To find the $50 or so you'll need each month to fund an automatic savings plan, financial planners suggest jotting down everything you spend for several weeks to spot areas where you tend to waste your cash. If that's too much of a hassle, Delia Fernandez, a financial planner in Los Alamitos, California, offers an alternative: "On Monday morning, withdraw only the amount of money you think you'll need from Monday to Friday, and hit the ATM again on Friday for your weekend funds. If you run out of cash by Wednesday, you'll start noticing where you waste your dough."

Whatever method you adopt, try these relatively painless spending cuts to achieve the estimated monthly savings. Just think, saving an additional $50 a month boils down to a mere $10 to $12 a week.

save $16
by ORDERING THE HOUSE BLEND TWICE A WEEK INSTEAD OF THE LATTE

save $20-$40
by EATING ONE LESS DINNER OUT EACH MONTH

save $40
by SWAPPING BABY-SITTING RESPONSIBILITIES WITH ANOTHER COUPLE ONCE A MONTH

save $40
by RENTING MOVIES AND BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY FOR FREE

save $100
by BUYING NEXT YEAR'S CLOTHING AT THE END OF THE SEASON