It goes without saying that – no matter what else is going on in the world – staying on top of your finances is a non-negotiable part of “adulting”. Keeping a budget is one of those chores that can be frustrating and granular to begin with but, with time, it becomes largely second nature. However, smart financial management goes beyond the budget, and is something that you live rather than something you do.

Your personal finances are essentially a living, breathing thing. Thanks to innovations such as online banking and apps, your balances and purchases are updated as they happen. A majority of people don’t receive a statement nor a paper bill for their credit card at the end of a month; these days, it’s easier and greener to keep an eye on those records online.

So across a given month, it is certainly worth sitting and going through a budget, but keeping an eye on your finances is more a collection of habits; below, we will go through some of the most important things that you can do to stay in control of what debt you have.

Check All Online Purchases at Both Ends of the Transaction

If you are a frequent online shopper, then you’ll be familiar with the process of clicking, confirming, and then receiving which makes modern shopping feel almost too easy. And sometimes, it does make the budget harder to stick to. To keep a keen eye on what you are spending, note down the cost of every transaction, and check it off against the account that you have used to pay. Then, when you are checking the state of your finances, you can be sure that you are dealing with the most up-to-date figures. If the latest transaction isn’t showing on your account, manually subtract it from your current balance.

Reality-Check Your Outgoings

Part of budgeting is deciding which subscriptions are worth paying for, and canceling the ones that don’t make the cut. Monthly payments allow you to forget for 30 days that you are paying for the films you watch or the songs you listen to, but the payments still exist. However, you can also find ways to cut other outgoing amounts, with the likes of Debt to Success System offering the chance to remove existing debt that has been hanging over you. Budgeting doesn’t need to be all about your cash reserves being depleted!

Take Advantage of Every Offer Going

Thrifty shoppers are often portrayed as somewhat eccentric individuals, with lines of shoppers standing behind them rolling their eyes as the coupons come out. And sure, taking advantage of an offer to get a few cents off a hundred-dollar shopping trip might be extreme. The truth of the matter, though, is that if you partake of every offer that is presented to you, you can make huge dents in shopping bills. What you do with that saving is up to you. You can donate it, bank it, or use it to build up a stockpile. What you should not do is ignore it – saving money means you have more money to go around; who wouldn’t want that?

When you start to live a financially thrifty life, you’ll begin to see everywhere new ways to save some money. The better you become at saving, the further your dollar will go.