Market - Cost savings

Hi all,
 
When it comes to expenses, questions that frequently comes up are, "How do I
save money on this?" "How low can I get it for?"
 
A rational, efficient approach requires clear answers to the following
questions:
 
1. Do I have to do this (spend money or trying to save money on a certain
item)?  Why?
2. What are the biggest expense items?
3. How much am I trying to save? What is the tradeoff? How much effort does it
take? 
 
The biggest one time expense items are housing and auto.  I haven't bought a
house so I don't know the best way to save on it.  When it comes to car buying,
I am a AAA member and I find the deals through AAA participating dealers
reasonable -- not necessary the lowest price, but saves a lot of headache.
 
What about biggest ongoing expenses?  Healthcare, food & dining, home & auto
maintenance, and child care if appicable.  Before I think about savings on
those things, I need to know the "must have's".  For insurance, I need to know
what conditions must be covered.  For home & auto maintenance, I need to know
if a contractor/business is dependable.
 
For food & dining, travel, leisure, that is where I think there is something we
can try to get savings, if it doesn't cost a great deal of time/effort: 
 
1. The most painless way of saving money is to use cash-back credit cards.  I
use citi dividend card where I get 5% cash back on gasoline and grocery (not
Walmart) purchases.  I use AMEX true-earnings card to get 3% cash back on
restaurants and 2% on travel.  (I don't know about Discover.) For me, a credit
credit card with a fixed percent of cash back is best.  Anything that says, "up
to x%.." turns me off.
 
2. When it comes to dining, I find the following worth looking into.  No
strings attached.
 
www.entertainment.com - a book that has lots of coupons
www.restaurant.com - buy coupons at a discount (usually for lesser known
restaurants)
Getting on the restaurant's email list (I get coupons from Stake & Ale and
Texas de Brazil).     
 
3. Foreign currency transaction fee on credit cards is something worth looking
into for those people who travel overseas and pay out of their pocket.
Citibank charges 3%.  AMEX charges 2%.  My MC debit card charges 1%.  I have to
do some research to find out if there are cards with lower exchange fees.
 
4. Regarding to miles...  I use 1 mile = 1 penny when it comes to miles
accumulation.  The miles are best used for longer distance (outside continental
US) where the ratio of miles redeemed to actual ticket price becomes more
favorable.  For example, a domestic ticket costs 25000 miles and is worth
~$250.  I used 50000 miles for a flight to Tokyo and the same ticket cost
$1000. 
 
One thing I have learned to stay away from is those "get X for free" or any
coupon memberships (e.g. dealpass).  They only create more problems for things
that are trivial. 
 
If anyone has any other painless way of saving money, please let me know.