The most important thing to do is start a savings plan. Do you invest in a company 401k?
You need to build a 3 to 6 months expenses, emergency fund. This fund would be in your savings account or an online high yield account.

What are your plans for higher education?

As for monthly expenses, you need an in account buffer. If your monthly expenses are 1500, you need 1000 to 1500 in your account considered as 0, this will allow you to pay your bills as they come.

Stay out of debt as much as possible.

Never have a car payment for more than three years( I recommend paying cash)
Never use a credit card when you cannot pay in full at the end of the month.
Save first, at least 10% of your income.( savings, 401k, roth)

I highly recommend that you read The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach and The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. These books will give you a financial path to follow.

Okay those sound like great tips. Thanks!1
However, that still leaves me with no solution as to how to control my impulse spending, how can I prevent my self from doing that?

Stay away from stores and want adds, find books to read on personal finance. I did these things and it has worked well. I buy my books at Goodwill ,cheap.

I strongly urge you to get a higher education beit trade school or college, if you are not at this time.

I'll be applying to a community college here in the next week or so, and im hoping that previous student loans i have will be deferred while i attend.. what ive been thinking of doing to control my spending is to get a cash box and label each compartment with each bill i have, and put the money into my bank account when i need it. Also, I would open up another savings account with a deifferent bank, and cut the card up so that i would have to go into the branch to take out the money. all this combined would take away the ability to aimlessly spend my money, or so i hope..

I didn't read any of the previous suggestions so here is my own. Keep in mind, I am young as well.

I never tried saving a penny for the longest time. Late 2007 I decided I would try so I opened up a savings account and put $100 in there a month. That never really worked out because I didn't really treat it as such.

Now, I have about $5000 in the bank and I only make $30k a year...pretty good

How did I do that? I opened a checking/savings account at a completely different bank. This way, I didn't have direct access to the funds and I never use those accounts. I just go to the bank when I want to deposit some money.

That's what worked for me.

yeah that sounds like what i had in mind, but i gotta ask, at 100 a month, it would take you a little over 4 yrs to save up that much money, you must put more?

Controlling your impulse spending might be not be easy for you. I suppose you are impulsive in other areas too. Maybe you even don't want to limit yourself spending money.

You can only control yourself at moments you like to buy something. It might help to ask questions like:
- do I really need this or do I want this?
- how long do I have to work to earn this amount of money?

Make not spending money fun by rewarding yourself to save that money in an account. You will feel proud and that helps for future controlling.

Well yes, I was actually capable of saving a whole lot more then $100 a month; however, I was just trying to give you some guideline in which you could actually follow. Whether that's $100, $50, or $300 a month is up to you and your budget.

Make a budget and follow it. Try to cut down your expenses wherever possible.

I would encourage you to consider with every item you pick up - do I really need this? Must I have this? Or, would this money be better utilized in a savings acct., CD, or some other savings device? Think of it like this... do you really want to finance a tank of gas for 30 years? I like how T. Harv Eker breaks it down very simply. He asks you to buy jars and put your money (not literally - you can put the acct. slips in there or something representative of the money) in these separate jars...

Financial Freedom Account (FFA) = 10%

Long Term Savings For Spending (LTSS) = 10%

Education (EDUC) = 10%

Necessities (NEC) =55%

Play = 10%

Give = 5%

You can google it and learn more, but this may help you in rearranging your thinking about your spending habits.

You have taken the first step you know you need help.

Setup a budget and stick to it you will be fine.

Checkout my website there is free advice there on budgeting.

Use the envelope system. Figure out how much you will allow yourself to spend on all of your expenses and bills for the month. Put cash in the envelopes at the beginning of each month and only spend whats in there. If you run out you will have to work at reducing. This will help you control your spending habits.

This is how I got my impulse spending under control. Take your budget and split into 2 parts. The money for your bills is one part and the money for your weekly needs is a second part. Set up a second savings/checking account in a different bank. Then take your budget for your bills and divide by 4. This is the amount of money each week that you need to put into the second account for your bills. If possible, add as much extra as you can, but be sure to leave enough for your weekly expenses and your "mad money". If you have direct deposit at your work, sign up for it. Make sure you have the amount for your bills going into your second account and the rest can go into your regular checking account. NOW THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART. NEVER TOUCH YOUR SECOND ACCOUNT EXCEPT TO PAY THE BILLS! (Leave your ATM card and your checkbook at home!) Whatever you have in your weekly account is ALL YOU HAVE TO SPEND! Your mind will start to work within your limits. Whenever you get a raise or overtime go online and TRANSFER THAT MONEY INTO YOUR SAVINGS ACCOUNT. Try to see how much you can make that account grow! At the end of every 6 months, give yourself a SMALL reward if you've been able to make that account grow, just don't spend everything in there! Maybe only spend 10% of it. Let me know if this is successful. I have counseled many people to help them with this so let me know if you have any more questions.