10 ways to spring clean your household finances

Cash Planning is the key to making your household budget work and the start of the year is an ideal time to take stock and look at how much you're paying out and to whom

That way, if you decide to redecorate or have building work done, you'll be able to find the most affordable way and the best time to do it. The more time you spend sorting your finances, the less energy you'll spend worrying about them. Here are 10 ways to help you get started.

Reproduced from the January 07 issue of Good Homes magazine, on sale now. Subscribe now and save 40 per cent.

Money-saving expert Martin Lewis is an ultra-specialised financial journalist and a regular expert on BBC One's The One Show and Radio 2 Vine. In 2004 Martin created www.moneysavingexpert.com, dedicated to taking companies on and finding the best deals

5 ways to organise your finances

Do a financial fact sheet
This is a crucial family-finance tool - if you don't have one, you should create one. Make a list of all your regular financial and household expenses, and the details that go with them - but don't include account numbers, in case the list gets lost.

Write down all your insurance policies, utility providers, bank accounts, saving accounts, credit cards and investments, along with contact phone numbers. This means that if you or your partner goes away for any length of time, or one of you is in an accident, confusion over how to run the household won't be a problem. Also, if you get cold-called by a utility company, you'll be able to quickly check your list to see whether it is in fact your provider.
Slow-burn money saving
While I'm always enthusiastic about getting the best deals, not everyone is willing or able to put aside a day or two to do a financial blitz. My solution is the slow burn - this simply means that every time you get a bill or sort something out for the house, ask yourself whether you could get it cheaper elsewhere, then spend 10 to 15 minutes finding out.

By this, I mean search the internet or look at the Sunday papers to compare rates on credit cards or savings accounts, or call around to get a new insurance or utilities quote. Do this regularly and by the end of the year you'll have given yourself a money makeover.
Plan your budget
Write down how much money is coming in and going out each month. Be totally honest about how much you're spending - you might find bank statements from the last couple of months useful for this. Then subtract your expenditure from your income and work out how much you've got left. For an easy way to do this, try using the free, detailed Budget Planner tool at www.moneysavingexpert.com.
Take companies on with a money calendar
Look at your calendar - it's probably got important dates marked, like birthdays and appointments. You need to add some 'money dates' too. We live in a world of short-term offers, from 0% credit cards to half-price TVs for six months. Make a record on your calendar about two weeks before any special offer ends or a contract needs to be renewed. Give yourself research time to decide whether you want to stay with the same service provider. You could also use the Tart Alert tool on my website to arrange to be sent a reminder email or text message.
Count down to Christmas
Now is the perfect time to prepare for Christmas - yes, I mean Christmas 2007. If you need wrapping paper, a tree, decorations or special china, this is the time to take advantage of the sales and stock up. The British Retail Consortium estimates that the average family spends £600 on Christmas, with most of us finding that money from within our December budget. It would be far better to put £50 away each month in a kitty or high-interest.

Five great everyday money-saving tips

Make overseas calls for free
Voice Over Internet Protocol is not a very catchy name, but if you call people overseas, you could make your calls for free. You need to have a computer and internet access, and so does the person you're calling. You both need to download some free software, from Skype or MSN Messenger or Yahoo for instance, connect a headset and microphone to the computer and start to speak.

It really is that easy and you only pay normal internet charges. One warning though, companies will often try to suck you in with the free computer-to-computer service and then try to flog you what look like cheap calls from your computer to normal phones overseas, too. Don't bother with this - it's actually cheaper to call another phone from your phone using a normal, cheap overseas phone-call provider.

Don't over-insure your building
One mistake many people make is to over-insure their home. The crucial thing is not to cover the market value of your home, but instead the rebuild value - the amount it'd cost to build it from scratch - which is usually less. The Association of British Insurers (www.abi.org.uk) has an online calculator to help you with this. Simply call your insurer quoting the new value and it should massively cut your costs.
Get a grant to be an energy saver
There are scores of Government and Local Authority grants available to ensure you increase the energy efficiency of your home. This can include having a new condenser boiler paid for, and can be worth thousands of pounds. To find out what's available, the Energy Savings Trust has a great search facility on its website www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
Recycle unused mobiles for cash
There are more than 90 million old and unused mobile phones in the UK, and those that are thrown away are a threat to the environment. Nowadays there are companies that will ask for your mobile make and model and then tell you its cash value. If you agree to sell it, you'll receive a jiffy bag for you to send it to them. You could receive as much as £100. For a full list of companies that do this, visit my website.
Cut existing credit-card debt
If you have debts on your credit card and you're paying the standard interest rate for them, then you need a balance transfer. This means you get a new credit card that pays off your debts on your old credit card for you. You will then owe the new credit card the money, hopefully at a cheaper, special-offer rate. You'll pay much less in interest, and a greater proportion of your payment.