One of the best ways to save more money each month is to distinguish between wants and needs. Needs are simple to identify - they are items that you need to live such as shelter, food, clothing, and transportation. Wants are those things that enhance or improve life, but are not necessary to survive. Distinguishing between these two can be difficult sometimes. A car may be a need, but a $50,000 SUV is definitely a want. And is a designer label really worth an extra $30 for a shirt? Believing that a want is a need is the most basic recipe for financial diseaster.

The fact is that the more money we make, the more money we want to spend. This addictive cycle of materialism has led many people to this confusion between needs and wants. Another contributing factor is the fact that marketers are taught that success comes from selling to wants instead of needs. One tip that helps a lot of people is to not buy anything the first time they want it - instead see if the urge dies down the next day - meaning you really don't need it. If you still have the desire to buy it, then it might be a need.