1. Track your spending. Take the time to keep note of your spending habits for one whole week. Take note of every dollar you spend coffees, train tickets, everything. This will allow you to see where your money is going, and where you might be able to change your spending habits to save more money.

2. Make a REALISTIC budget, and stick to it. If you find that you are blowing your budget regularly, track your spending for a while and find out why. The budget might be inaccurate or you are overspending somewhere. Once you know, you can adjust either the budget or your spending.

3. Lower your credit card balances and keep a limited number of cards. Pay off the balances every month if possible. If not, just pay them off as quickly as possible forget saving money until you have zero balances on your credit cards. Its pointless to earn 5% interest on savings, but be paying 18% on credit debt.

4. Use direct transfers from your bank account to put away cash into another account that you dont use for transactions. If you are paid a salary, have the transfer scheduled on the day or the day after you are paid. If youre a contractor or business owner, try committing a small percentage of each customer payment, such as 5%, into this other account. To begin with, put away a small amount that wont hurt. After a while, if you are managing to successfully run your living/operating budget without this money, then you can think about increasing the amount.

5. When thinking about making a purchase, ask yourself, Is this a want or a need? If its a want, then consider putting money away especially for this purchase, and only buy when you have saved enough. Avoid impulse buys walk out of the shop and give yourself a day to think about the purchase. If you still want it, then save!

Start your budgeting with our free budget planner. Click below to download a copy.