Make saving and investing easy and automatic. If you haven’t already, sign up for direct deposit and payroll deduction at your credit union. With direct deposit, your paycheck is automatically put into your credit union account. With payroll deduction, an amount is transferred regularly from your paycheck to build your savings account or to pay off a loan. Make your investing routine, too, by taking advantage of employer-sponsored retirement plans and mutual fund automatic investment plans.

Make the most of your savings. If you have a lot of money in a regular savings account, transfer some or all of it to a money market account to earn a higher rate of interest. Likewise, if you have multiple savings accounts, consolidate them so you have enough to meet the required minimum for a money market account.

There are two types of money market accounts: Money market deposit accounts, available at your credit union and other financial institutions, are a type of federally insured savings account. Money market mutual funds aren’t insured; however, they’re generally considered safe because of the strict restrictions on the types of investments they can make.

Don’t use the IRS as a piggy bank. If you're getting big tax refunds, you may be giving the government too much money each payday. While it's nice to get those refund checks, there are better ways to save, especially since you don't earn interest on the money you prepay Uncle Sam. Ask your employer for a new W-4 form so you can more accurately match the amount of taxes withheld from your paycheck to the taxes you owe. Then, use payroll deduction to save the money that was previously going to the IRS.

If your employer offers a flexible spending account, sign up. These accounts allow you to set aside pretax dollars, up to a specified limit, to pay some of your dependent care expenses, or medical bills that aren't covered by insurance. The payoff comes in tax savings because the money you put into these accounts escapes federal, and in most cases, local, state, Social Security, and Medicare taxes.

For example, if you're in the 40% combined tax bracket and you put $5,000 a year into an account for dependent care expenses, you'll have the full $5,000 to spend on child care, rather than the $3,000 you would otherwise have left after paying taxes. One caveat: Carefully plan how much money you'll put into your account since you won't get it back if you don't use it all by the end of the year.

Cut your credit costs. Consider these surefire ways to save a bundle: When you borrow money, make the largest loan down payment you can, and go with the shortest loan term you can afford. When you get your credit card bill, pay the balance in full by the due date. If you have a mortgage, save thousands of dollars in interest by regularly paying extra toward your principal, making lump-sum extra principal payments, or looking into the possibility of refinancing at a lower rate. And if you’ve been making mortgage payments for awhile, ask your lender if you have enough equity built up to drop the private mortgage insurance you may have been required to buy to protect your lender against default.

Consider money-saving strategies. Save big with major cost-cutting moves such as buying a used car instead of a new one, taking shorter or less expensive vacations, buying big-ticket items out of season, or slashing your entertainment and clothing budget. Try small everyday ways to save, too: Brown-bag it for lunch, cut back on dining out, use store and grocery coupons, and patronize discounters.

Look to your credit union for good deals on financial services. Surveys show that credit unions, as not-for-profit financial cooperatives, generally offer more favorable terms than elsewhere on savings accounts, loans, share draft/checking accounts, and credit cards. In fact, recent surveys by the Credit Union National Association and the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit association of consumer groups, found that credit union consumer loan rates average up to five percentage points lower than bank loan rates. So depending on which financial services you use and how often you use them, you could save between $200 and $500 each year by using credit union services, rather than those at other financial institutions.