Saving money can begin by taking little steps to control unnecessary spending. One of the problems that arises when attempting to control unnecessary spending is that we are not always aware of how much money we actually spend. There are a few things that can be done in order to get a handle on unnecessary spending in order to save money.

1. Set up a monthly budget

We have all been told this at one point in time or another - budget your money. In general, we all know the basic things that need to be in our budget - rent or mortgage, utilities, credit card payments, car payments, insurance payments, gas money, food expenses, clothing allowance, savings allowance and an entertainment or miscellaneous allowance are just some of the major budgeting areas. When setting up a monthly budget, however, many of us simply are not as detailed as possible and at the end of the month we spend more money than our budget actually allows, usually in the form of credit card expense, which costs us more money in the long run with interest rates.

While some areas of our budget are already predetermined, other areas can be micro-managed. These areas include our food expenses and our entertainment and miscellaneous expenses. Many times we don't realize just how much we spend on food or other expenses because we don't take the time to save those receipts and calculate just how much we spend. This is a mistake because without doing so, we cannot see just how much we might be spending unnecessarily.

2. Get Rid of Unnecessary Spending

To get rid of unnecessary spending and start saving more money, take a month and collect the receipts for everything you spend money on, even if it's as small as a candy bar. Create a spreadsheet that lists each item you spent money on, how much you spent and why you spent that money. Then go through and decide whether that expense was necessary or unnecessary.

Deciding what is necessary and unnecessary can be a difficult task. The way I go about making this decision is based on whether I can change some of my habitual spending in order to save money. For instance, looking back at how much money I spent on food, I realized that I had spent a total of $105 on breakfast last month. Why? Because rather than eat breakfast at home, I decided that it was easier to stop in at some drive-thru and pick up breakfast. Had I made the same breakfast at home everyday, I would have saved approximately $65. This was just my savings on breakfast alone, when I did the same thing for lunch and dinner, I realized that by changing my habits I could have saved about $300 on my food expenses alone. When I applied the same calculations on my coffee drinking habits, which is not as great an expenditure for me as it is for others, I realized that I could save an additional $50 a month.

This technique may seem like a nickel and dime way to save money, but it adds up. Saving $350 a month just by little changes will end up saving $4200 over the course of the year.

While getting rid of unnecessary expenses takes a little time, effort and commitment to changing habits that contribute to increasing the amount of money you spend every month, the outcome is a saving a significant amount of money over time.