COMMENT
Find Out Where Your Money Goes

Unless you've always been a whiz with money, you've probably been there at some point. It's a few days until pay-day, you're living off the leftovers in the fridge and writing cheques that you pray won't be cashed until after you've been paid. Where on earth did your salary go?

If you think it's time to find out, then, just for a month, make a written note of everything you spend. If you're handy with a spreadsheet, all the better.

It's an absolute pain having to write down every single penny you spend on a day-to-day basis and it may seem a bit pointless when it's only 50p for a newspaper. But that's the whole point of the exercise!

People trying to get out of debt on our Dealing with Debt discussion board have found that keeping a diary is a very effective way of helping them to reign in their spending. Somehow, it seems to bring home the true value of money when you've got a piece of paper in front of you telling you where your entire salary for the month went.

You'll probably be surprised to find that you spend a fair bit on the small things. Sandwiches and Starbucks coffee, spur-of-the-moment pub lunches, impulse buys and frequent trips to the corner shop for drinks and nibbles on the way home from work – it all mounts up.

One girl I know was horrified to find she'd spent just over £76 on such things in the space of a week. And yet she was struggling to find the £150 a month she needed to pay off a £3,000 loan!

If you're struggling too then start with the spending diary, check out these tips to get out of debt and use these ideas to save money.

Find out how to Get Out Of Debt.