I recently read an article from Get Rich Slowly that described in great detail that rut that people get into when they spend money just to get a quick thrill.  In the article, J.D. describes how he liked to buy lots of camera equipment.  He would buy cameras, camera lenses and photography courses.  Even though he was in debt, he still wanted to spend money on this camera equipment.  I think that a lot of us get into this habit.  We keep acquiring things, even though we don’t really need them, use them or have the money for them.  We all need a lesson on how to start saving money.

I see it all the time when I go to the mall or look around peoples’ houses.  It seems that people have a tendency to buy rather inexpensive items as collectibles thinking that since it is only a small purchase they can afford it.  However, what they don’t realize is that these $10 purchases add up each week.  And, at the end of the year they have just spent $520 worth of stuff that they did not need.

It seems like collectors often fall into this habit.  When I was a child, I really liked collecting comic books.  I would go to the book store and spend $3.50 on a comic book.  I would do this quite often.  Sometimes I would read them.  Sometimes I wouldn’t.  However, for some reason I liked seeing the stacks of comic books that I was collecting.  In their aggregate for some strange reason they gave me satisfaction.

Spending money like this is a hard habit to break, but we have to do.  These small purchases add up to lots of money.  Over a lifetime they can have serious negative effects on our savings.  In order to break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck, you need to cut out these types of expenditures.  Here is a little how to start saving money guide to break this habit.

I think that the first step in starting to save money is to open an ING Direct savings account.  By just creating this account, you will have taken a huge step forward in your journey.  You need to know that you have a place where you can easily stash money.  If you are going to save, it might as well be in a high interest rate savings account.

The second step that you must take is to being to make deposits into your ING Direct savings account.  Instead of spending that $10 a week on stuff you don’t need, get into the habit of making your weekly $10 deposit into your high interest savings account.  This consistent habit of saving money instead of spending it can begin to change your life.  However, you must realize that this is just the beginning of your savings journey.

Once you start to accumulate savings you can then look for new ways to save money.  You can buy US Treasury Savings Bonds and invest more in your 401(k).  This simple step of opening an ING Direct Savings account is just your find step.  But it is a huge step in learning how to start saving money.