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It’s no great shocker that America has fallen on tough economic times here in the last half-decade.  If you’re like many other American families, you’ve probably considered, or been forced to consider, taking out a portion of your savings to pay for unexpected costs.  While this is sometimes a necessary evil in the unexpected course of life, it’s certainly something we all wish we could do without.  After all, our savings are called savings for a reason: they’re supposed to be saved for a designated use in the future.

Whether you’re saving for a child’s college education, your own retirement, or any number of other personal endeavors, these few tips should help guide you away from that savings and keep a solid cash flow without it.

- Checking Issues

If you’ve already got a checking account, it’s wise to go back and read the fine print associated with your account.  You may be unpleasantly surprised to find that the bank is charging you, or could charge you costly maintenance fees associated with your account options.  If that’s the case, you’ll want to think about either changing your account type or your financial institution in general.  Comparing various banks and account options is usually as easy as hopping online and hitting one of the many free credit/checking comparison sites out there.

Switching over to a Green Dot Card - SlideShare, or a similar prepaid checking card option is something that I’ve found can save you a lot of money by limiting your potential to overspend or overdraw an account.

It’s also a great way to keep your spending under control by making you more aware of just how much you’ve got in your account at any given time.  They usually carry with them online balance checking options that make it easy to view your balance from anywhere at anytime with a smart phone or other internet connected device.

- Budget

Budgeting is largely underrated, or at least underappreciated.  Keep a detailed, written tab of all of your family’s spending over the course of a couple weeks or even a month; write down everything.  When you go back over the list, you’ll probably be shocked to find how much money you’ve spent on unnecessary items overall.  With this knowledge in hand you can begin to practice better spending habits and look for better deals on your everyday grocery items and other necessities that are costing you big time.

Write up a spending plan if you can and share it with the whole family to make sure everyone is on board and understands the goal(s).  This should free up a large amount of extra cash if done properly and wisely, and could even help you add to that savings account of yours.  If nothing else, it will at least allow some room for those unexpected rainy day costs.

- Open a CD

If you know you can go without touching your savings for at least three months or more, consider opening a Certificate of Deposit.

These are essentially savings accounts that operate around a fixed-term and fixed interest rate for your investment.

I say investment because although they are FDIC insured, and virtually risk free, they are essentially a monetary investment.  That’s because with a CD, the bank takes your savings and invests it in a number of safe options.  For this reason, a CD usually carries higher interest rates for you, and can make you more money than a standard savings account APY can.

Depending on how long you can go without touching your savings, you can usually enroll in 3,6,9, or 12-month terms, or even longer if you so choose.  The other benefit of this is, once your money is in, you can’t touch it without violating the terms of the CD, giving you good reason to find other means of cash while your savings racks up higher interest for you.  Once it’s matured, you’ll be glad you left it alone.

No matter where you are in life financially, keeping a savings secure is a great way to secure financial freedom further down the road.  With these three tips, hopefully you can get on the right track to higher savings and better spending habits.  That way, one day in the future, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy those savings, rather than kick yourself over not having any left in the bank.

Photo credits: 401K

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