Try to keep track of your monthly expenditures for about 2 months. Then divide out how much of that spending was unnecessary like extra trips to the store to grab something that costs less than $5 but you left with over $60 worth of items. Add up how much money you spend at 7-11 each morning to grab a soda or a cup of coffee. Here's a surprising number, if you purchase a soda from 7-11 for $1.26 each day while you are work, you will spend about $26 a month just for daily sodas. If you have to have your Coke or Pepsi, consider buying them in a case from Sam's Club for $8 instead, this is a big savings over the vending machine.

How about the expenditures to do your laundry? Do you send your shirts out to the dry cleaners? One shirt will cost you at least $1.50 and a pair of pants is about $3.99. One single laundry bill can easily be over $35 a month. If you purchase an iron and some starch, you can do your dry cleaning at home and safe yourself a ton of money.

When you have the list of expenditures, it will be much easier to look for ways to start cutting them. There are 2 main types of monthly expenditures: fixed and variable. The fixed expenditures include your rent or mortgage, car payments, and personal loans like student loans. The variable expenditures are your expenses that you need to cut back on or that you can cut out entirely. Groceries, cable bills, dining expenses, entertainment, clothing, and utilities are your variable expenses.

To control spending, put yourself on a cash-only spending budget. When you only have $40 to spend at the grocery store, it will be much easier to stick to your list than it is when you have access to a credit or debit card. Instead of stopping at McDonald's for a burger and fries, you can get a whole loaf of bread and a gallon on milk for the same price. These foods can serve more than one meal, which is a huge savings over fast-food. Of course, you will need to buy some other foods too so you can make a complete meal, bread and milk alone probably won't do it for you! If you keep a list of your shopping expenses, you will start to see that you will save $300 or more a month just by sticking to the list.

Here is a simple way to cut your utility bill, raise your thermostat by 2 degrees or lower it by 2 degrees in the winter. You will cut your heating or air conditioning bill by 10 percent, which is a huge savings especially if you have a pretty big house. There are probably some unnecessary things you can cut from your life like your cable television service or your cell phone. These things weren't always around and you will be able to survive without them.