As the chasm between the one percent and the working masses widens, the ability to save money is proving more and more elusive for Americans.

As we reported during January’s government shutdown, so many of us are living paycheck-to-paycheck (and its stresses) and, according to a survey by Bankrate.com, only 40 percent of U.S. adults feel able to pay an unexpected expense of $1,000 or more. And, according to that same survey, 15 percent of respondents said they would put that expense on a credit card. Considering the average card annual percentage rate, or APR, is hovering at a record high of over 17 percent, it can take quite a while to dig out from under and start saving again.

“I see people getting into cycles where they’re in debt and they get a tax return, they don’t save any of it, then incur more debt,” says Dr. Moira Somers, clinical neuropsychologist, professor, executive coach and author of “Advice That Sticks: How to Give Financial Advice That People Will Follow,” based in Winnipeg, Canada.

Aside from high interest rates, credit cards can be dangerous for those looking to save money because a little too easy to forget how much we owe until the bill comes in. “Paying with credit cards isn’t even perceived by our brain as spending,” explains Somers. “There’s an area of the brain associated with pleasure and anticipation, and an area associated by disgust and pain. When you put people in brain imaging scanners, and they go through scenarios imagining they are making a purchase and paying with cash and credit, both areas light up when they paid with cash. But when they paid with credit cards, only the pleasure area lit up. That’s why casinos move us away from anything that looks like money. You used to feed tokens and nickels into slot machines. Now people just put it on a thing that looks like a credit card because it doesn’t feel like money,” she said.

Colin F. Camerer, Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics at Caltech and director of the T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience says people don’t “intuitively compute” how fast credit card interest can multiply. “There’s still a lot of temptation to spend compared to the temptation to save,” he explains.

It's no wonder one very recent study showed love to be analogous to money in the human brain. After comparing how the brain works when facing incentives for goal-directed behaviors, researchers found “the common involvement of brain regions in both social and material reward anticipation.” In other words, neuroscientifically, the same brain circuitry in that makes us feel positive and motivated reacts in the same way to money as it does to love.

Conversely, we might jokingly call unforeseen expenses ‘a pain in the wallet,’ but neuroscience says there’s some truth to that sentiment. As it turns out, a study similar to what Somers referred to found the same brain circuitry to activate when we anticipate financial loss as it does when we experience pain.

Make These Shifts to Save More Money

So, if it's true that some of us may equate money with love and deny that credit is actually cash, how can we retrain our brains to save money instead of succumb to the urge to rush out and spend it? Here's what the experts had to say:

Pay with cash. Somers says using cash instead of credit to pay for discretionary items (like clothing, food and entertainment) can reduce spending by as much as 20 - 28 percent, because having to fork over actual cash makes the brain pause to give these purchases a second thought.

Automate your savings. “For the sake of your future self, arrange for whatever percentage you can save to be put into a retirement or savings vehicle, be it a 401k, Roth IRA, or a savings account,” says Somers. “Another thing I always suggest is a separate periodic savings account for things like holidays, the annual house insurance and taxes. It’s easy to forget about them unless they are just on your doorstep, so being prepared really helps.”

Do an annual money cleanse. Camerer advises taking a day, at least once a year, to closely examine the auto-debits on your credit card bills through a magnifying glass and trimming expenses you might’ve forgotten about or don’t need any more. “You may notice monthly subscriptions that are wants, not needs. People are more adaptive than they might think about making do on a little less,” he says.

Curb time spent at the mall time and watching lifestyle TV. Sure, the lavish lives of the Real Housewives may be the ultimate guilty pleasure, but they can also tempt you into wanting luxury items that are above your means. The same goes for doing the “mall shuffle,” says Somers. “The longer people spend shopping, the more likely they are to start spending unconsciously. You get tired and your decision-making abilities kind of fade over time. You just start picking stuff up because it’s there and buying it,” she says.