groceries
How many people and what are their ages? Any special dietary restirctions?
You meatless at least one day a week. Meal plan, meal plan, meal plan - this alone can save you a fortune as you know what you need at the store. Stop tyring a lot of new recipes that need a specail spice that you might use but once a year, etc. Lentils and beans are very versitle. Corn meal is amazing stuff... can make into a breakfast porriage, can make bread or fry bread, coating on stir fried veggies or meats. But once again it all depends on the above questions
gas
Where are you driving to? How many miles a day? What kind of car are you driving? Do you have a partner/ hubby/ wife and do you really need two cars? Can you sell a car and downgrade or get something that gets better milage?
Combine trips - plan on where and why you are driving. Plan a Dr's appt on the same day that you run other errands that way you are doubling up on your gas expendurtures
general supplies
What does this mean? Home improvement supplies? Cleaning supplies?
You can make a lot of your own cleaning supplies at home for half the price. Do Walgreens/ CVS rebates and you should be able to bring homa lot of convention cleaning and HAB stuff for free or pennies on the dollars
clothes
Once again how many people, what are the ages. Do any of these people have a dress code they MUST (not want) to uphold? Like professional dress for the office? Shop at thrift stores/ buy at the end of the season, trade clothing with friends/ family; yard sales. And finally down size the amount of clothing each person needs. You really don't NEED 30 shirts, just 7-10 will get you thru almost every situation.
gifts
How many people are we talking here? Can you make more home made gifts? Shops at thrift stores, yard sales, plan ahead for gifts instead of buying at the last minute. Make sure you budget for this item as a monthly expense. Check eBay/ Craigslist/ consignment stores/ buy at the end of the season, etc, etc. Also can you cut down on the number of people you buy for?
vacations
gardening
To build top soil check out the book "lasagna gardening" And then find leaves, manure, newspaper, straw, grass clipping. Whatever organic matter you can get your hands on and start layering it all; in 6 months you will have a great planting medium. Seeds are cheap. Look for canning jars at yard sales, freecycle, craigslist. Often they are free for the asking. Then all you need to buy is a water bath, pressure canner and lids. I got my water bath at Goodwill for $5. Pressure canner at the end of the season at Ace Hardware for $40. I also picked up lids for .75 at the grocery store last year in August as the canning season was slowing down.
eating out
how many people? Limit yourself to a once a month treat, it's not a normal thing thou. Use coupons if possible.
Have you also budgetted for things like property taxes, car registration/ tags? Some of those yearly expenses are often over looked.
Can you trim anything off you other fixed costs? Get rid of/ down grade cable TV, cell phone packages, insurance costs?
Think of every possible expense and start making a budget of how you are going to spend your money.
Best of luck to you!