After divorce, your financial life will need tweaking. Even if investing has presented a roadblock in the past, it's now one you're ready to conquer.

Here are some tips:

• Every time you get a raise, increase your contributions into your retirement and other savings accounts. Bonuses, tax refunds, and inheritances are all an invitation to rejigger as well. Anyone who has done an outstanding job of accumulating wealth will tell you how important this strategy is. Give your own savings a raise every time you get one, and put at least part of every windfall to work for you.

Say it and sound smart: “I'm putting 75 percent of my bonus away for the future. I hope we'll have a lot more years like this one, but if this is the end of the gravy train, I don't want to spend the money and regret it.”

• Open your financial statements. Each quarter, you need to keep track of the direction your investments are going in and where you stand. Paying attention will help you spot any errors in your account immediately. And you'll notice if the asset allocation you've chosen is getting you to your goals in a timely fashion, or if you need to rebalance your investments to take on a little more, or a little less, risk.

Say it and sound smart: “I know it's time for CSI. Just give me a minute to look at how my investments are doing.”

• Ask questions when something seems wrong. If you don't understand something on your statement, call the toll-free number. This is no time to be shy. Tell the customer service rep what's on your mind. Little miscalculations and other errors will get worse over time.

Say it and sound smart: “It says on my statement that in July I bought shares... Can you go back into my record and tell me what you see?”

Wouldn’t it be great if our waistlines were as thin as a divorced mom’s back to school budget? We know. You have to stretch your dollars like worn-out Spandex and there are too many extra pounds of goods you still need.

However, we have some resourceful budget solutions that can help reduce your stress and help your kids look their best. They may actually learn something too.

Now before we give you this list, we hope that you have already looked in the kids’ closets and done a thorough inventory, just as you did on your assets prior to divorce. If something still fits, you don’t need a whole new wardrobe. One new outfit for their first day of school will deliver the most powerful emotional punch. Then you can wait for sales later in the month, either via internet or at stores. Remember, items are most expensive now.

1. With your child, make an itemized list of what s/he wants such as clothes, shoes, dress outfits, hobby or sports equipment, books, folders, writing utensils, backpacks and electronics such as computers.

2. Use this list as an opportunity to turn them into future Warren Buffets. Tell them what the dollar amount of their budget is and how they have to fit it to that number. Now if you kid says, “Mom, forget the spiral notebooks, I’d rather have Tory Burch flats,” tell them that school supplies have priority. However, if they find them at a cheaper place, then they will have more leftover for Tory.

The divorce is over, and you are on your own. You have a lot of big decisions to make, but the one about car insurance should be easy, with the following tips from consumer-finance expert Ethan Ewing.

In fact, it begins when you buy a car.

• Plan your purchase. You will save right out of the gate if you opt for a car without a lot of bells and whistles. Turbo features, for instance, often raise premiums because insurers think that, if you choose turbo, you are more likely to speed. And look up which cars have the highest theft rates – generally speaking, the imports like Honda Accord, Honda Civic, Toyota Camry, Nissan Sentra, the Toyota pickup, and some domestic makes like the Dodge Caravan, Ford F150 Series, Saturn SL and the Dodge Ram pickup. Out West and down South, full-size pickups are often the most vulnerable. If a car is likely to be stolen, it will often cost more to insure.

• If you live in a city, compare the cost and convenience of parking in a garage to what you will pay extra in theft insurance if you park on the street.

• Pay bills on time and pay overdue debts. Insurers take credit scores into account when determining rates. You can raise your score as much as 20 points in a month just by paying on time.

• Determine liability coverage: Basic liability covers damage to property or injury to other people as well as court costs. Each state has minimums. Liability coverage is expressed in three numbers, generally noted in thousands of dollars. The first is liability for one person hurt in an accident. The second is a maximum for all injuries in one accident: you, your children, their friends. The third covers property damage. So, 25/50/15 covers $25,000 for one person's injuries; $50,000 for all injuries; and $15,000 in property damage.

• Determine collision coverage, which insures a vehicle against damage from an accident.

According to news reports this week, Britney Spears is planning to contest some of her divorce attorney’s legal fees, arguing that they are too high.

Whether you’re Britney Spears or Brittany Smith, divorce can be a costly venture – and being overcharged by a divorce attorney can be a real issue.

According to FWW’s Diana Mercer, a California attorney who specializes in mediation and is the author of “Your Divorce Advisor,” when clients feel they’ve been overcharged, the first step is to ask for an itemized billing and compare it against your own notes of phone calls, court dates, letters, and work you know the lawyer did.

