Let's talk about something else.

Instead of being flat-out depressing, I thought I'd ask for tips on saving money on our grocery bills.
The groceries are the last thing that we're trying to really cut back on. Not that we have been extravagant or anything, but there is not a specific budget for food. It's just whatever we have left over, even if that's nothing.
Other things we've done to save money:
1. Loan modification- our current payment is less than half of what it was when we bough the house, but it's not completely final yet. We don't know what they're going to decide the payment is going to be permanently.
2. Got rid of our second car- This saved us over $500 a month just on the car payment. Throw in the savings on gas and insurance as well.
3. Power- The thermostat is kept at 80 degrees all day. It's awful for me. My temp runs high all the time and 80 is just gross in the house. Normally the highest I would have kept it at was 78, tops. We also don't crank the air down at night to sleep. I'm sure it's helping the bill, but it's adding to the trouble I'm having sleeping at night. We've been using CF bulbs for a long time, so that's not a big deal, but I am baking more because it's one way that I'm hoping we can cut back on our grocery bill.
4. Spending- um, we just don't. I don't buy things for my hobbies. We haven't gone on a vacation in who knows how long. (I don't really care about that. Not big on spending a bunch of money on something I don't get to keep. Memories are nice, but why spend thousands on a vacation when we could spend it on something for the house that we'd use and enjoy every day?) We haven't gone out to eat in forever. When we do, it's for something like Mother's Day or whatever, and we go as part of a group. We don't spend more than $10 a week on fast food, if that. We eliminated all of the pay channels and everything, but we do still have cable. I'm back and forth on that one. When it's 110 outside you don't have much that you can do, so we watch T.V. That may be the next thing to go. The only outings we ever go on are either a trip to the grocery store for food, to the library for books and movies or to go pick up Brenden.
We pay for the car we still have, car and home insurance, health insurance (OUCH), life insurance, the house, power, water, sewer and trash, gas, cable & internet, and cell phones (which includes $10 a month for our home phone). I think that's it.
Is there anything I forgot?
Anyway, it's frustrating because I feel like the more we give up, the more we still struggle. Maybe it feels that way because Glen hasn't been borrowing money (not that I know of, anyway).
I have never budgeted for food. Not that I have never been careful with my money, but that I never saw feeding my family as an optional thing that could be cut back on. Lately I've wondered if we could save money by making our staple foods from scratch. If I bought flower, yeast, sugar, etc., at Costco and made things like bread myself. I know it would be healthier to stick to eating foods from "the outside" of the grocery store anyway. (The way the stores are set up, the outside is usually meats, dairy, fruits and vegetables). The less we buy that's prepackaged, the better, right?
I know a lot of people play the grocery game, but those savings aren't on staples. It's usually medications or cleaning products. Things we don't need. Most of the time I've found that I'm better off buying generic than buying the name brand and using a coupon. It's also difficult because we have one car and it's a gas guzzler. Not going to save by driving all over the place. Also, I know that some of the deals offer coupons off another purchase when you buy something specific, but, again, if it's not something we actually need and will use, it's not really helping. We don't have the money to spend on things we don't need.
A friend sent me an article a while ago about making staples yourself to save money. The things that I would actually make would save us money. Bagels and bread, for example. She also made yogurt and cream cheese, but I don't eat that stuff. Yuck-o. I also thought that I could make us some jam and one batch would probably be enough to last us a year.
Next year I hope to have a garden and that would save money too. We could make our own spaghetti sauce and salsa. Have our own fresh veggies. Good for us and would teach the kids a lot.
What other suggestions and recipes do you all have? I know that we'd save too just by eliminating meat from at least a couple of meals a week. I'm cool with that, but my husband refuses to eat anything that doesn't include dead animal.
For the locals, are there any good farmer's markets? I think that would be another way to go for fruits and veggies, but there aren't a lot of them, and the things like bountiful baskets are out of our price range (plus, we're picky and a lot of it would be wasted, which defeats the purpose).
I would love to hear what anyone else has done and how you keep things affordable for your family.