If you’d like to improve your finances, it could help to look at the bigger picture and create a budget showing all of your incoming and outgoing finance.

Find the budget planner that works for you:

• MoneyHelper
• Citizens Advice
• PayPlan - excel spreadsheet and printable planner available

Once you’ve made a budget, you can prioritise your important bills or debts and spot where you could make your savings.

Even if you’re not facing financial difficulties, we’ve listed some of the things that could help you save.

Top tips

• Review subscriptions on a regular basis to see if you could get a better deal on your TV, broadband, mobile or energy bill before the end of your contract.
• Set up automatic payments to avoid potential late fees.
• If you drive, try walking or cycling more. As well as saving you money, it could help you get healthier without a gym membership.
• When you get unexpected cash, try to do one thing with it that saves money in the long run.

Food and drink

• If you enjoy a coffee, check out each store’s loyalty scheme. You can sometimes get bonus points from bringing a reusable cup, earning you a free drink faster.
• Try your local market instead of the supermarket, if they’ve got reduced overheads you could save more money.
• If you do go to the supermarket, try only going once a week to help avoid buying more. Buy own-brand food and go around 7pm to purchase reduced-to-clear items that could be frozen to eat later. It may also help to make a list before you go to keep you from buying items on impulse.
• Create a meal planner to avoid food waste.
• Try growing your own vegetables. As meat is more expensive, you could experiment with a variety of vegetarian meals you enjoy too.
• Prepare lunch before work instead of going out to eat.

Leisure

• Book your holidays in advance and shop around to find the best price.
• You could buy clothing, jewellery, or home decor second-hand - and it helps to recycle.
• Before you buy something, try checking for vouchers first.
• Explore free resources such as museums or borrow books from your local library instead of buying them.

Energy

• Turning down your thermostat by just one degree could make a big difference to the amount of energy you use and could cut your heating bills by up to 10%.
• Replacing normal lightbulbs with LED alternatives could help you make unexpected savings. A traditional 60 watt light bulb left on for 10 hours a day can add up to £25 a year to your electricity, but an LED bulb, which only uses 15% of the energy, will consume just £4 of electricity.
• Unplugging or switching off televisions, computers and video games consoles at the power switch when not in use could save you up to £70 a year.
• Consider taking a shower instead of a bath. A bath uses around 90 litres of water, 60 litres or so of hot water and 30 litres of cold water, whereas a 10-minute shower typically only uses six litres of hot water and three litres of cold water.
• Washing clothes at a lower temperature could save you up to £40 a year. Modern washing machines can clean clothes effectively at lower temperatures and turning down the dial could help you get three cycles instead of two using the same amount of energy.
• Asking your energy supplier to install a smart meter will show you exactly how much energy your appliances are using and help you gauge the overall energy consumption of your home.