After the rush and expense of the summer holidays, it’s natural to feel a bit anxious about money.

It’s easy for spending to creep up during this time, with holidays, days out, social events and treats all adding to the bill. Along with that, it’s common to save less and rely more heavily on credit cards during this busy period.

We spoke to Jennifer Crichton, associate planning director at Killik & Co, about why the end of summer is the ideal time for a financial reset, and the practical steps you can take to get your money back on track.

Address any short-term debt

Make tackling any short-term high-interest debt an immediate priority.

“When looking at your finances after the summer holidays, I would recommend thinking about any short-term debt that has built up first,” advises Crichton.

She notes that lots of people put big purchases like flights on credit cards during the summer break which can lead to high-interest charges if you do not pay the balance off right away.

“Think about how to either get rid of that debt or get a plan in place to get it down as quickly as possible,” recommends Crichton.

Sort out your emergency reserve

“Once you have looked at your debt position, make sure that you’ve sorted your emergency cash reserve,” advises Crichton. “For this, we would recommend a minimum of three months of essential expenditure, if that’s possible.”

Having that emergency cash fund will help lower stress as knowing you have money saved for sudden bills prevents panic.

“When you’ve got that emergency fund as a back-up, it’s nice to know that you wouldn’t be living month to month if something did unfortunately happen to your more stable income,” says Crichton.

Review any spending

Looking back at your summer spending can sometimes be helpful.

“See what different areas your money has been spent on and if that aligns with what you want to achieve,” recommends Crichton.

“It might provide a little bit of encouragement to learn and find out that you could have probably saved X, Y, and Z in certain areas and could have got some of your money working harder for you.”

Reset your budget

“Do a bit of a budget reset and take stock of where everything is going,” recommends Crichton.

“People often think of budgets as restrictive, whereas I would encourage people to think of a budget as knowing where everything is going.”

If you have never made a budget before, there are lots of apps that can help.

“Some bank accounts will show you where all your expenses are going, will help you set a budget and will help categorise all your spending,” says Crichton.

“Alternatively, you could just set up a Excel spreadsheet that contains all your different categories of spending.”

Identify areas where you could cut costs

“Take a bit of time and see if you can get a better deal on things like utilities or or subscriptions and see if you can switch to a cheaper provider,” recommends Crichton.

Consider switching banks

“Keep an eye on the amount of interest that your bank accounts are getting,” recommends Crichton.

Tidy up old pensions

The end of summer and the start of a new school year is the perfect time to tackle any pension admin.

“See if you need to tidy up any old pensions that you’ve left at previous employers,” recommends Crichton.

“You might have various small workplace pensions that you might want to look at consolidating. Make sure that your pensions are working hard for you, rather than forgetting about them.”

**Review ISAs **

September is a great time to review ISAs because it marks the start of the autumn financial planning season, roughly midway through the UK tax year.

“When we’re moving into September, it’s only seven months until the end of the tax year, so if you want to do things like put money in ISAs, it’s a good time to do this,” says Crichton.

“If you put this off until Christmas or January, then you might not have the time to utilise your ISA.”

Think about longer-term goals

“Think about what longer-term objectives you want to be achieving – whether that’s retirement or saving for a property purchase,” advises Crichton.

“The earlier you start saving a little bit every month or start investing that appropriately for the goals you have in mind, the greater the compounding return will be. Make sure that your money is put into a pot that is working hard towards your goals.”