Consumers are dipping deeper into their savings than any time since 1933, the bottom of the Great Depression, the Commerce Department calculates. One in five Americans believes the only practical way to become wealthy is to win the lottery, according to a survey commissioned by the Consumer Federation of America and the Financial Planning Association.

That's bosh, said financial planners who responded to a companion survey. Four out of five said they believe that almost anyone with a pulse and a job can save at least $250,000 and perhaps as much as $1 million if they are persistent enough and patient enough.

There are many reasons. Seductive advertising, misplaced priorities, a glut of credit and the pressure to maintain a certain lifestyle all play roles.

But the biggest reasons that many of us have trouble saving money, advisers say, are that we simply don't know much about money, we have no plan for saving it, and we aren't using simple, effective tools that help us do that.

Being organized, exercising discipline and having a partner for moral support or additional income are all indicators of increased financial success, many industry studies show.

Many people battling money problems don't really understand the relationship between debt and savings, said Karen McCall, founder of the Financial Recovery Institute in San Rafael, Calif., which helps people find and deal with behaviors and attitudes that result in financial problems.

Without a plan, it's easy for someone who has the discipline to pay off credit card debt or other debt to forget that they need to be saving money too, she said. Then when an emergency hits, their only way to cover the costs is to borrow, wiping out progress they had been making.

"Partners can be great providers of mutual support for a team effort," McCall said. "Or they can be sources of stress and great pressure if someone is using money as a control."

Financial self-help author and Yahoo Finance columnist David Bach believes that the roots of many households' financial problems go to what he calls the latte factor, or tiny splurges for luxuries that are packed onto credit cards and never go away.

"That amounts to several thousand dollars a year, and if you make only minimum payments, you'll never be out of debt. We are being microdollared to death."

"Everyone can get a little sloppy with cash and it's smart to notice," Quinn said. "But what's squeezing you is the big stuff you ladle onto your credit cards."

• Boost your current savings now. Ask your payroll department to automatically put 2 percent more of your pay into your retirement plan or a savings account.

• Review your home and auto insurance. Be sure your home is adequately insured. Check home and auto policies to see how much you might save with the highest deductibles you can afford.

• Pay off credit cards. Focus on the costliest ones first. Don't transfer to a zero percent card or refinance with home equity — those choices usually increase your debt or stretch it out longer.

• Automate your car payments and other regular bills to avoid late fees. You may need to ask creditors to adjust due dates to coordinate with your paydays.

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