I just applied my universal solution to everything. Make more money :P.
Seriously though - budgeting and saving and working for someone else the rest of your life will get you nowhere slowly...
Read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, and there's another book called "Escaping the Middle Class"
www.yourleverage.com and start changing your cash flow patterns instead. It took me four years to go from being 80k in the hole to making my old annual salary in a month. I still have budgeting issues, but they go away really damn fast nowadays.