How do you save money in a recession? It seems to be impossible!

hi jack well if you were to cut down of things that you realy dont need all the time and put that money away that you would have spent,also i find when it comes to food shopping make a list of what you realy need put down a price beside it and onely get what you have on the list as we always tend to pick up bits here and there that we dont realy need and the shopping bill gets higher

There is software and websites out there that can help you track were you are spending money (http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029471,49302618,00.htm). I use Microsoft money, but there are some great websites out there. They let you track your spending and you can categorise each spend to see where the bulk of it is going. Some also offer budgeting facilities so help target maximum spending on a particular thing e.g. food or mobile phone bill.
Hope this helps.

@Anneliese
Thanks for the advice. I've started doing this and it helps. Also learnt a good tip, never go food shopping when you're hungry! :-)

@TomB
Thanks for the link mate and the advice! Yeah I think I need to do something like this myself. Might buy MS Money if it's the best of the bunch. Cheers!

I have never been good with saving money either but lately I have been making all my purchases in cash. Its easier to track what your spending with cash then with a debit card if you dont constantly check your bank account. Also I spend money in dollars, so like if something is for example 1.38 I always give 2 dollars and I put all the change in a jar including ones sometimes. It adds up very fast because otherwise your probably gonna spend that anyways. Once I have a lot I put it in to a savings account and pretend that I have a 50 dollar bill I have to pay to the bank every paycheck and put that into my savings account. I have saved 400 dollars in a month or so...not too shabby :)

envelope methods works good for me. I might put say 100 dollars (or whatever it is you can afford) put it in an envelope and say "this is my weekend money" ect. etc.. I've also bought a piggy bank that you have to break to open and drop loose change and a dollar a day into it. it gets it out of your hands and you probably wont go thru the hassle of breaking the whole piggy bank to get the money

You can do what I do. Break it down into change and put it in a jar. I don't like to carry pocket change around. Another thing you can do is set up a back account to put money in that you don't want to spend.

For monitoring money, there is software that can help. Also websites such as Mint.