Spend some time with your partner going over what you have spent in the past month. Look at bank statements, credit cards, bills, etc. and add up the total amount of money you have spent and look at where you have spent it.
One step would be to look more closely at your monthly bills. Is there a way that you can cut back on monthly bill expenses? Look at your phone and cable bill, can you cut out channels that you're not watching, can you cancel a feature on your phone that you don't really care too much about, like call display? How much money would that add up to per month in savings? This could easily add up to $15 in savings per month.
If you and your partner both have cell phones, do you really need two? Is there a way that you could share a cell phone? Depending on the plan that you have, you could easily save $50 to $60 per month if you decided to cancel a cell phone. Or if you both have cell phones, do you really need a home land line? Technology is great, however it has greatly increased our monthly expenses.
After looking at what you've spent in the month, how much are you spending on "stuff"? Do you have a "spending allowance" per week or biweekly in your budget? Try to look at the overall amount of cash spent, and purchases on "stuff" (i.e. entertainment, clothes, coffee, DVD's, etc.). Figure out how much money you can actually use for "spending" and put this in your monthly budget. Divide that amount into either biweekly or a weekly sum and use that as your allowance. This way you know every week or every two weeks how much money you have to blow on anything you want. Once your allowance is gone, it's gone. It's a hard thing to do at first and takes planning but atleast it can help prevent monthly overspending.
How else could you cut back on monthly expenses? Try to figure out ways you could cut back on expenses in your home.
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