This is a nice idea but unrealistic.

The vast majority of people I know and know of don't have a lot of this 'disposible' income hanging around and I'm not certain where this author is getting her info.

Things are VERY HARD right now. And micromanaging your income down to the penny is becoming the new part-time job for most single-income families. As the frugal Home Manager of my household, I make sure the budget is kept to as closely as we can. But there is no savings at the moment. We have good intensions to do this but that's on

hold to take care of other priorities. Food? Well, most people think this is an area of greatest flexibility in saving money but if you have a food allergy, or diabetes, or specific issues you can't cut much lest you cut out quality and that doesn't do you any good except open the door to poor health.

We function without cable TV, but we have internet. Not much savings there. We don't have a landline but we have a cell phone - zero savings because you need the landline to have DSL - vicious cycle.

I stay home, saves on daycare. I make meals at home, saves on eating out. We go to the library, get movies and books there - free! I freecycle, rummage sale, craigslist, trade babysitting now if possible. I have posted about being available for taking in ironing but no go there.

We combine trips and we end up only filling the tanks in 2 cars on payday once. I made sure to live as close to the office as possible to cut on the commute. We use the AC less in home and in the car.

I cut coupons now - I hang dry most of the laundry. I reuse paper for lists and notes. We go to the park. The only luxury we have is a family membership to the YMCA. $65 a month.

But I still wonder how we are going to keeping paying the prices we do for the rest of the year. It's hard hard hard. Can you pinch a dime, or a nickel till it screams? Thats a story I want to read. How to do MORE with LESS. Now, THATS  a story.

Small business - start one out of your house, sell crap sitting in your closets on ebay, go to rummage sales and re-sell on craiglist, etc.  Clean houses for money, cut grass, part-time work.  Sell meals, etc.  Do something!!!!   If you rely on your "day" job to save you, you're out of luck.  Day jobs is not what most millionares rely on - they rely on some outside business that they build and flourish into money.   FYI, there is only so much you can do to cut costs, the smart thing is to increase income and cut costs.  

My family started a small home business that brings in about $500 in savings and income to help meet the gap... $500 doesn't sound like alot, but as a beginning it pays for feul and a few extra groceries... And with 4 teens at home, we can use all the extra capital we can get!!

These suggestions were all pretty obvious. I plan all errands, such as grocery shopping, around my work route so I don't have to make extra trips. I don't buy groceries until the pantry is empty. I pack my lunch and  bring my own coffee. I also grill outside as much as possible; it is a lot cheaper than my natural gas bill. Despite all of this, I am still broke, but I feel like I am doing all that I can to save money at this point.

One suggestion for saving money is to have it auto deducted from your bank account. Even if it only 10 dollars a month into a savings acct. or IRA it is better than nothing.

I am a Californian and I agree with Fed up 100%!

Perhaps the big oil company executives will feel kind hearted and donate some of their 40Bill. dollar profit, per quarter, back to the American public.  

Or better yet, there should be a reality show - trading paychecks - and let the overpaid executives live on the average wage in America. That's when you'll see something done about gas prices, the cost of food, and the $60,000 birthday parties.

I agree with an earlier poster, who said that the tips above were mostly for people who were crawling or walking. But with a little creativity and an open mind, you might surprise yourself at what you can do.

One of the easiest ways to cut expenses is in the food area and it has nothing to do with coupons or sales. That is learn to cook, use a list at the grocery AND stick to it, don't buy convenience foods or snacks. Typically the less "processed"  or "convenient" a food is, the less it will cost. STOP drinking packaged drinks: soda, juice, bottled water, etc. Eat less meat. MOST people in the world don't eat meat everyday and yet they survive.

As for transportation and fuel costs: using mass transit will NOT work for people who live in rural areas and I'm sorry, but moving may not be an option. I guess the answer is to drive only as needed and possibly slow down. I suggested this to my husband who MUST drive to get to work (we have no public transit and moving closer to his work is not an option) and now he simply leaves about 10 minutes earlier every day. This allows him to drive at a more fuel-efficient speed (only about 5-10 mph slower than he was driving before).