“Your best action is to do this all along during the case,” she says. “Most attorneys bill you each month (and if they don’t, ask them to) so review your bill carefully each month and bring it to the attorney’s attention if you think you’re not getting good value for your money.”

Attorney Gregg Herman, the family chair of the American Bar Association, says that the client should also reflect on the conversations they have had with the lawyer.

“Good professional lawyers always assess the cost/benefit ratio to a client in recommending a particular course of action,” he says. “Ask to meet with your lawyer to discuss your concerns. Perhaps the lawyer can explain the bill to your satisfaction — or make an adjustment so that you are both comfortable with it.”

If talking with the attorney doesn’t give you the result you’d hoped for, you can ask the local bar association about its fee dispute mediation program.

If you were dieting to lose weight, you'd know precisely how much you wanted to lose, and how fast you wanted to lose it. You need to be just as specific about your debts. Ask yourself these questions:

• How much do I owe?
• At what interest rates?
• By when would I like to pay it back?

You know that certain diets exclude some foods, at least for a while. The Debt Diet has nine rules to follow if you want the greatest shot at success:

1) Make debit your plastic of choice. When you're using a debit card, you can't spend money you don't have.

2) Slim down your wallet. Take all but one credit card (the one with the lowest interest rate) out of your wallet.

3) Stop shopping online except for groceries. Shopping online for groceries stops impulse purchasing and can save time and money. All other online shopping poses an expensive risk.

4) Stick to a shopping list. Whether you're buying a birthday present or burgers and buns, if an item is not on your list, you didn't think about it in advance. Don't buy it.

5) Make a visit to an ATM only once a week. Cash is even easier to blow through than plastic. Decide how much cash you want to spend each week. Take it out on a Monday and divvy it up into seven parts. Each day, carry one-seventh of the total with you. You're allowed to splurge with the extra you have saved.

6) Pay your bills as they come in, rather than all at once. If you do, you'll have more in savings, less in debt, and you'll be happier. Why? Because if you get a big bill – say for heating, or air conditioning – early in the month, you'll compensate and spend less on other things the rest of the month.

7) Bank online. If you are a believer – as I am – that time is money, then paying bills online saves you a lot of each.

One patient asked me: “Is it normal to anticipate failure in potential relationships, just because I am divorced?” Because of the possibility of divorce, she had asked for a pre-nup or a post-nup with her fianceé, and he was insulted.

She wanted to know, “Isn’t it OK for me to ask?”

I am seeing more and more women whose marriages have ended, and who finally realize that it was money issues that caused a lack of trust, jadedness, and bitterness.

If they are in a new relationship, they are especially eager to prevent this in the future. Some are even going as far as "date"-nups, contracts for who pays what, so there are clear boundaries. This isn’t as necessary for a night at the movies, but it becomes more so with expensive restaurants and trips out of town.

Many couples I counsel worry about how to deal with money issues. If they are living with someone, they will even tell me they don’t want to talk about money because it will spoil the romance, ruin their sex lives, and cause resentment.

If they are engaged (especially after one of them has been divorced), they may be concerned about money issues, but they are still reluctant to discuss finances.

They want to have peace at any price.

A Harris poll says that 47 percent of couples do not talk about money before getting married, and 51 percent do, but don’t do it properly.

If couples don’t talk about money, there is no way they can arrange a pre- or post-nup. But discussing money triggers a cascade of emotions and childhood issues. Those feelings can contaminate intimacy and destroy trust, and eat away at the foundation of the relationship.

Men and women struggle with the balance between money and commitment. Pre-nups and post-nups provide assurances their finances will not plummet if their relationship ends, especially in such an uncertain financial climate.

Consider the situation in which a woman’s ex is willing to spend money on himself, but refuses to pay his share for their 12-year-old daughter’s summer camp. He feels that, after what he thought was a miserable marriage, he is finally enjoying his freedom and that he deserves something special, in this case — buying a “great” car.

He figures his ex-wife will deal with the costs of camp. He thinks: “Look, the reality is that I just don’t have the money.”

Now mom has to deal with a disappointed girl.

Wrong:

Mom: “Dad is willing to buy himself a fancy new car but won't pay his share in order to send you to summer camp.”

Right:

Mom: “Dad and I can’t afford camp for you this year.”

Daughter: “That's not fair. All my friends are going.”

Mom: “I know you’re disappointed. We shouldn't have promised camp to you if we couldn't come through. I owe you an apology. But, the fact remains that we can't do it this year.”

Daughter: “It’s Dad isn't it. He can buy himself a new car, but won't pay for my camp.”

Mom: “This is between your Dad and myself. I just feel bad that you are so disappointed. I will do my best not to let something like this happen again.”

