If you feel like you’re falling behind with your savings, you may be the rule rather than the exception.

A whopping 65% of Americans save little or nothing. Most of their money goes toward regular expenses. But much of it also goes to products and services they may not need.

Luckily, you can save money fast by taking a few simple steps with your finances. Here are 5 easy ways to save money so you can enjoy life more.

1. Automate Your Bills

Balancing a checkbook by hand doesn’t make sense anymore. Even if you use a community bank, it likely has automated banking services.

Instead of waiting to pay your bills when you get them in the mail, automate them. Schedule your bill payments on paydays. That way, you’ll know you’re making the full payment on-time.

Keep track of your finances with a check stub maker, too. You’ll get a clearer picture of your income. You can also use your check stubs to secure credit.

2. Devote a Percentage of Every Paycheck to Savings

Just as you automated bill payments, you can automate deposits into your savings account. Commit to putting a percentage of each paycheck into your savings. This way, you won’t even have to think about saving money.

If it’s available, you can also use a service that rounds up each of your purchases and deposits the change into your savings account.

3. Cut Down on Expenses

It can be difficult, but it pays to take a hard look at what you’re spending money on. One of the best ways to save money is to cut out unnecessary expenses.

Do you like to order food once a week? Cook a special dinner at home instead. It’s almost five times more expensive to order delivery than it is to cook in your kitchen.

Another way of reducing expenses is to examine your monthly costs on your Internet and Cell phone plans. companies like Money Saving pro provide guides on reducing cell phone costs which over time can really add up to a lot of money saved!

4. Embrace the DIY Mentality

Most of us are willing to pay extra for added convenience. But there are plenty of things you can do at home that you’d normally go out for.

If your kids only ever get buzz cuts when they go to get their hair cut, you can do that at home. If you’re thrifty, you can even make your own cleaning products with products from your kitchen.

5. Share More of Your Expenses

Do you have a Netflix account? Share it with your friends!

If you live in an apartment building, you and your neighbors can pool resources to pay for utilities–even internet services.

Save Money Fast

It takes some discipline to save money fast when you’re used to spending. But with a few tweaks to your lifestyle, you’ll get closer to your savings goals. Don’t get frustrated if you can only save a little bit each month.

Remember to keep your objective up front. Are you trying to buy a house? Take the money you were going to spend on pizza and put it into your savings account instead.

For more great tips on saving money, check out the Finance section on Rush PR News.