Dedicated foodie Michael Farmer of Miami used to eat out nearly every night, routinely doling out $20 to $25 for an entrée four or five times a week. Then Farmer, director of Internet Services for a sports and entertainment group, noticed how much of his income was going to feed his culinary passion.

“I just recognized the amount I was spending, and realized there were other things I could do with that money,” he said.

So Farmer put himself on a financial diet.

He cut back dinners out to twice a week, and started patronizing eateries with entrée prices ranging from $15 to $20. He and his girlfriend, Jocelyne Blanc, started spending more time at the grocery store and in the kitchen, cooking. And he rediscovered the joys of takeout pizza.

“I’ve never carried a lot of debt, and I’ve always been a decent saver,” Farmer said. “But having a budget, knowing what’s coming in and where it’s going is crucial to how I do things.”

Money experts say the beginning of the year is a good time to make an honest assessment of how much you make, save and spend. Knowing where your money is going is the first step in putting your financial house in order.

“We all like the idea of making resolutions in the New Year and starting anew,” said Mari Adam, a certified financial planner with Adam Financial Associates in Boca Raton. “Most people want to do three things – save more, spend less and reduce debt.”

Here’s how to begin:

Know your starting place

“Know where you are starting from and where you want to be,” Adam said. “Most people don’t know how much they spend and how much they save.”

Take some time, find a quiet place and look at your credit card bills, to see how you spent your money last year. Is that the way you really wanted to spend? “Take your power back, stop mindless spending and decide how you want to spend this year,” said Harriet J. Brackey, a former personal finance journalist and now a financial planner with The Enrichment Group in Miami.

Master the paper

“People get so overwhelmed by the bills and paper,” Adam said. “Find a way to organize your bills, then shred the things you don’t need.”

Put your file cabinet wherever you drop the mail, to make filing easier, Brackey said. Or scan in documents so you can store them electronically. Use cloud-based storage so you have a backup. “If you have stuff on your computer and you don’t have online backup, it’s only a matter of time before you lose it,” Adam said.

Adam likes tools like Quicken or Mint.com to track expenses. Software programs allow you to track categories of spending, such as how much goes to home improvements or eating out, so if you are looking to cut spending, you know where to start, she said.

Review past expenses

Were there any unexpected expenses in 2011 that you are still paying for? Did you take a big vacation, did your car need a lot of maintenance or did your washing machine break? Now is the time to start setting a little aside to plan for 2012’s unexpected expenses, said Brackey, who has written about finance for Businessweek, USA Today and The Miami Herald, among others.

Come up with a goal for 2012 and save for that, she said. “You can be in charge of this. It’s not beyond you, no matter how troublesome it seems.”

Change your thinking

Helping people understand the psychology behind financial decisions will make them aware of why they are choosing the actions they do, said Ashley O’Kurley, a certified financial planner with John Hancock Financial Network in Miami.

“I want to help people develop better habits, by making them more conscious and aware of what they are thinking when they are making financial decisions,” he said.

On average, people get 10,000 messages a day about how or what to buy, he said. “We need to counteract that with the psychology of saving, and its safety and freedom – that’s what saving does for you,” O’Kurley said. “I try to educate people that saving is cool, that it’s freeing and uplifting.”

Take baby steps

If you want to save more, don’t be afraid to take baby steps, Adam said. “It’s just like losing weight, you want to do it gradually,” she said. Have a written goal and increase your savings by an extra percentage or two, or a dollar amount you feel comfortable with, every month, Adam said.

Brackey said to avoid being overwhelmed, come up with the one most important goal. Don’t try to tackle them all, she said. “The point of making that choice is that you cannot do everything at one time,” she said. “You’ve got to give yourself a pass for whatever you can’t take care of, and pat yourself on the back for whatever you can.”

Go on autopilot

Sign up for automatic contributions from your paycheck to your retirement plan at work. If you have an IRA, set up automatic contributions from your checking account. Do it a little at a time now, and you won’t be sitting at the end of 2012 wondering why you couldn’t save any money, Adam said.

“Start with something small and reasonable so you don’t feel it,” Brackey said. “If your pay goes up, take half and add it to your savings.”

O’Kurley likes online savings plans, not only because they typically offer higher interest than brick and mortar banks, but because you can link them to your checking and set up an automatic savings. “You don’t see it, and it builds automatically,” he said. “This creates a sense of empowerment.”

Online savings accounts at IngDirect.com, HSBCAdvance.com, American Express and Capital One offer FDIC-insured accounts that are paying higher interest than local banks, O’Kurley said.

Pay down credit cards

When the holiday bills arrive, add them up so you have a total. “You’ve got to say, ‘I’m going to put so many dollars per month towards these cards.’ Write it down, and put it on the fridge,” Adam said. “Anything you see written down makes it more real. Then you can figure out how to attack it.”

Don’t just close your eyes and put the bills in a pile. “People who are overwhelmed by bills need to get their hands around what is coming in and what is going out. That will give them the best chance to manage the process,” O’Kurley said. “Organization comes with a certain level of empowerment.”

Brackey likes the snowball method (there’s an iPhone app for it) that uses this strategy – start with your smallest bill and make larger chunks of payments to it, while paying the minimum balance on the rest. When you pay off the smallest bill, celebrate and move the amount you were paying to reduce debt on another card. Adam also likes this strategy, but starts with the highest interest rate card.

“I go with the smallest bill because I get a reward for seeing something paid off,” Brackey said.

Set up a calendar

Spread out your goals all year, then check back in mid-year to see how you are doing with the goals you set in January, Brackey said.

“Every month have a small little task that you can check off,” Adam said. “Set up a small goal that’s manageable so you don’t get overwhelmed.”