Save carefully, reducing irresponsibly made purchases initially (6)
I believe the answer is:
scrimp
'save' is the definition.
(scrimping is a kind of saving)
'carefully reducing irresponsibly made purchases initially' is the wordplay.
'carefully' becomes 'sc' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
The first letters of 'reducing irresponsibly made purchases' is 'rimp'.
'sc'+'rimp'='SCRIMP'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scrimp that I've seen before include "Use or do less than is needed, be mean" , "Economise, be thrifty" , "Live meagrely" , "Be frugal and sparing" , "Be niggardly" .)