1. Start tracking your spending.

“What gets measured, gets managed.” – Peter Drucker

Sign yourself up to a service like Mint.com (the free version, currently only available in the US and Canada) to start tracking your spending. It auto imports data from bank accounts, including Paypal, and helps you see all you spending in one place.

You can even track things like the value of your home and car if you own these, and it will auto track how your income vs. spending.

You can even deep dive into categories of spending like your spending on food or takeaways. For example, you can set a budget and then set an alert for when you have gone over that budget that will be sent to either your email or phone.

2. Spend on your cards so you can track your spending.

Related to (1), stop spending cash. If you spend on your cards, it’s easier to track your spending. If you’re going to spend some cash then take the same amount out each time so it’s easier to track.

Spending cash can be useful if there is only one category of spending that is a problem for you and you use your card to pay for all other transactions. For example,

3. Find out if you can get any refunds on prepaid insurances etc

For example, if you’ve paid your autoinsurance in full for the year, then you’ll likely be able to get a refund for the unused portion when you sell your car.

If you had to pay any deposits when you signed up for utilities, you should be able to get those refunded. If you’re in the UK, you could also get part of your TV license fee refunded if you have more than 3 calendar months left on your current license and won’t be using it. You can even get this refund if you’re deciding to ditch your TV but aren’t necessarily moving yet. Sometimes you can get refunds backdated if you’ve forgotten to do this, such as if you forget to cancel your insurance when you sell your car.

Since you may not have an address in the country after you leave, you’ll need to find a solution for getting these refunds.

4. Cancelling services you don’t need.

You may be able to cancel some services before you leave. For example, cancel your gym membership a few weeks before you go. Since you may have to give notice of cancellation, this can be useful. It can also help you avoid paying a full month of fees when you might only be in town for a week out of that last month. You’re probably going to be too busy to go to the gym just before you go away anyway. Likewise with cancelling your TV license a few weeks early to avoid paying for extra time you’re not using (yes, I realize people outside the UK will have no idea what I’m banging on about regarding TV licenses).

Photo Credit: mroach under Creative Commons license