Saving money is like being on a diet. And like most Americans, we’re pretty bad at sticking to them. What then, is the solution to being financially fit? The same techniques you use to get rid of that spare tire are the ones you can use to keep that spare change.

Saving money is difficult for most of us mainly because we don’t have a lot of it to begin with. So in order to put some cash away, we have to deny ourselves the little instant gratification purchases we get everyday. Being able to stop ourselves from grabbing that candy bar, coffee, or MP3 download is exactly the same kind of willpower that is required for staying away from Big Macs and cheesecake.

But saying you’re going to do something and doing it are, as we know, incredibly different things. Everyone makes that New Years resolution to lose a few pounds and put away a few bucks for vacation, but inevitably at the end of the year we’re heavier than we were and in debt. So I propose an interesting solution, one that will impact both your gut and your wallet: take all the money you’d spend on snacks and take-out, and save it. Here’s a breakdown:

Say you spend about $15 a day between lunch, snacks, and coffee in the morning. If you start eating healthy, make your coffee at home, and take other calorie and cost cutting measures, you can get down to $5 a day. Now that extra $10 you’ve been spending is suddenly in your pocket. What do you do with it? If you leave it alone it will become $300 at the end of the month. Not bad. But if you invested that $300 with a 5% rate of return, after five years you’re looking at $20,402. After ten years? $46,585. Not too shabby!

But this is where saying you’ll do something, and then actually doing it comes into play. After reading those numbers on paper the plan doesn’t seem so bad, in fact it seems fairly easy. But there will be mornings when you look at your carrot sticks and think “what I would give to have a bacon egg and cheese sandwich right now.” Stay strong. A little slip up now and then isn’t the end of the world, but it can be a slippery slope. Many people who have trained themselves to deny the easy and the quick did it by simply making it routine. Remind yourself why you’re doing this, you want that vacation, you want that new car. Put up pictures of something you want to use the money for, keep a ledger of how much money you’re earning each day and watch it grow. Seeing your balance get bigger (and hopefully your gut get smaller) will inspire you to keep going.