You may not have been affected by the economic downturn - yet. You may have enough in reserve to cope with the vagaries of price changes (usually upwards) of companies and organisations who have been affected, or want to cling on to their mega profit streams. Or your income and expenditure so far apart - they appear to have divorced years ago. Whatever your current situation, there are always new ways to look at money and more importantly doing more with what you currently have, whilst waiting for more to head your way.

The thing I like about money is this - it gives you choices. if you don't have a lot of money at the moment, then your choices may seem less apparent. But there are still some things to think about - and more importantly take control over when it comes to money and all things financial.

So my list of things of must do to succeed if money is tighter than it should be are:

1. Do not buy things you do not need. Over the next few weeks - before you buy anything - ask - do you really need it? or is it just a "I want" ... how old are you? You tell your kids off for whining about things they "want" so stop telling yourself you "want" something when you really don't want or need it.
2. Make do with what you have. Do you really need a new phone, headset, computer, television, pair of shoes? If the answer is - well, no not really - then don't buy it.
3. Do not buy things on credit - it's not credit to you - to you it's a debt.
4. Get rid of your debt. Every day you pay interest - you are paying the banks and credit companies - lets face it, they earn enough - get rid of the debts and let the banks earn their money some other way. How do you get rid of your debt? Well there is everything from refinancing your home or business so you pay less interest, but unless you get rid of the credit cards (make that debt cards) you will be back to minus figures in no time. You can also - with time and not adding to your debt, get rid of your problem. Once you reduce your debt by a few hundred dollars reduce the credit limit on your card - write to the banks and ask them to reduce the credit limit...Yes it takes time, and more importantly discipline to do this, but you can.
5. Pay yourself first. Put a few dollars away from your paycheck each week into a savings account and don't touch it. Brian Tracy calls this your fortress account. Over time and with compound interest you can make a fortune....but that does depend when you start. And no, you don't have to earn mega bucks to get this happening. $1 a day multiplied by a year, by 5 years and by 5 years interest ... go on you get the picture. And what do you have to stop buying to save a dollar a day? In today's market that's 1/4 of a cup of coffee or half a chocolate bar.
6. Go through your budget line by line and see where you spend your money. Keep a spreadsheet of what you spend your money on, then you can see exactly how much you are spending on each of the major areas. Food, fuel, bills, alcohol, entertainment, spending, gifts, home and garden, kids education, clothing etc etc. Then, once you know where you are spending your money -
7. Go through your budget and delete the items you shouldn't be spending. If you are spending far too much on entertainment and you have a major debt problem, then I would suggest your priorities are in the wrong place. And that goes for work as well as home - especially if you run your own business.
8. Use what you have in the cupboards before you buy anything else. This is one I do on a very regular basis. I sometimes buy things on impulse - yes even me. So once a month or so I buy only minimum amounts of fresh stuff and use the items in the cupboard. It can make for entertaining meal times - but you would be surprised at how much dead money is sitting in cupboards, fridges and freezers.
9. If you are in business - are you making the most of your personal niche? Does one part of the business bring in more money than another part? Then spend more time getting more money from that side and less energy on the part that brings you the least amount of money for effort.
10. Rent or sub-lease space if you can. You are paying overheads on everything under your own roof - is every part of that space bringing you money? Find ways of bringing in money to that space - or get rid of it. It's the albatross around your neck - get rid of the albatross and stop letting your ego talk you out of it.
11. Turn off the lights. If you are not in the room - turn the lights off, and that goes for radio's that aren't being listened to, televisions that aren't being watched and computers that aren't being used. Every little bit counts. And if you don't believe me - on Monday I took my jar of change to the bank - there was $62.90 in coins which I added to my fortress account. It took me just over 5 weeks to get that money together.
12. Wait for the DVD to arrive. If money really is tight - that doesn't mean you have to stop having a good time, just have a good time in a different way. Instead of going to the movies, wait a few weeks for the DVD to arrive, then invite a few friends over, get them to bring a pot luck dish for dinner - have a few drinks and enjoy good company, the movie and a cheap dinner at the same time.

There are of course many other ways to save money and have a great time doing it - what are your suggestions?