Can’t comfortably pay bills and day-to-day expenses? Constantly scrounging around for coins to pay for your food delivery?

If so, here’s some coaching tips to get your financial fitness program started - one step at a time (multitasking is for superheroes):

Step 1: Track your spend

Knowing how the money you earn is spent each day and on bills like electricity, can show you where you might be leaking money.

Use our Expense Tracker (accessed when you log in). Link your main bank account (the one that receives your salary and refunds) and it'll monitor where your money is coming from and going to.

Alternatively, download ASICs Budget planner.

Step 2: Create a budget

A budget is a reality check on your financial situation that helps you work out what money you have to buy groceries, pay the bills and how much you have to play with.

Once you’ve got a record of your spending you can see where cut backs on ‘nice to haves’ could be made.

Once you've linked with our Expense Tracker, you'll know what your essential versus discretionary spends are (ie must pay versus nice to have - like a thirty third pair of shoes)

Step 3: Eyes on the prize

Because some bills are paid each quarter, track your spend and watch your budget for at least 3 months. Feeling confident you’ve got a handle on where your money’s going?

If so, move to step 4. If not, keep watching that Budget.

Step 4: Pay off more debt

It’s time to eliminate lifestyle debt – and keep it down. Lifestyle debt relates to money you’ve borrowed to pay for things like shoes or a holiday by using credit cards and personal loans.

You pay interest on that borrowed money if the loan isn’t repaid in full each month – and that’s only if you’ve got a good credit card. Those shoes you really had to have end up costing you more.

Your aim: use spare change in your Budget to pay it down more quickly. Map yourself a repayment plan in the Debt plan.

Step 5: Reward yourself

If making extra repayments on your lifestyle debt leaves you with spare change, use it on yourself now and then – you deserve it!

You done? Get back to eliminating that debt!