"Great income does not matter - small expenses do". I have heard this many times and I believe there is a truth behind it. People having several times bigger income than I complain that their money just disappears somewhere.

It is not that difficult to avoid spending everything and despite that have good time. But it requires some self discipline. Making a list of your expenses helps a lot and shows where money goes. Most people know accurately how much is their rent or mortgage payment. But then there are numerous smaller expenses like newspaper and magazine subscriptions, membership fees, credit card monthly payments and so on. Even though those are sort of visible expenses they are usually neglected.

One way to control money usage and save some is to reduce amount of free cash in the account. It is usually possible to make an agreement with bank to deposit certain amount of monthly salary right away when it arrives to higher interest saving account. Then after some time that amount can be used to finance bigger things like holidays instead of taking an expensive loan.