A few things that have worked for me:
1. Dollar General has some good food staples and household/hygiene products very reasonably priced
2. A local food chain that caters to the immigrant population has some good bargains on the basics.
3. Are you a senior citizen? Around here, the Cleveland bus is only $1 per ride for Seniors. When I'm so inclined, I can go downtown and a lot of other places for a meal or whatever, parking near my house and not having gas or parking fees. You might have some similar options in your area.
4. There are some discount chains around here that have very inexpensive DVDs and books. I accumulated enough so that there's always something to read or watch.
5. Next step...giving up cable TV.
We are Rural West TN. No buses not even a taxi. Little shopping, and what there is is more thank Kroger’s.
Basics of bread, milk, cereal and eggs are the most bought. Cleaning supplies I went back to basics of bleach, vinegar and Comet. Found his denture cleaner does the toilets with a little white vinegar just as well as those expensive cleaners. Laundry soap is bought when it’s real dirt cheap. Kroger’s had Sun for 99 cents if you bought 4, I bought 8. That is a year’s supply.
Like you we have an excess of things, hubby does most home repairs even at 75. He does the lawn weed control. We downsized 2 yrs ago and got rid of a lot of excess furniture. We did invest in good windows and one of those hot water tankless units. That has cut down cost of gas.
We cut the eating out to just ANV and BD’s. Then I get gift cards from Kroger’s that go toward gas points. We had enough this month to get a $1 off a tank for each of our cars. I don’t drive mine much. He fills the gas can then too.
Clothes come out of Salvation Army or yard sales. I grow some of our food. This constant rain has hammered that this year.
His daughter gave us Netflix for Christmas 4 yrs ago so that solved the movie situation. We combined all our phone and net. No home phone just cell. With a zip line for the computer. She has us on her PRIME account with Amazon and that saves shipping cost.
We could go to basic cable if he didn’t have to have all that sports stuff. We are just to far from the source to do antenna service.
I invested in real high quality sheets for the bed at the Military base when the supplier came in. $40 for any size 1400 count, like silk sheets that will out last us.
The only things that need replacing on a annual basis are shoes, socks and under things for both of us, I do that when they put them on sale and I have $10 off coupons.