Housing & health care are indeed the greatest costs, I'm just arguing that other costs are usually not so small in comparison that they can be waived in this discussion as negligible. If you rent a studio for $800 (as you could in this town), cutting your communication costs by $100-200 yield a moderate but real impact.
I don't mean I live in the middle of nowhere and commute to the city, I mean it's a satellite town of the variety you often find near large cities (To give you an idea). 150,000 people, and I live 200 yards from one of many fire stations.
I guess my PoV is that saving $2k+ a year is nice, but not significant if that's still only ~2 months rent. It's better - much better than it being 1 month's rent - but to me, you have to focus on the expenses that are the biggest and are most likely to grow. You can definitely save a lot of money by chipping away at the tinier stuff, but if that's not growing, I'm not sure it buys you much.
I suppose from another point of view, it's better to start with the small things you have control over, and make some tiny but measurable improvements, so you don't despair at how big everything is. That's fair.
I don't mean I live in the middle of nowhere and commute to the city, I mean it's a satellite town of the variety you often find near large cities (To give you an idea). 150,000 people, and I live 200 yards from one of many fire stations.