If you have never been one for counting the pennies or keeping an eye on your credit card statements then you are not in control of your finances.
Although filing the credit card receipts and doing a car insurance study every time you want to renew your car insurance may not seem the most glamorous of tasks in the world, they have to be done and if you are not watching the pennies then chances are you are losing money along the way.
Always keep your credit card receipt and bank statements and have a clear idea of what goes in and what goes out – hopefully what comes in each month is more than what goes out, or you will be facing an even bigger problem.
If you are IT minded, invest in a simple piece of software which will allow you to track and organise your finances on the computer. Most have features which enable you to download your bank statements and credit card bills automatically so the task in hand is not as bad as you might think.
Alternatively keep a track of your incomings and outgoings on a spreadsheet, although this is not quite as effective unless you are a real whizz. The benefit of controlling your finances this way is that you can see exactly what happens in any one period and what you are spending your money on.
