Stop eating in expensive outlets, don’t hit the pubs every weekend, work on a side job, hold back when shopping, travel in public transport, stop buying anything expensive—these are some very common ways to reduce your personal expense. However, doing these is easier said than done. After all, years-formed habits of Ubering rides and McDonalding meals won’t wear off that easily, would it?

Implementing all these drastic steps would be extremely hard, which will eventually turn all efforts in reducing your personal expense to failure.

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Remember how your impatience to “get in shape” at the beginning of every year eventually ends up you stuffing hamburgers in December? Your impatience and any radical move here would have the same failing reward.

So, if you’re really serious about curbing your personal expenses and improve savings, you must be strategic in your approach. The efforts must begin with small steps and must move forward to replace the old habits with the new ones. Meaning to say, the change you’re looking for in your finances will really take about 12 months, give or take, to happen. Don’t expect a drastic improvement in immediate span.

The first step here is to identify where you’re spending your money unnecessarily. And the second step is identifying where your spending is legitimate but if you make adjustments, you can really find cheaper alternatives. Once you have classified your expenses under these two separate heads, move to focus on the first one first because they are really easier to get rid of.

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Your second task is to divide your personal expenses in the first head into 3 different subheads: travel/transport, eating,and shopping. Then look at into each of these 3 subheads and find where, how and when you’re unnecessarily spending your money in these departments. Write them down on a piece of paper. And then, from the next day, start to cut back on some of these unnecessary expenses. Again, move about very slowly. Don’t rush. Else you will only end up being frustrated.

For example, if you take Uber to your office every day, start taking public transport on alternate days. If you go out to eaton breaks, start carrying home food every Tuesday and Friday.

Once you’re getting used to such small changes, start expanding to incorporate them into your daily lifestyle. Again, it will take time. So, you’ve got to have a lot of patience and be persistent in your efforts.

In about 4-6 months from now, you will find cutting back on your personal expenses in transport, eating and shopping would literally change your finance completely upside down. Your savings will grow… and so will your motivation to continue and save more.

Once, you have successfully marked the first phase in this effort, move to the second phase. This second phase includes focusing on the second head that you created above—that is, cutting on expenses that you think are important. This will be tough and will certainly test your comfort zone. So, you’ve got to work hard here! The focus should be on moving to cheaper alternatives.

For example, if you’re taking shared cabs or auto rickshaw, try to move to public buses, which are very cheap. If you’re shopping at Levi’s, Adidas and Woodland, shift to cheaper clothes and accessories outlets. If you’re eating in Pizza Hut and KFC, root for your local eateries. If you are spending 20K for a friend’ wedding function, rent the dress...

Again, making such changes in the second phase will be difficult because you believe these expenses are important and legit. Cutting back on them or switching to cheaper options won’t be easy! So, you’ve got to work and be extremely consistent in your efforts.

In about the next 6 months, you will see all your efforts in the second phase delivering you even more rewards. And in a total of 12 months, you will have almost all of your expense cut in 10 percent, if not ZERO.

This strategic approach, which includes giving yourself enough time and being patient, will reduce your personal expense. Sadly, so many people, instead of being strategic, opt for drastic measures. And they never succeed in fixing their finances. You decided which path you want to take