It doesn't matter what you are earning, everyone can save money. If you have a steady income, you should be able to reduce your cost slightly and put this money away. Before long this will grow into quite a good amount of money. Here are some tips to help you start saving.

Saving money will help you get on top of your finances. You may be just saving for a holiday, or you might be saving to invest, it doesn't really matter. Saving then investing will give you a supplementary income stream. You could later invest in a managed fund or some blue-chip shares and use the twice annually dividend payments as extra income. Determination is the key to being financially comfortable.

If you are currently in debt, you will be best to pay of your credit cards first, as you will avoid the high interest cost. Refer to our credit cards section, for some information about low cost credit cards, then transfer your current balance to a card or loan with a lower interest rate.

One of the most effective ways to save money is to have two bank accounts. Your normal everyday transaction account, plus an account specifically for saving. You may wish to get a savings account with your current bank, but also investigate one of the many high-interest online savings accounts. (Such as ING direct). At the time of writing these accounts were paying well above 5% interest which is much better than most banks. With online accounts you also have the ability to withdraw your money whenever you want.

Your first option if to have a set amount of money transferred automatically to your savings account each week. You could arrange this directly with your employer or through the bank. This has the great advantage, that you never really see the money. It just accumulates in your other account. If you are ever really stuck for money you could just withdraw some from the other account, but you should always try to avoid doing this.

The second option is to wait until the end of each week, just before you are about to receive you next pay form your employer. Any money you have not spent during that week, transfer to your savings account. Also do this even if you have an automatic withdrawal plan.

The money you will put away will add up very quickly. Even if you can only save fifty dollars a week, you will have saved over $2500 within a year. Plus you will have earned interest on this money. Now imagine you could save $100 or even $200 a month. On top of this add the extra couple of dollars you don't spend each week. In reality a year is a very short time, so it won't be long until you have some extra money for a holiday or even investing.

Remember, don't be disheartened if you have a lot of bills in one week, and can't save anything in any particular week. See if you can put a little extra away the next week.

In order to save this extra bit of money, see our tips for spending less.

The Money Wombat. Saving you money..

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Find more basic tips to help you find and save money at The Money Wombat.