One way to help you manage this is to have your paycheck directly deposited to your savings account. The problem with having your income as cash on hand is that it’s easy to spend it making overspending very likely. Putting everything in your account helps you avoid that.

If you make it a chore for you to get your money, you’re less likely to tap into it occasionally. This should help your with the discipline of budgeting as well since you have to sort out finances before you make that special trip to the bank to get only what you need.

You can always make arrangements with your employer to do this. Just ask your accounting/finance or human resources if this is possible.

How long do you actually spend watching TV? And how many of those hours do you spend watching those cable channels? I bet it’s just a scant fraction.

A survey revealed that 1 out of eight Americans terminated or downgraded their cable or satellite TV subscription in 2010.

The trend is seen to be reflective of the increasing role of the Internet in media consumption. Many TV networks have made their content available online making cable TV subscriptions moot.

Many people are still living in a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. Some are even doing worse, sinking in even more debt every month. Here are some tips to help you spend less than what you earn.

1. Review your monthly cash flow. Take note of what you earn. Check all of your expenses. One great practice is to keep your paycheck. Balance your checkbook as well to see how much money you do have. Keep all of your receipts and billing statements.

2. Trim down all unnecessary expenses. Eating out for lunch and dinner might be costing you money. How much time do you spend at home? That cable bill might just be costing you money.

3. Put away 10% of your income as savings immediately. Pay yourself first every month. Money not in your pocket or wallet is often safe from being spent unnecessarily.

4. Try to be debt-free as soon as possible. Credit card interest is an unnecessary expense. Pay what you owe as soon as possible. Keep only one credit card.

That’s probably one thing that I learned after a couple of years trying to implement my financial plan. In a perfect environment I should’ve saved up enough to start paying for a house and a car but for quite a lot of months I find myself channeling part of my savings to replenish my emergency fund.

Car needs repairs. House needs repairs. Medication for the seasonal bouts of illness. There are certainly times when I feel that luck just isn’t on my side. The important thing is that I’ve never let these setbacks throw me off entirely with my financial plan.

My savings are still untouched. My emergency fund replenished. My plans to acquire assets are simply taking a bit more time than planned. But I am not broke.

There’s no reason to throw good money after losing good money. I know a few people who’ve said “F*ck it!” to their savings plans after they were forced to spend on something unexpected.

While it does feel good to just buy yourself something to counter that feeling of “My money’s all going elsewhere other than to me,” binge spending as a way to cope is the worst thing you can do when implementing a financial plan.

Setbacks happen to everyone. If you think that the Joneses are doing much better, statistics would say that they really aren’t. Your neighbor might be driving a much newer car than you but chances are he’s still in the hole paying for it.

So don’t get permanently sidetracked when you get to spend money on emergencies. Emergencies happen and just sort things out the best way you can so you can get back saving for that first million.

But what if you’re one of the better credit card users who escape certain fees and interest rates by paying the full amount on your statement every month? Do you still lose out on money? Chances are, you do. The yearly membership fee is one expense that you have to deal with and there maybe other fees that they can sneak up on you.

Still, you need not deal with such a fee. For the past year, I’ve been monitoring my use of the credit card and amazingly, I was able to break even on everything. That means I didn’t pay a single cent more than the things I purchased. Here’s what I did to “break even” with my credit card.

1. Use it only when buying items where prices for both cash and card purchases are the same. There are times when you would be able to ask for discounts on cash purchases since you take away the burden of the interchange fee from the store so they’re just happy to give you a part of it back as discount. But there are times when you don’t. I make sure that I only whip out my card when buying groceries or in restaurants.

2. Pay full and on time. Oftentimes, credit card companies impose fees to punish those who don’t pay. No need to expose myself to sky-high interest rates and late fees so I make sure that my statement is paid in full before the due date.

3. My credit card allows me to get points which I can redeem for rewards. I called up my credit card provider and asked if the accumulated points can be used to waive my yearly membership fee. Amazingly, they obliged. So they just docked my points and I didn’t even have to pay a single cent out of pocket.

By keeping to these three simple things, I was able to spend only on things that I actually bought and consumed. Did the credit card company make money? Yes, they did but not exactly from me but from the merchant. The real perks for my credit card use – I don’t have to carry that much cash around to buy stuff and my credit rating’s really good.