When people start looking at their expenses in hopes of finding ways to reduce them, many are guilty of focusing on the large expenses that have the biggest impact on our overall finances. Those big-ticket expenses will make the biggest impact, it’s true, but we shouldn’t overlook the many small expenses that when added together, have a significant impact on your financial situation, as well.

If you’re finding it tough to make ends meet in this economy, have lost your job or taken a pay cut – it’s time to get serious about creating a budget and sticking to it. Everyone is forced to make some tough decisions regarding their finances in order to ride out this economic downturn – here are several tips for staying on budget to help you weather out the storm:

Have you ever made a bill payment late simply because you were busy and forgot it was due? You had the money available to pay it, but you lost track of time and by the time you sat down to pay your bills you realized one of your credit cards or loan repayments was already a couple days late? Most creditors offer automatic payments, and for those that don’t – many bank checking accounts make it possible to set up bill payments automatically. It’s a double-edged sword for consumers – while you don’t have to remember to make the manually make the payments, you do have to keep track of the outgoing money and ensure you always have enough money available to make the payments.

Everywhere you turn, people are talking about all the different ways they’re cutting back their expenses and preparing for a potential job loss due to the shaky economy. You’ve heard the saying, “you get what you pay for”? Even when we are all focused on cutting back unnecessary expenses and reducing our living expenses to help our income stretch a little further, there are a number of things which are worth paying for. Each small financial effort makes a difference to the big picture.

Without goals, you have nothing to work for. The same applies for making and maintaining a proper budget. If you don’t set yourself up with guidelines and goals, you won’t know if you’re moving in the right direction or not. You’ll never know if you’ve achieved what you set out to achieve if you don’t have clearly defined financial goals. Budgeting is one building block to help you keep your spending under control and to build up a savings account that you must have to avoid borrowing money or using expensive credit cards.

Sometimes the answers we seek are as plain as the nose on our faces but it is often the simplest things that are the most overlooked when it comes to self-help. As many families continue to look for ways to save money, few will consider the more simplistic debt tips, which actually work the best.