According to a survey conducted by Which?, around 80% of respondents were looking at ways to reduce their outgoings in the coming year.

Among the most popular were cutting back on holidays (just under 50%) while 44% said they would reduce the amount of leisure activities they were involved in which included eating out, visiting coffee bars and going to the cinema. The list goes on to state that just over a third of people will be looking to hold off on larger item purchases such as televisions and household accessories while a third would look at their utility provider to reduce their monthly outgoings.

What is particularly interesting is that a recent survey conducted by travelsupermarket.com found that the majority of people are not willing to do without an annual holiday. This suggests that for many, lifestyle factors are still very important and are not to be compromised whatever the financial situation.

So how can you cut back?

Well, it goes back to a two-fold relatively straight-forward strategy; either make your money work harder and continue to live in the same fashion, or reduce your lifestyle by cutting down on the expendable things that are costing you dearly.

Take the first option, it would certainly be worthwhile looking at your monthly outgoings to see if you are getting the best deals, particularly when it comes to things like the gas and electricity bills. It may also be worthwhile looking at the little luxuries such as the gym you go to or the coffee shop you visit. Can you get the same value elsewhere? Once you have explored all the options and find you are still not getting very far it may be time to take some hard steps to achieve your resolution. See if you can cut out things that you do often that are non-essential but costly to begin with or perhaps look for a substitute. Hopefully, these will also be the easiest things to let go off.