Cali,
The way I look at it is this:
Total change in wealth = income - expenditures
It looks like you are asking the right questions to make the number on the left side of the equation increase. I should point out that you should always seek to make that number as great as possible. If it is ever negative you have a serious problem. I seek to increase it both ways, grow income and decrease expenditures. I constantly think of ways to grow income by selling things, picking up part time work our bettering my current work situation. Do you make anything? Try etsy dot com.
As far as saving its nothing you haven't heard before. I find that food and drink is the number one spending culprit. Make small changes. If you eat lunch out every day they brown bagging twice a week, same for ordering in dinner midweek. If you go out twice on the weekend, make it one or take one weekend off a month. The bottom line is that saving is hard in our culture that encourages spending (particularly for mid-twenty somethings in nyc). Learn to say NO to friends and other spenders, they aren't watching out for your wallet.
One thing that helps is to make a budget in excel. Put ask your reoccurring costs in and monthly reconcile your credit card bills with what is left over. Even if you are blowing of your budget, actually inputting it makes your spending "real." I've heard that mint dot com is a good site for this, though I haven't used it myself.
