Someone else already mentioned this, but I save a ton of money every year by driving a POS. My car, which I do still love, is fifteen years old, 168,000 miles and still going strong, and I paid cash for it five years ago. I do all my own work on it when necessary, change my own oil - which drives all my snooty condo neighbors nuts, so I enjoy it even more - basically spend nothing on it other than elbow grease and sweat. I save on my tag every year as the car is valued at $700 and so I am charged the minium, and my insurance is also really cheap even though I cary a good amount of coverage. Compared to the average citizen, I probably save around $6000 every year just doing that, and my car gets me to work and the range just fine, and it's not even ugly, really.
The savings account is also an excellent move.
http://www.ingdirect.com is an excellent place for anyone who does not already have a savings account. They'll give you $5 or $10 just for opening one, have NO fees, the highest rates for a savings account, do transfers between your existing checking account, and can do automatic transfers. Time that with your paycheck and you'll never miss the money and you'll be surprised how fast it adds up. I've been a customer of theirs for a couple of years now, and am very happy with them. Don't loan Uncle Sam any of your hard earned money for a year without interest by witholding too much tax. That's just silly.
As for the GF and marriage, you can always add some sort of firearm provision into a pre-nup. That's at the least. I got lucky and found a really good one who enjoys shooting with me. She asked her dad for a shotgun last Christmas and got one. Her favorite gun is my M1 Garand. Now any chick who's cute and LIKES to shoot, let alone a 30-06, is a keeper in my book. I'll still have the firearm provision in the pre-nup, though.