by Barry Tadmore

Created on: January 04, 2009

Saving is hard. We all know it. But you don't have to make a lot of money to be able to pay your bills and still save money every month. All you have to do is make a few minor changes, and you could find yourself paying all of your bills and even having some left over every month. It's a good feeling to add to your savings account. Hopefully the following tips can help you reach your short-term financial goals:

1. Make a budget! This is the best advice I can give you. Figure out how much money you spend on everything, from your mortgage/rent payment to your groceries. From your car insurance to your spending money. Everything you have. Then when you calculate how much money you're making and how much money you're spending, you will see how much you should save each month. From here on out, pay yourself first. Let's say your budget shows $100 extra income over your budgeted expenses. Before you do anything, pay the $100 to your savings account. Then, if you're short on money at the end of the month, take it out of your spending money that you've budgeted for.

2. Live within your means. If you can barely pay all of your bills and you're not putting any money into savings, perhaps you should analyze that budget and figure out that the "spending money" portion of your budget should be smaller in order to save a few bucks each month. My wife and I used to budget for a date night every Friday night. But our savings accounts weren't increasing or decreasing. Rather than continue to go on a date night every week, we decided to go every other week and we ended up saving $100 per month.

3. Don't overspend at the grocery store. A few tips here: Don't grocery shop while you're hungry. You'll end up thinking everything looks good and buy more than you need. Always shop with a list. Without a list, the impulse buying increases and you spend more. Always buy sale items. Grocery store have so many sale items, I always try to do my entire shopping trip without buying anything that's not on sale. Always buy based on price per ounce. Sometimes sale items are actually more expensive per ounce than another brand, or a store-brand. Buy the best VALUE. And buy bulk. Usually a bigger jar of peanut butter has a much lower price per ounce than the small jar. You'll save money because each peanut butter sandwich will cost less.

4. Cut out the extras. A satellite dish is much cheaper than cable. Or you can cut the cable altogether and go with just your local channels. Do you have a home phone

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