It's virtually impossible to save in this economy, since the entire system discourages intelligent saving, and promotes braindead consumerism. All this shopping freak women in the mall or these braindead people who stomp on eachother when a new supermarket opens.
And of course all of this is done via credit cards which borrow money from the future generations to pay for the idiocracy of the current one.
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Side issue aside, the only way to save is to not invest in the current economy (which will fall anyway soon), and invest in the new economy.
So: Gold, Bitcoin, Litecoin, other cryptos (though beware of non-fixed supply cryptos, and dollar pegged cryptos like Bitshare which are snake oil in my opinion), and perhaps farmland & ammunition.
Also inside bitcoin there are investments too. So if you invest like 30% of your portfolio in bitcoin, you can further invest into honest investment mechanism inside bitcoin with small risk like long term loans and such, which if the price of BTC goes up you win 2 times.
It's not impossible to save in this economy; although the average person is discouraged from doing so with low interest rates and the culture of consumerism like you mentioned, to constantly update or upgrade products.
I would say gold/silver and cryptocurrencies are good to hold as a safety net, in the event of a currency collapse/hyperinflation, but shouldn't be the only investment. At the end of the day, the monetary expansion of currency flows through Wallstreet and the stock market.
A couple years ago I started buying physical precious metals and although I'm glad I own it, it's not my primary investment for returns. If it was, it wouldn't be a good one.
I think fiat currency is a joke, but the majority of people don't think that, so the game keeps going.