by Jan Beukes

Created on: October 25, 2009   Last Updated: November 17, 2009

In this current financial climate, it is important to revisit our budget and check on expenditure. Ideally, we should review our budget at least quarterly, but preferably monthly when things are tight. This helps to check for any over-spending which may be accumulating on our accounts.

Presuming then that a budget has been put in place and that there is a regular monthly over-spend which needs attention, here are seven ways that could help in reducing expenditure:

1. Once you have entered all the income and expenditure up to date, look at the balance over the last quarter and divide this by three to get an average of the over-spend. For example, one month you may have gone over by 100, the next month 150, and the next month 50. This will mean you go over on average about 100 per month. If this was allowed to continue over several months, it could begin to lead into financial difficulties.

2. Next, if you have credit or store cards, review how you have been handling these and getting the balances paid off. If you have only been paying the minimum payments, or just a little above minimum payments, consider consolidating and moving the balance/balances to a 0% credit card for as long a term as possible, i.e. 18 months to 2 years. This will reduce the amount of interest which is pouring out of your finances each month. Work out how much you would need to pay each month to pay off the balance before the 0% offer finishes and try to stick to this amount.

3. Now look at your income and expenditure average balance again. Include the amount you have decided to pay off on any credit or store cards and decide how much pulling back you need to do on your spending.

4. Sort your expenditure out into order of importance with essentials at the top such as mortgage payments and household utilities. First look at these essentials. Have you got the best mortgage deal, are you able to move this to a better deal? The utilities - could you turn your heating down just a couple of degrees? Can you close off heating in rooms which you are not using? One winter when things were financially hard, we bought a warm throw which we snuggled under during the evenings watching TV rather than upping the heating. Are you turning off lights when not in use? If you really start to look and review all these costs, you may find there are areas for improvement.

5. Get wise with grocery shopping. I know someone who has to live on an extremely low budget and goes to the supermarket towards the end

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