1.  Bargain hard and long where bargaining is permitted.

2.  If you shop in only the big department strores (food section), remember that many of them run "closing" specials 1 - 2 hours before they close up shop for the evening.

3.  Shop on taobao if you are a savvy consumer, with a  basic knowledge of Chinese, etc.

4. Some cities offer multi-ride bus and subway passes that are incrementally cheaper.

5. Learn the electricity rates in the city where you live; some major cities have one set of per kilowatt hour charges for daytime usage and another very much cheaper set for evening and all-night usage.

6. If you do bargain, never assume that the "last price" is the final price.  If you don't like the last price, then just walk away.  If the seller really wants your business, he or she will come after you.

7.  If you do bargain, remember that there are three levels of prices : the foreigner price, the Chinese but not local Chinese price, and the local Chinese price.  Bargain hard enough to try to reach the local Chinese price.

8.  Select your mobile telephone plan very, very carefully.  Even if you buy a SIM card off the street, not all SIM card offer the same rates.

9.  If you travel by train in China, and if you only take a "sleeper car", please note that on many of the "T" and "K" trains, the hard sleepers are of a new production, more modern, cleaner, and better maintained, very often, than the "soft sleepers".  True, more privacy in the soft sleeper but always, always a  little more unkempt.

Anyway, those are my ideas on how to budget a bit in  China.

Limit yourself to only 100 RMB spending money for all things (meals, transportation, daily items, etc.) per day. Take unused money at the end of the week and put it towards next week's budget.

If you're going western bar-hopping, fill up on local beer before you go out and go out later than you usually do to save on expensive bar prices.

For certain items, pay the extra for 'for export' products. Something that costs 500 RMB may last a lot longer than having to pay 50 RMB 20 times for an inferior local product.

If you really don't need it, don't buy it! I've seen a lot of people buy useless stuff just because it was cheap.

Save every 20 RMB note that you get as change. Not a lot at one time but certainly adds up over time.

1). If your a teacher try to find a school that offers free meals. A lot of schools offer this. At my last teaching job there were times I would go an entire week without spending a single RMB on food except for the cereal I eat for breakfast.  You can save literally hundreds to thousands of RMB per month.

2). If you can, always try to get real taxi's instead of the people driving their own car. This really ads up over time. Far too often I catch myself being lazy and unwilling to wait a few extra minutes for a real taxi, I can't even begin to imagine how much money I've wasted on taxi's when I didn't need to.

3) Recycle bottles. Whether it's plastic bottles from water/drinks or beer bottles this can get you some extra cash for something you're going to get rid of anyways. Not sure about everywhere but at the local stores where I live you get .50rmb for every bottle of yanjing beer you return...that works out to a free beer  for every 6 beers you buy

4). This one is pretty obvious no matter what country you live in but I see a lot of people always ignoring this simple rule...... Compare prices! There's enough stores within walking distance in big cities that you can usually walk into one store check the price of say a food item, then walk to a couple other stores and check prices there. Make a list every time you do this and pretty soon youll memorize which stores to go to for which items. Might not be much at first but after awhile and in the long run this will add up.

If you can forgo the use of meat in your meals (how terribly uncouth), you can definitely save a lot of money. If you also reheat food that you haven't finished previously, you can save even more money. In many cases, you can make 3 meals for 2 people on a budget of 6-10 RMB per day. Just cut up your vegetables into really small chunks, and make 2 or 3 dishes out of it.

In one case, I made 5 meals out of 12 RMB worth of vegetables. Not bad at all. Get some rice too (I recommend the Thai rice), and that'll help you spend even less money on food. The rice will fill you up quicker, and you won't need to eat as many vegetables.

Learn local public transportation network, and use it instead of taxi.
Bus cost 2 RMB, taxi car - 15+, taxi bike - 8+ (in My city, on usual distance of few km).

If You intend to live in China for longer period of time - buy (usually) cheaper China Mobile phone and plan. Unicom is a little bit more expensive because of use of international standards 3G. Phone for China Mobile 3G You can use abroad too, but only in 2G mode.

Buying phone:
Make list of features that are essential, and focus only on the models that offer this.
Don't be afraid to buy Chinese phones, if it is a model of known brand (ZTE, Huawei, etc...), and ALWAYS ask for a stamp on warranty card (sometimes shop can "forget" about it.

Buying expensive, and decent model, of well known international brand - You gain "face" but also invite thieves. 

If You want a comfortable one - You can have nice model for less then 1000 RMB.

If You are afraid to loose it - don't hesitate to buy cheapest for a 100-200, and You will have also a lot longer battery life.

If You use mobile computer or tablet with WIFI, but no internal 3G modem, and You want to use it in places where there is no WLAN range - buy a phone with "mobile hotspot" function, and 3G plan with some data transfer (remember to set some reasonable password). This way You maybe spend few hundreds on phone, but save few hundreds on 3G modem (and You gain a lot of comfort).

Traveling to nearby city You can choose local bus instead of long-distance (more then half a price usually, off course for a price of comfort).

Don't buy in "corner shops" if You don't have to - prices are usually much higher, then in nearby "mini - market shop". 

well the best thing to do is cut down on the drinks.

Try to use public buses instead of taxis but if you are not going far you can always walk

if you are a teacher im sure you can also save a lot of money on food 

if you do have some hobbies, like going to the cinema or playing basketball try to do it locally so you dont have to spend money on transport.

i guess you are always left with 1 kuai notes, you can always put them aside in a box you will be surprised how many you will have at the end of the month, i hate to carry small notes, i always put them in a a shoe box

hmmmm,,,   don't know if this counts, but I often (90%) use e-bike taxi instead of automobile taxi. Saves money and it can be a quite the rush if u are into Extreme Sports !

yeah, obviously cheaper to ride the bus, but sometimes that just sux so bad!

eat noodles...

bargain and cook food at home. Don't eat at restaurants so much. Also, watch your drinking. That's a quick way to lose your money. 

stay far away from starbucks. go to 2nd rate bakeries many have wi fi. and you could spend up to half the money.