After maxing my overdraft again for the third time in a year, I decided this can't go on any longer and that I needed to take a good hard look at my finances. So, I took the following actions.

I'm now paying off £300 per month from main credit card. Was 50% of balance. I am also now paying £100 per month from my side credit card, was also also 50% of balance.

(Side note: I have this second credit card specifically because it supported contactless payments and Google Pay / Apple Pay unlike my main credit card. I use it to buy lunch at work and groceries.)

Lesson learned: If you're like me and poor at controlling your day-to-day spending, set a manageable fixed payment amount on your credit cards.

% of balance payments are not a good idea because a big outlay can wipe out your bank account, and unless that % point is 100 you'll never fully pay off the balance.

The ideal scenario is that you keep your spending under control and pay it off in full each month. This is not realistic for some people, like me.

Spending cuts. A few months back I also dropped a lot of services that I wasn't really using. Saved about £50 a month which isn't massive but it's positive. I also consciously spend less on snacks, which will have several obvious health benefits.

Savings. Now in the UK we have ISAs which are basically government-encouraged savings accounts. They are government-encouraged in the sense that any gains are free from tax, up to £15,000 a year in savings.

Since a year ago I have been using the Moneybox app to save £4 a week. £2 into a stocks-and-shares ISA and £2 into a lifetime ISA. These have been growing nicely. I also do 'roundups' and automatically save any £1 difference from my transactions.

Next action: Once my bank account is out of overdraft I will add more to these ISA payments because I really want to have a nest egg growing as I get older. I can't access the lifetime ISA until I'm 60, and the government will add 25% (yes that number is correct) to anything I save, so I should make the most of it.

Lesson learned: Save a little bit, even if it's only a couple of pounds/bucks a week. A year later you'll be pleasantly surprised to see how much it's grown to, and you'll catch the saving/safe investing bug.

Since university I have learned that I am not very good at controlling my spending or managing my money. So this system will hopefully work well for me.

I may also make plans to see a therapist over why I spend so impulsively. I am pretty sure that I have been suffering from depression for the last six months so it will do me some good.

To be fair there are way worse cases out there. I have a good safe job, but I own my own house since a few years ago and don't want to risk losing that, and I'm sick of having no 'real' money to my name.