Ugh, I totally relate to this, which is scary - because I'm a 38 year old mom of 3 in the Upper Midwest! I think a lot of us that visit this website have a lot of that "lock myself in my room" feeling.

One thing I've done is to start keeping track of my daily expenses, from gas to cheeseburgers - basically, everything. And I've already found that there are some things I won't buy (this morning's egg mcmuffin, for example) because I don't want to write it down. It's not exactly self discipline so much as knowing it would kill me to see that $3 I didn't need to spend in there...and knowing that if I keep this up, I can look forward to a day where I don't have to feel quite so strapped for cash myself.

Plus, I promised my kids I'd take them to Italy when my middle daughter turns 16 (she'll be 11 in a couple weeks). It's a far off goal, but we figured out how much we need to save to make this happen...and I'm determined to do it!

There's something I just stumbled across a week or two ago that I actually think is a little bit brilliant called PiggyMojo (no, I'm not affiliated in any way... I think I found it through LifeHacker). It's a little visual savings page (doesn't connect to accounts) that promotes impulse SAVINGS. Basically, if you're out and about (or at the computer) and you were just about to make an impulse purchase (shoes, a latte, a bag of snacks) and decide not to... you text (or tweet) PiggyMojo that amount and it compiles a weekly total and will text a partner (if you choose) or tweets to your followers (if you choose) about your savings success regardless of how small it might be.

The theory behind it is, if you score a pair of sweet heels on sale from $95 down to $25... hey that's great! But you're not really "saving" anything since if you loved them enough you probably would have laid out that $95 anyway (or if you were really good, you had budgeted for it, right??). So, to really save, that $70 gets tucked away into savings instead of to be spent on something else... because this is really pretty much how money slips through our fingers.

And then voila! Before you realize it, you've hit a targeted save and now have an emergency fund, enough to buy a TV, new computer, downpayment on a car, etc.

@moneyhag I have a few mantras. First of all, I have a house that I bought before I was 30 and now that I'm 36 I wished that I waited until I was 30 (Oh, bubbles and the breaking of those stupid bubbles). Anyway, one of my mantras is about living in a van down by the river... that SNL skit might be a little bit before your time, it is pretty hysterical though. The other thing I keep in mind is that almost all of us are struggling. If you can, watch The Jones with Demi Moore... it's a fantastic view of what everyone is going through to keep up with everyone else without anyone realizing that the person next door is struggling just as hard if not harder to keep up with us. It's kind of insane.

So with all of that, I've adopted a new way of thinking. Instead of acquiring new things that I spend a mint on I consign, baby. The funny thing about this is that I've received more compliments on the items I've bought used for $10 than I have on similar items I've bought in the past for $100+. Inevitably, the compliment is "I love it! Where'd you get it?" Their reactions are slack jawed when I tell them a local consignment shop and I paid $10. This has gotten everyone I know into the budget or bust mentality. It's eco, it's a challenge, and it's fun.

I think that LV even posted something about the DollarStore becoming a chic-cheap venue now and the NYTimes did a write-up on it as well. http://www.learnvest.com/living-frugally/dollar-store-deals-which-ones-are-worth-it/ I think the Village Voice ran an article about how to eat like a foodie using non-perishables during the hurricane. http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/2011/08/how_to_stock_up.php So there are all these little avenues open and around us that require a little bite of ingenuity to develop them into world class living and if you ask me, that's where all the fun is at anyway.

And, hey, life is what you make it. Right?

@moneyhag I'm so glad! It's a Chris Farley skit, you can probably YouTube it or something. Oh! And I got the name of the movie wrong, it's actually: The Joneses. Close. :)

I agree, I love hearing about the creative little ways other people save. I also like hearing that they can have fun at it, I mean it can be a drag sometimes, but hopefully we all learn to take things with a grain of salt and carry on toward our goals.

jdmrosa took the words right out of my mouth! Those are the exact things that I do :) Has anyone thought of doing online surveys during their free time in order to earn a little bit of extra cash? I have been doing surveys for years and did them all through college, they helped a lot!!

@AngelAnd I used to live in the Washington, DC area and it is crazy expensive.

My suggestion is definitely cash when you go out, particularly with friends who aren't as money conscious as you that want to split the bill when you only had $15 worth. I also use a trick called "rolling my checking account" at the end of the month. Most of us get paid at or just before the beginning of the month. When your money hits your checking account, whatever was left in there before the money hit (i.e. $200 or $2) transfer that money to your savings account. It forces you to start with the same amount of money every month. You'll start to get excited when the amount of money you rollover is more than you expected or the last previous months. This also helps building your savings account so that when you do need extra cash i.e. birthday, wedding, christmas gifts you won't have to charge it. You can transfer some money back to yourself.

a PERFECT METHOD!-EASY & PAINLESS!!
"Rolling My Checking Account" is the best suggestion I've seen! Also, the most practical-easy to do, achieve results quickly.