First the question must be asked, are you presently making enough money to pay your bills and keep food on the table with even a small amount of money left over? If the answer is yes, then you can proceed. My philosophy is that there are basic levels of need that must be met, and sadly there are many people out there who are not meeting their basic needs (through no fault of their own). It would be irresponsible under those circumstances to be socking away money for a rainy day while the family's needs aren't being met. One strategy I've followed, when I've had spare cash, is to treat my savings account like a bill that must be paid. So when I sit down to pay out the electric bill, the rent, the water bill, etc., I also have my savings bill. By doing that, I get into the habit of saving money, which will come in handy someday when the transmission dies, or some other major catasrophe.

Another way to free up cash is to set aside your ego. This has proven to be extremely beneficial to my family. A while ago, I started looking around and found several different food pantries in our vicinity, each with a different set of rules. The Salvation Army lets us come in once a month. So does another food pantry serving citizens from my hometown only. Then there's the one the next town over that will serve anyone in the area, and they let us go there once a week!

In time, we've been able to save a lot of money on groceries by finding free sources of food. Please note that I am not suggesting that the well-off do this. Food pantries are there for folks who really need the food, not just those who are too cheap to pay for it. In my family's case, we're by no means the poorest of the poor, but we do fall below the poverty level, mostly because we have a large family. We still buy some groceries at the supermarket, but a lot of our food comes from food pantries.

A while ago I knew a guy who drove a VW Rabbit diesel. The key here is diesel, because this guy found this handy dandy little device called Mr. Grease, which can be attached to a car running on diesel and allow that car to run on filtered fat from fryolators. This guy didn't have to pay a dime for gas, because all the fast food places were more than happy to donate their used fryolator grease, which at the time they were having to pay to dispose of. Nowadays I suspect a lot of the major chains have gotten wise to this and have started offering their waste product as a commodity to increase their bottom line. Still, I'll bet there are small mom and pop type places that have neither the volume nor the time to seek out such deals, and I'll bet my friend is still driving that VW Rabbit on fryolator grease.

These are just a few of the ways I can think of to stretch your dollar in these difficult economic times. The key is that after you've cut your expenses, and are actually living within your means, that you do take the next step and put that money away somewhere. Depending upon the dynamics of your family, it may be best to put it someplace easily accessible, so it's there for you when you have an emergency. Some families are not that disciplined, and it may be wiser to put the money into a reasonably accessible source, like a six-month CD, which you can later roll over if the circumstances are appropriate.

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