If, at the end of the day, you have reduced your budget to only what you truly  need and you still struggle, then you need to boost your income. Where I live, MOST people work 2 jobs (although some people would rather just work ONE PT job, spend beyond their means, and then complain about how awful the government is for not doing more to help "hard working American" like themselves).  I realize many people may not "want" to get another job: It's too hard or they might only get a few hours sleep a night or they won't have any "free" time or......

Well, that's all about choices: Which causes you MORE discomfort? Your current situation or actually doing something productive about it? Why is it that Americans increasingly seek to avoid discomfort? Those who helped build this nation certainly didn't and we should be grateful for their hard work.

Also, put things in perspective: First, economic downturns are to be expected. DUH! It's part of the economic cycle. Don't get what I'm talking about? Go check out an economics book from the library. Second, even the poorest Americans are RICH compared to the poor in other parts of the world. Third, our country has seen much worse. Talk to a person who lived through the Depression or WW2, you might learn something. Fourth, practice daily gratitude: You have more than you realize. Be grateful for it.

I too have been doing these things. I havent even turned my air on and its july 2nd. This economy is killing me. I too can hardly make ends meet. I dont even have cable. Grocercies, gas and taxes have gone up. Everything is going up in price except my paycheck.  What I am to do?  It is nice to know i am not the only one out there struggling just to keep my roof over my head. Hopefully this to shall pass

We have alsways liked the finer things in life. We have a brick rancher, 1 level floor so when we have elderly people over, and when we get older, we won't have steps to climb. I wanted a family room so the car port became that. An outside company wanted $15,000 to do just the brick work. I went to Hechinger's, back then, and picked out a book on masonry. I opened the first page and it said I need all the following tools. I bought them. My father and I did the masonry and we did the inside. I put  a tile floor down and nice wallpaper over the drywall we installed. Total cost of the room? $8,000. My wife wanted a sunroom so we contracted Champion to build it. We negotiated the price and they accepted it. We saved over $5,000 of their original price. We had to remove the window air conditioner, so I opted to get central air installed. I shopped around and found the pricing around $12 to 15,000. I found a guy that did it for $5,000. Still works great and he services it free for 5 years. My wife and I wanted a deck off our sunroom, so I got a book at Home Depot and put the deck up myself. Eveyone makes great comments about it. Serves the purpose. I saved about $4,000 by doing it myself. My point? If you take the time to do things yourself, you can save tons of money. Not everyone can do it, but for those that can, and those that have, you must agree with me. As you can see in my note, we have saved over $21,000. Not chump change. We just had new windows installed, 14, with a picutre window, and had all the wood, around the brick, like the soffetts, replaced with vinyl. Total cost $4,500. My BIL is the VP of the company that did the work. My idea to you is utilize everything and everyone you can to save money. My wife buys me Ralph Lauren Polo shirts, dress and casual. They cost anywhere from $45 to 65 in the stores. She gets them from the Outlet store for 1/2 price when she buys 3 or more. We we buy cars, we only buy used and get a good warrany with it. We have the maintenance performed at the scheduled miles to help it last longer.

With these savings, we enjoy dining out 1 or 2 days a week, and vacation abroad every year. We have credit cards, but if you choose to do so, charge only what you can pay back, per month. My wife likes her hair her original color. I hae learned how to do it and I must say, I am good. She loves it and saves about $45.00 every 2 months. Just look around. The savings are out there.

Just Made these calls and saved.. it will take 30 days to see the effects on the bottom line.

Telephone - Saved $49.00- Changed calling plans and dropped features

Cable - Saved - $29.00 - went back to basic 30 channels

Gas - Saved .30 cents a gallon by setting up an account from a local gas wholesaler that has pumps at his dist. center.