Give up smoking. A 20-a-day smoker will save £1800 per year - and that figure grows exponentially year-on-year as successive Goverments increase the duty at every budget. But not only will you save money on the cost of tobacco itself, you should benefit from lower premiums for life cover, critical illness cover, income protection cover and private medical insurance. For example, a 40-year-old male with a £100,000 term assurance policy with critical illness would save, on average, £65.68 a month if he gave up smoking. The same person with income protection cover for £250 level benefit a week would save a further £7.84. PMI premiums would be reduced by around 5%. To qualify for a non-smoker's rate, insurers generally ask you to be tobacco-free for 12 months - which also includes nicotine replacement therapy.

Reasons to help you quit: after 72 hours breathing improves as the lungs' absorption capacity increases; smokers who give up before age 30 reduce their risk of lung cancer nearly to that of a non-smoker; those who quit before 50 halve their risk of dying in the next 15 years. With the new ban on lighting up in public places in England since 1st July, now is the ideal time to give up. If you're caught smoking in a public place the fine is £50.

Alcohol (brought home)

Give up home drinking. As boozing is very much central to UK culture, that suggestion may intially offer little appeal. However, confining drinking to social outings can make alcohol refreshing again, and whatever you drink in its place at home will almost certainly cost less. If you've spent years enjoying regular tipples at home don't think there are years of dependency to undo. Alcohol only has a short term psychological hold - give up drinking for 3 weeks and you'll be amazed and how quickly the cravings and associations are severed. Remember that alchohol is a depressant, and can subtley affect your emotions for up to 2 days post boozing. If you enjoy a few drinks every day or every couple of days then its influence is always there. You will be suprised at how ending that regularity will have a pronounced effect in making you feel more stable, happy, and energetic. It will also affect your diet. The traditional grilled/fried UK breakfast is entwined in the drinking culture - the body craves such foods after alchohol. Cut out home drinking and you'll find your body craves healthier foods, which in turn will also have a positive impact on mind and body. Alcohol also disrupts sleep - the alcohol itself makes you lethargic the following day, but the poor quality of sleep makes the effect two-fold.

Recent figures from the Department of Health have identified 1 in 6 UK adults as having a drinking problem - some alcoholics and some young binge-drinkers, but many middle-class stay-at-home drinkers. As a final motivator to ensure you're not one of them, cutting out home boozing will give you much greater energy and clear-headedness for making and saving money. Saving on brought-home alcohol costs will in that sense be a multiplier.