There are lots of ways to save money, the most obvious being, “don’t spend money you don’t have on things you don’t need.” Adam Baker at Man Vs. Debt and Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar can give you all sorts of ideas to help you begin dealing with financial problems you might have, but I can give you a great way to start saving 10% a year right now: Stop tithing!
Okay, that might only apply to religious folk who do tithe or give offerings to religious organizations, but that’s still a fair number of people in the world (if you don’t fit into that category, be glad. You’re already saving that money).
But aren’t Christians supposed to tithe? In a word? No!
The tithe was meant solely for Jews under the Old Testament law, not for Christians who have been freed from the law. If, for some reason, you really want to put yourself into slavery to the Old Testament law then, by all means, have fun. But not only is it not necessary, if you want to follow any of it then you’re obligated to follow the whole thing (that means no more bacon or shrimp or clothes with mixed fabrics or washing your car on Saturday).
A true biblical tithe, by the way, is actually in the form of food or livestock, and only goes to the Levite priests. Unless your pastor is a Levite who performs temple sacrifices, he has no biblical basis for demanding it (but if he does demand it, bring him a tenth of your goats or your grain and his response will show you just how biblical he really is).
There’s absolutely nothing in the New Testament about Christians having to give a tenth of their money to their religious leaders or organizations (and, as an aside, any pastor who tells you to tithe more than 10% is an outright fraud, as the word tithe literally means “a tenth.” It’s no more possible to tithe higher or lower than 10% than it is to give more or less than half of something and still call it 50%). What did happen in the New Testament is people gave financial gifts to those in financial need. In fact, Jesus said that if you want to enter the Kingdom you have to give food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty and clothing to the poor. He didn’t, however, say to support religious leaders who simply want to live off your hard-earned money.
So be generous, but give your money to people who actually need it. Donate to worthwhile charities that actually help those in need, not to organizations that will use the money to maintain useless church buildings and to pay the salaries of pastors who should be put out of business so they will be forced to stop the lies they preach every week. And if you still have left over money you feel you need to give away, feel free to donate it to me. At least I’ll use it to help free minds rather than enslave them. 
This post was just a summary of the topic, and I realize I haven’t provided any biblical texts to back up what I said, but I wanted to keep it brief so that you’ll have time to go read the brilliant article The Tithe is Illegal by Gary Amirault where you’ll find all the biblical proof you need.
