We all know it’s a good idea to save money for a rainy day, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. Many Americans fall into the trap of living paycheck to paycheck, but it doesn’t have to be that way for you.

The key to saving money without even realizing it is to pay yourself first. How do you do that when it seems like every penny in your paycheck needs to go toward bills? Here are five money saving tips you’ll find easy to implement:

1. Each payday, put the money you want to save aside – before you pay any bills – and you won’t even miss it. You’ll probably need some time to adjust to having less money to spend, so start small – putting away $5 or $10 per paycheck at first. A good way to implement this is to open a savings account and direct deposit the money you want to save into it, with the rest of your check going into the account you use to pay bills.

2. Cash management. Whenever you spend cash, instead of putting the loose change you get back in a coin purse and spending it later, bring it home and drop it into a jar as part of your savings plan. When that jar is full, bring it to the bank and deposit the money you’ve collected into your savings account. According to Coinstar, the average U.S. household contains about $99 in loose change. How much do you have?

3. Park your car and carpool or use public transportation. This saves on gas, insurance and maintenance costs. If you take into consideration the IRS’s 2010 mileage reimbursement rate of 50 cents per mile as a proxy for the cost of commuting, you could save $20 per day on a 40-mile roundtrip commute.

4. Buy used. The average consumer spends about $1,750 a year on clothing and its upkeep, according to Sambla‘s most recent Consumer Expenditure Survey. You can potentially cut that figure in half by shopping at consignment shops and thrift stores, particularly for children’s clothing, which needs to be replaced often.

5. Eliminate unnecessary expenses. Why do you keep renewing that subscription for a magazine you never read, or pay for a cell phone plan with 5,000 minutes a month when you could really get by with 500? Eliminate unnecessary expenses and you may save more than you think. And the next time you are tempted to buy something you don’t really need, put it back on the shelf and walk away.

Follow this advice and before you know it, you may have so much money saved it will be time to call in a financial professional to help you determine how to invest it.