Gather Little by Little has this post Back to the Basics of Saving Money.

A snippet:

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say they are going to start saving by “taking whatever is left over at the end of the month and putting it in savings”.  While this may work for some, for the majority of us there won’t be any money left over at the end of the month.  If your money is anything like mine, it seems to have a way of disappearing.

The way to combat this is to budget.  Budgeting allows you to spend your income before you receive it.  Budgeting is a way of giving each and every dollar that you earn a home.  This includes upcoming bills, expenses, debt payment and savings.

Bottom line: if you can’t do anything about increasing the income bracket for your household (and for many of us in southeast Michigan, that’s the reality right now); you need to make very careful and deliberate decisions on how you are spending the money that you do get.

Furthermore, if you know that it is a likely scenario that you or your mate will be dealing with another round of production layoffs soon (are you paying attention to those autoworker headlines from Toledo and Detroit?); you need to factor that pay cut into your budget for the next few months.

Take action now by cutting back on flexible expenses and setting aside a week’s pay so you can keep the non-negotiable bills paid during those skimpy paycheck times.