Start the school year Right

In today's economy or any economy the more you save the better off you are. the less you spend the more capital you will have to do the things that you want to do like travel, go to school and become financially secure. My aunt Rosie used to say, if you make a dollar a week save fifty cents. Twenty to twenty five percent of your salary should be saved every pay check.
You might ask how does one do this? The question is, how does one not do this? It is almost a rule of survival all of the time not just when the economy is bad or good. Frankly the economy is as much an individual endeavor as it is national or international . All investors know this. If your accounts are fluid and you expenses limited you can weather any economic storm. They only way this can be done is to cut back on expenses and increase savings.
By my own design, I have 25% deducted from my pay every pay period, that is not enough so this year, I am deducting another 20%. I know 45% sounds extreme now but it is important to give myself more economic stability. It is not that I need the money and I guess that is the point save it when you don't need it not when you do.
The next part of this stability is to cut back on expenses. The best way to do this is to look at all of your expenses and eliminate duplication of services. If you have a Netflix account you do not need all of the premium cable channels because Netflix delivers first run movies at the same rate as cable. I am not saying get rid of them all but choose between HBO,Showtime, Cinamax, Encore etc. One cell phone will do customize it with different rings to distinguish business calls from personal calls and increase the number of minutes. Also go to each of the companies that you use tell each that you are going to drop one or the other depending on which gives you the better deal.
Eat out less eat in more, avoid the theaters except for matinees and then limit movie going to once a month. do not worry about those movies that you missed because either they will be on Netflix or cable 3 months after they are in the theater .
Clothes make use of consignment shops the clothes there are a fraction of the costs of new clothes and they are environmentally sound because the energy used to produce new clothes is not needed for used.
Transportation.
Pay off your car early and keep it for ten years, it may not be as up to date as a new car but the money you save can be used on airline tickets to interesting places instead of driving town in your new car. After you car is paid off, save for a new car and send in at least half of the car's total value with your first car payment.
Get rid of what I call nuisance accounts. Those that have a balance of $500 or less. Each month pay off one of these accounts and keep this payment going into another account for a year.
Finally limit you spending to 20% of your income and stick to this save for the future, do not spend for the present.