that people touched on, but I'll highlight it-- I *LOVE!!!* my meat slicer. I pondered getting one for literally 15 years before I finally took the plunge, then bought it half-price and with a %off coupon... Love, love, love! I'll make a roast beef for dinner, then slice the leftovers uber-thin for sanwiches, or thicker to freeze in gravy for an instant dinner later on. Turkey breast and ham are also much cheaper to roast at home and then slice, and you can do a bunch at once and freeze them in small packages. But you also can semi-freeze chicken breasts and raw beef and get perfect, thin slices for stir-fry or beef jerky, perfect slices of cheese and tomatoes for sandwiches (thinner goes farther!), and thin-slice stale bagels to make bagel chips (brush with olive oil, sprinkle with seasoning, and toast like you're making croutons!)
I'm not advocating buying something full-priced right now, but try asking on freecycle or try ebay or yard sales... or save up and get one on sale... I love mine, and use it for my whole (extended) family all the time. Then I clean it with-- you guessed it, VINEGAR!!!
I also have a food dehydrator... we don't use it much except when the apples start falling on our heads, but it's also good for beef jerky (which you can make in your oven, btw)... This is a great use for the roast beef you accidently over-cook (we love our beef still moo-oo-ing...) Either slice it thin and make beef jerky, or cube it and simmer it for beef stew...
Also, we have mainly mis-match cups in our cabinets. I had all matching dishes when I was a newlywed. It got boring. Now I pick up pretty cups here and there at thrift and yard sales... when one breaks, it's no big deal, because they already don't match! They are colorful and it makes me happy.
We make firestarters from trash paper and old candles/crayons... usually we just twist the paper and dip it in the wax, but at holidays, we fill small cardboard boxes or tp rolls with a mix of pet litter (clean) and wax, dip the whole shebang in wax, and cover in pretty wrapping paper... it makes a pretty gift they can burn, wrapping and all!
Also around the holidays, we try to clean out the pantry. We usually have enough in there by then that we can go a month or more with only needing the fresh stuff, which keeps the scary zombie food from hiding in the pantry for years, and makes room for the new stuff in the new year (though I stock up all through the good holiday sales.)
With all this squirreling, it would be easy to become a scary hoarder, so every year at Christmas, any "maybe" gift that went into the gift closet that I'm not going to use after-all goes to charity. And any "I can't believe I bought that" food goes to the food bank... nothing goes to waste...
And last, but not least-- someone else already said it, but it bears repeating-- I *LOVE MY CHICKENS!!!* We have suburb chickens-- just 4 (started with just three, but we adopted a foundling), and they are funny, silly, spoiled pets-- with the benefit of eating my dinner scraps and providing breakfast in return. My girls love them, and they are learning about ecosystems and life-cycles and responsibility and chores and where food comes from and, and, and...
For those who live where it's legal, I highly encourage you to consider adding them to your life. Backyardchickens.com is a good site to look at. I figure at $5/dozen for cruelty free eggs, my girls are a bargain... and they eat the slugs out of the garden, too! (oh, and three chicks and one grape leads to game of keep-away that is cuter than ANY stupid cat on you-tube!!!)
That's it. That's all I've got, the rest of it has been said before, and better.
Vinegar!