The first thing my clients tell me is that they are living paycheck to paycheck and there is no room in their budget to save money. My response to them is that there is always room; you just need to know where to look for it.

If you were to write down everything you spend money on in one month, you would be surprised to see how many wasteful things that you buy. Buying one less Starbucks a week is a savings of almost $30 a month. Renting movies instead of going to the theatre will likely save you a good $15. And getting dinner for 2 from the frozen foods isle instead of your favorite restaurant can save you up to $50 a month.

It is these types of lifestyle changes that some financial counselors will encourage you NOT to do. They will tell you that you do not have enough self control to make decisions like those. I, on the other hand, encourage anyone who wants to save money to take a close look at where they are throwing money away on unnecessary luxuries that they could do without. And then I ask you to do something even more daring.

I dare you to put the money that you would have spent on a new hair color, coffee, or dinner for two and literally put that cash in jar. Then hide the jar in a safe place where only you or your spouse knows where it is. Do that every time you would spend money on something you can live without. This method has so many benefits to it, so let me explain some of them:

1.) It gets you started on using cash instead of credit cards. It is harder to hand over a twenty dollar bill than it is to give the clerk your plastic card. You will start to see the difference in spending when you work with only cash.
2.) You will start thinking about every purchase in a new light. You can start off by limiting the amount of drinks you buy each month, but then keep going and limit something else you buy every month, like a new DVD. Your mindset will change into more of a frugal shopper.
3.) You will start getting excited about saving! When you see your jar starting to fill up you will get excited about not spending money on something so that you can keep adding it to your savings jar.

Once you have enough self control developed, then move that jar from under your bed and into a savings account with a high interest rate. Banks may seem like an iffy place to keep your money these days, but remember that your money is FDIC insured up to $100k.