Tracey Baker: If you're spending more than your earning there are two ways to get yourself back in the black. You either must increase your income to cover your expenses or you must trim your spending to bring it in line with your income. There are four important steps you can take to save money. The first step is cut out avoidable expenses. Eliminating unnecessary services is an easy way to save money. For example, you can eliminate telephone and cable extras, a credit monitoring service, late fees or over-limit fees and bank charges.

Once you've cut out avoidable expenses, the next step is to reduce variable spending. Stop depleting by cutting back on your spending. Simple steps like shopping at sales, carpooling, and turning down the thermostat can save you money. The third step is to plan for lower fixed cost. If you plan ahead, you can save money on your housing cost, utility bills, loans and insurance. The last step is to learn to make those hard decisions. There are number of fairly simple ways you can rein in your overall spending such as leaving your credit cards at home or finding impulse-buying. By thinking about it, you're telling yourself now, every so often you can save money. Remember, by managing your cashflow more efficiently and being really tough on yourself when necessary, you'll be able to save for the future, and improve your quality of life.