Joint custody agreements sometimes have a downside. These agreements document exactly who pays for this and who pays for that and what gets split — such as camp costs, tuition for school or after-school classes and the like.

Such agreements sound good on paper and, for those couples who get along, collaborating in these responsibilities only makes for a more united front and a healthier divorce. However, in those situations where self-centeredness, greed or control continues to be issues, these numerous small negotiations can be a source for power struggles.

Do you sometimes feel as though money is just running through your fingers? That there will never be enough to have any left? That you are just barely making ends meet?

If you are newly divorced, and trying to set up a new household, and especially if you have young children in the house, it can seem that there’s no end to “must haves” and “needs” and “should dos” and of course “wants.”

The good news is that you can save in so many ways, and each savings will add up more than you could believe possible. It’s hard to get into the right frame of mind. You don’t want to feel like a penny pincher. Think of yourself instead as a savvy consumer.

So, NO MORE...

Letting the water run

Did you know that every minute water flows down the drain wastes up to 2.5 gallons, according to the Environmental Protection Agency? So turn off the water while brushing your teeth or shaving. Only run the dishwasher & washing machine when you have full loads, water plants in the morning when the water is less likely to evaporate, and give the car a bucket wash saving the hose for a quick rinse. Do all this and you could save up to $190 a year or almost 40 percent off the average U.S. household water bill of $476.

Driving like a maniac

Drive the speed limit, go easy on the brakes, and carpool when you can. Oh, and use EZ Pass, Sun Pass, and other toll tags. And what about gas mileage? The more moderate your speed, and the less you rev the engine, the less gas you are going to use. This could save you $4 to $40 a month depending on how much you drive.

Paying online shipping fees

With the economy and the stock market acting wilder than a category 5 hurricane, many of us are feeling the pinch in our pocketbooks. We’ve been talking about ways to save money when you eat out, so you enjoy life a bit. Now let’s see if you can find ways to enjoy feeling flush with cash.

Does it seem possible?

Here are ten fabulous ways to build up your finances:

No BLT’s.

Weight Watchers has a saying, no “BLTs” — and they don’t mean bacon, lettuce and tomato. BLT stands for “bites, licks, and tastes.” If you are having trouble saving, you need to check to see what kind of BLT’s are lurking in your budget. Write down everything you spend money on for one month. At the end of the month take out a yellow highlighter and highlight everything that brought you great joy. Now look at what’s left. Chances are you’ll find something you can easily cut back on that doesn’t reduce your joy — for instance, drinks out with people you don’t even like, or subscriptions to magazines or newspapers you don’t read.

Ask yourself “How badly do I want it?”

Millions of Americans lack a tool to help them when those hot shoes or cool new earrings jump of the shelf and yell “Buy me now!” Here’s what you do. Step 1: Calculate your after-tax income. If you make $40,000 a year and have a 25 percent effective tax rate, you take home $30,000 a year. Assuming you work 2,000 hours a year, that’s an after-tax hourly income of $15. Step 2: The next time you see a $150 “whatever” that you just have to get, ask yourself, “How badly do I want it? Then figure how many hours you have to work to pay for it. Is that $150 item really worth 10 hours slogging away at the office?

Make saving a family project

Feel like you're losing your grip on those financial purse strings? (Especially if you've just heard that credit card companies are charging an extra ten cents a gallon at the pump!) Even cereal is higher at the grocery store, as is milk. Everything for the kids is going up, up, up!

But listen. There are still ways you can go out with friends, shop for groceries, make more money, save money as a family project, and plug your financial leaks.

First, let's deal with eating out.

You need adult time, if for no other reason than to have another grown up to bounce kid questions off of.

And if you're hoping to meet a guy, youíre not going to find him in your closet.

Going out doesn't have to take your budget into the red zone.

Here are five ways to eat out without breaking into the kids' piggy bank.

Share an entrée or make a meal out of appetizers

American food portions are so super-sized that the average entrée could feed at least two, sometimes even three people! But if you're going to split an entrée, find out first if the restaurant charges a fee for that. Appetisers, or small plates (tapas), are usually rich in better restaurants, or gigantic in lower priced restaurants, and thus more filling. An appetizer can make a fine meal, and cost half as much as an entrée.

Be sure to ask how much the specials cost

This a major pet peeve. How many times have you been in a restaurant when the waitperson describes a succulent-sounding, special dish-of-the-day? You go for it, and then sit dumbfounded when you see the bill and find out the price. It's a sign of financial self-confidence to nicely ask "and what do those specials run?" so you can make an informed decision.

Soup, it does a body good