Be generous.

A generous person is generally a very happy person. There is something fantastic about blessing others. When others see you being generous, they are more inclined to be generous to you as well.

Count your blessings.

It can be overwhelming to think every day of what you do not have and what you need to give up to save money. Most of the ideas in this book generally aren't giving things up entirely but finding alternative means at a lesser cost. Count your blessings daily and remember you do have many wonderful things in your life.

Review and adjust your priorities, goals, and budget regularly.

Review and adjust your priorities, goals, and budget regularly. The things that are important to you will change. Maybe not the top three items but below those will. While you learn how to save money, you will experience parts of life you never knew existed. This all changes what our priorities are, what our goals are, which then changes our budget.

Finish what you start.

There is a lot of waste in this world with people deciding to give up on something they began: divorce, abandoned pets, half-painted houses, and retirement accounts that were never opened. If you're giving it a chance - give it a real chance and see it through. If you said I do, don't say I don't. Divorce can be one of the most expensive decisions made in life.

Try anything once.

Maybe not anything but you get the idea. If you think an idea here or something you found online might work, give it a chance. There are so few limits in life, breaths in the air, clouds in the sky, stars up above. Give ideas a chance.

Don't try to keep up with the Joneses

You and your family are the only family you will ever be and will always be. What someone else does with their money will affect their future and what you do will affect yours. Resist all temptations to compete or compare yourself with anyone else in your world, your mayor, your neighbor, your brother, your best friend. They are not you, and you need to only be responsible for you (and yours).

Sign up for samples!

Someone can use them even if you can't. Every sample signup you see could help your budget out. The thing I have seen the most is baby formula. If you do sign up for those, they pay shipping to send you free products. If this is not a product you use, you can give it to a friend, a shelter, or a food bank. Something for nothing! Go to the websites for some of your favorite products and see if they are sending samples of anything out. Be willing to give it a try.

Protect your stuff.

Tell the parents next door to supervise children around cars to avoid unnecessary damage to vehicles. Join your home owners or neighborhood association to make sure they are making decisions that are good for your family and for the value of your home and neighborhood. Lock your doors to keep creeps out (the honest ones at least).

Put off upgrading devices.

The longer you can hold on to an old device, the lower the price will come on new devices and the more bugs will be worked out. If you can skip a generation - even better for your wallet.

Decide to do something and do it.

Acting now on your retirement or on a good idea is better than waiting and waiting for the best inspiration. We found ourselves in many traps trying to find the best decisions. Sitting on the other side it's much easier to see how making a good decision would have been way better than waiting on a great decision and never doing it. If something in this book sparks your brain - book mark it, highlight it, or write it down! Get it down folks!

Use a paper shredder.

Shred absolutely everything you get that you do not have filed. Be a 100% shred zone and allow no paper to go into your trash can intact.

Apply for reimbursements (transportation, lodging, food).

This is a total no brainer to the people that do it but to others they just don't realize. Many jobs have reimbursement available for transportation, lodging, and food for various circumstances. Keep your ears open. Better yet - ask around for opportunities. DC has some opportunities to be reimbursed for public transit costs. Schools may reimburse for lodging, travel, or food for conferences. Know in advance for what you are responsible and find ways to carve out your savings.

Know your benefits/Use your benefits.

 There are so many perks for memberships and jobs, you just have to know about them. Military members have free legal assistance on post who will write your will. Many schools have take home licenses for software that teachers can use for building lessons at home. I know many friends suffered through getting to take home pizza at the end of the night when the pizza place closed. Find the hidden benefits of your office but as Dave Ramsey blogged, taking the office supplies from the supply closet to use at home is generally not an acceptable benefit to most employees. http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/thrift-or-theft

Have savings goals and complete them - then move on.

A major accomplishment is fulfilling a goal. Many people get stuck on this goal and this accomplishment. Some continue saving for the goal they already completed. It could be beneficial to have more money in your car fund but if you've identified other goals in your life - move on! Accomplishing something should also be really motivating and fulfilling. By not recognizing that you made this accomplishment you are squelching that motivation and boost.

Implement personal allowances but do not allow skimming or borrowing.

Personal allowances for the adults in the family can really help to maintain a family budget. If both adults know they have $X that they can use as they wish with no supervision it can be a real release to help keep all other spending in check. Borrowing is a battle that's hard to come back from. If one adult borrows from the family for a want, it may cause all sorts of extra stresses and feelings. Skimming is taking money without it being seen through other avenues of spending. Getting $20 cash back with the groceries and not being honest about it. If you're honest it's part of the allowance but dishonesty hurts everyone.

Use a credit card with a good rebate program.

If you are going to use a credit card at all, make sure you get something for it. If you fly often, use a card with frequent flyer miles but only if they will benefit you. Cash back programs such as American Express Blue Cash and Chase Freedom Cash Back Visa give you a percentage of all of your purchases which can be claimed as credits to your account of cash or in online purchases.

Is your BANK charging you FEES?

 If your bank is charging you any fees, look around to see if there is a better bank for your needs. Even a per check cost of a few cents can add up over time. There are so many banks out there now that many charge no fees at all and would love to have your business.

Pay off credit card purchases each month.

 This is a great money saving tip. This works in a variety of ways. First, if you know you must pay your card off this month, hopefully it will help to moderate your spending so that you know you can pay it at the end of the month. The other budget benefit is that by paying it off there will be no interest charged to your account at all.

Mint.com to track your spending!

 https://wwws.mint.com/ is a wonderful resource and FREE. If you already have electronic accounts, it's super simple to pull in your data into their system and categorize your purchases. This will give you a start to knowing what you've been spending on what and then can begin creating a draft budget. After you've figured out where your monetary leaks are in specific categories,  you can make challenges for yourself to plug those leaks.

Mint lets you track categories and emails you when you've reached the limits that you've set. It also lets you create goals and track your savings goal progress. Having an eye on your money can be very difficult and intimidating but with technology at your fingertips you can make it much simpler and less stressful!

Celebrate a spending moratorium: challenge yourself to not spend for a weekend, a week or A MONTH! You write the rules.

Live on your old income.

Bury raises directly into savings/investments. If you didn't have that 3.5% before your promotion, don't take it - into your checking account. Calculate the difference and find a way to automatically have that moved to another account. Out of sight. Out of mind.