by Natalia Jones

Created on: April 06, 2009   Last Updated: February 20, 2010

Saving can be a hard habit to adopt but the rewards of building a healthy financial portfolio are too great to quantify. Of course, your personal outlook has a direct impact on your attitude towards saving. If saving was viewed less as a form of self-deprivation and more as a means of deferred satisfaction it might be easier to put some money aside.

The money you save in most instances is for yourself. This reveals a startling fact, today's society has become so obsessed with instant gratification that it is difficult to put money aside even for personal use. The fear factor also seems to have lost its impact. Descriptions of what life could be like at retirement without proper planning and saving have failed to frighten people into action. Instead, the pull of advertising and what money can buy now forces people to live in the moment.

However, with the economy experiencing the worst downturn since the last depression people are finally getting the wake up call they needed. Suddenly, everyone is interested in saving and budgeting, but mostly because it affects the here and now and the reward is not some distant probability.

Whatever the stimulus, the following tips will help you incorporate saving into your lifestyle without sending you into a state of shock so strong that you end up going on a spending binge just to feel like yourself again.

Start a Spending Diary

Similar to some diet programs that encourage you to document everything you put into your mouth, think of this as a financial diet. Get a notebook or daily planner and write down every time you spend, including on your morning latte. Also include your method of payment, as this will help you to identify spending leaks which make them easier to clog down the line.

Perform a Month End Budget Review

Quickly skim through your entries for the month and draw up a table with categories that recur frequently. For instance, if you find that you spend on transportation everyday, you will have a transportation column. Add up the totals for category to determine how much you spent for the month. This will highlight how much you spend on particular items over the period.

Analyse Spending Patterns and Find Ways to Cut Back 

Would it be cheaper to take public transportation instead of buying gas for the car? Can you take meals to work instead of buying food everyday? Next, look at your method of spending. Do you make several trips to the ATM or do you swipe your credit card? If you have huge balance

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