Yes, using "grey water" has truly helped my family to decrease the water bill! We put a plastic basin underneath when we take a shower, use two plastic bowls of water for doing the dishes, and I wash as much of the laundry by hand as i can. All that water is then used to run the water closet. I use the washing machine only when I must clean large items that I cannot wash by hand - that is about the only water that is used once in our household. Any water left in the children's water bottles for school is poured into the electric water boiler for tea.

As we like meat- and poultry dishes, I cook according to my usual recipes but use VERY LITTLE meat or chicken... about 100 grams for a meal for four(with an extra plate to save for later) - it still tastes very well with seasonings and sauce! I also never use cheese in the recipes that call for it - almost everything tastes good without the addition of grated cheese. I also make food only from the cheapest items in the shop, and I choose the cheapest shop within walking distance from my home. We also have porridge without milk but with some sugar. The main source of proteine is beans, and eaten with whole corn bread it becomes full worthy proteine. We have one soupday, one bread dish day, and one vegetarian day a week. The rest of the days we have canned tuna, hot dogs, minced meat and chicken (in portions described above) - the very cheapest thing you can find.

For the last few days in the month, we may have this bread dish for breakfast or lunch or supper... It's cheap and filling and tasty... (and it keeps you going until you get your salary)...

Cut any bread (ends too) in inch-sized cubes. Rub some oil into them (add a few drops of olive oil also if you have). Add salt, oregano and finely diced tomatoes (the two dry ends of one tomato is enough). You can add a crushed clove of garlic as well, if you like. Fry on high heat in a skillet and stir now and then until nicely browned.

The VERY cheapest thing I have done... well, when I have cut slices of bread and made sandwiches, I take the bread crumbs that are on the cutting-board and sprinkle them on top of the sandwich...

 The cheapest thing that I have ever done is when it was my turn to pay for lunch , my best friend andI took turns paying whe we went out, well we went to Sam's Club on free sample day and that was our lunch :)

It was a pleasure to read everyone's ideas. 

Our cheapest was regifting a tea pot. (We had gotten three as wedding gifts, and one was the perfect color for this other person's kitchen).  But regularly I reuse milk jugs to make containers for toilet brushes, plungers, clothspins, as a watering can, holders for grey water to use in the garden during dry times. When the boys were little, I made milk jugs into helmets for play time. I trashpick and refurbish furniture items, make curtains from second hand bed sheets, crazy quilts from old men's ties, put magazine or calendar pictures in yard sales frames, display found objects like bird nests, rocks, shells. We eat wild greens and harvest wild rasperries and gather volunteer tomatoes from around the compost pile. I pick up aluminum cans off the street and sell them to a recycler when we get a bunch. I take old towels and t shirts and cut them up for rags, wash out plastic bags, reuse twist ties, cut up boxed cereal type liners into microwave spatter guards, use egg cartons as packing material for mailed items. We put soap slivers in the foot of a nylon stocking to use in the family bathroom. I made a "tree" fort for the boys from mostly salvaged, trashpicked and freecycled materials. We do alot of other oddball nearly free things. It's an adventure. Hope these help someone else.

I am ashamed to admit to some of the cheap stuff that I have done.  I have to admit to saving the water that I boil veggies in , let it cool and then water my flowers and house plants with it.  That has to be the ultimate of cheap!

I also save the bags that produce comes in, such as the bags that carrots come in , also grape bags and etc, I wash them out and reuse them.  The grape bags have holes in them and they make great bags to store leftover salad in.  I have been known to take a box and turn it inside out, reglue it and use it to ship packages and stuff in.  My daughter laughs when I send her something, she always looks to see what kind of box I reused this time.  I guess I have a reputation of being alittle cheap, well, okay, alot cheap.

i use a mix of fresh veggies (garden too), frozen and canned. When i open a can of veggies (green beans, etc) instead of pouring out the liquid in the can, i pour it into a container to keep in the fridge. by the end of the week, no matter how well i plan there are always leftover fresh carrots, a little celery, etc that didnt get used that week. by then they are starting to wilt a bit and good only for the soup pot anyway, so i make soup with them and use the liquid from the canned veggies as the soup broth.  i might have to add water too, but it makes a really tasty veg soup.

also, i like sodas now and then. hubby is more of a tea drinker. often i cant finish what is in my cup, so i will pour the leftover soda into an ice cube tray that i use only for this, and freeze my leftover soda into ice cubes to add to my next soda.

when i make chicken or tuna salad, i put all sorts of things in there to stretch it. in tuna salad i add not only onion and celery, but also a little finely shredded carrot, sunflower seeds, pickles or dillweed, and i've even added some raw old fashioned oats to stretch it.

when i make spaghetti, i double the amount of pasta, and add a little water to my homemade (or jar if i have a coupon) sauce to stretch the sauce so it will coat the larger amount of pasta. have to add more seasonings when doing this but the sauce isn't real runny and still tastes great.

i buy whole chickens on sale and cut them up myself. i make an afternoon of it and wrap the parts in various baggies i've saved, to freeze. i'll put some in leftover (cleaned out) bread bags, cereal bags, any big bags from boxes of crackers vanilla wafers etc that i've saved and cleaned out. then i twist tie them up, getting all the air out, and will store those bags in a zipping freezer bag that i'm able to reuse because the meat didnt touch it.  i have a zipper gallon bag i have labelled with a sharpie "drumsticks" for instance, and will only put drumsticks in that baggie then, etc. etc.  i do the same with ground beef. buy the big packages and portion it out myself at home. i almost never have to wrap them in foil first, because i am always saving bags from things. and no, i dont reuse the bread bags etc.. havent reached that level of cheap yet!! lol

when the ketchup is "empty" i add about a spoonful of hot water and shake the bottle really hard, then store it upside down in the fridge to get the last bit out. it's usually another few spoonsful of ketchup in there. on bbq sauce and salad dressing.. this is bad i know, lol.. but i water them down some, and then store them in a jar in the fridge. the dressing is too thick to coat salad anyway, so it needs a little water or milk. and it goes twice as far. i do the same with bbq sauce. i'll mix it in a bowl with some water, and refill the bottle and put it in the fridge, and the rest in a jar (i save mayo glass jars) in the fridge. i cant do that with mustard, doesnt work. i do that with soy sauce too, and it actually improves the taste we think. not as strong a salty taste, but really good. 

kleenex boxes get reused, i use them to store grocery bags in, i reuse the bags when cleaning the litter box.

pretty much anytime i'm about to throw something away, i first try to figure out how i can reuse it.

ok, i'm waiting for everyone to make fun of me :))) lol

 make fun of you?!?  heck no, just stealing your ideas!!  holy cow, have i gotten some good ones from this thread!

The trendy name now for what we do is called Recycling!  

And the using the water for plants from boiling veggies is one I have heard many times to help improve your plants. I think water from boiling eggs is good too!  

What great ideas everyone has come up with.  You just gotta love people's ingenuity!  I know I have learned several new tricks!

We are always looking for no-cost entertainment.  One year we went to see July 4 fireworks and during the middle of the display a metorite show started! It lasted longer than the fireworks show so we came home and set up our lawn chairs out in the yard and continued to watch the metorites.  It was stunning! It was much more beautiful and spectacular than any old firework show!  Talk about cost effective entertainment.

"...You've ever gone to the dump and came back with more than you brought." Yes, I've done that, but it's been a good many years.

And my father was famous in the family because once he took a whole chicken, wrapped it in aluminum foil, and cooked it on the exhaust manifold of the car on a four-hour drive. Turning it over halfway there, it came out fine and they ate it for lunch.