What's at the top of your New Year's resolutions list? Forget losing weight. Instead, imagine how great you'll feel when you shed excess debt and button up your family's finances—with breathing room to spare. Whipping your finances into shape is as important as taking charge of your career, your health and, yes, even your waistline. But the average American family is awash in as many as 20 different financial obligations, including bank accounts and credit cards, plus bills for electricity, garbage pickup and Netflix.

Wrangling all of these relationships is only half the challenge. Knowing—and affording—what you're spending is the other. Sure, your weekly trip to that chichi salon makes you look good, but what's this indulgence doing to your bank account?

"If you're honest about what you need to do, being financially fit is simple," suggests Brad Stroh, cofounder of Bills.com, a consumer education website. While increasing numbers of women are now the family breadwinner, many still feel insecure when it comes to managing their money. These eight back-to-basics steps will help you regain your financial footing and save you time in the long run. After all, what happens to your money directly affects the quality of your family's life.

Tackle your checkbook When it comes to keeping tabs on checking accounts, many people wing it or feel too busy to keep track, so they rarely know exactly how much money is in there. That's particularly true if two people share an account. As basic at it sounds, the first step to boosting your bank tally is to reconcile your checking account. Haven't cracked open the ledger recently? It will take a couple of days to get a complete picture of all outstanding transactions and deposits, says Catherine Williams, vice president of financial literacy for Money Management International, a Chicago-based nonprofit consumer credit counseling service. Start by withdrawing enough cash to get you and the family through one week, and don't touch your account until it is fully reconciled. Now you just have to keep it that way. Try automating the process by signing up for online banking.

Avoid late fees Always pay your bills as they come in rather than letting them pile up. You'll not only avoid late fees, you'll also avoid the pain of sitting down for an hour each month and watching all that money drain from your account, says Colleen Beckemeyer, CFP, a St. Louis-based financial consultant for AXA Advisors. Save time by using auto bill pay, which automatically debits regular payments such as credit cards, college loans and gym membership from your account, says Beckemeyer. Schedule payments for right after your paycheck (direct deposited, of course) posts in your account.

Track withdrawals Set up a system for ATM withdrawals and debit card charges, too. If you're not the type to log your receipts as you go, arrange a cash withdrawal schedule for you and your partner (say, Fridays for you, Mondays for him). Fewer receipts means easier bookkeeping. Soon you'll be balancing your checkbook in minutes, and you'll avoid extra ATM fees.

Check your credit One easy way to mismanage your family's finances is not to know what's going on with your bank accounts. Another is to ignore your credit reports. It's not just mortgage companies and car dealers that are interested in your fiscal bona fides. Employers, landlords and insurance companies also check into credit reports, says Ken McEldowney, executive director of Consumer Action. About three years ago, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, or the FACT Act, gave consumers free access to their credit report once a year from each of the major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). It takes only a minute to access them at www.annualcreditreport.com and usually less than an hour to make sure each of the accounts listed belongs to you and each payment history is reported accurately, says McEldowney. If something's amiss, you can file a dispute form that the bureau will submit to the creditor.

Know what you owe You can apply this same "getting to know you" principle to your family's debt. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. Now, sit down with your partner (and children, if they're old enough) and go through your monthly or annual spending, assigning each expense to either the "necessities" column (mortgage, child care) or the "extras" column (daily double decaf skim lattes). Be honest. It may be time to trim back to basic cable if the sum of your necessities column is more than half of your family's total income, warns Stroh.

Banish credit card debt Now it's time to begin paying down what you owe, because you can't have financial freedom if you're carrying burdensome debt. Start off by listing your unsecured debts (credit cards, loans). Focus on the highest amount first, paying as much as you can while making minimum payments on the others. Once the first is paid in full, go on to the next, and keep it up. But don't close an account once it's paid off. Having unused credit available will boost your credit score.

Tighten your belt The fastest and easiest way to move from red to black is (need we say it?) to cut down on discretionary spending. Now that it's New Year's, put your credit cards on ice (right next to the champagne), and use your debit card only as backup for cash. When you run out of money, stop spending!

Save sensibly Next to eliminating debt, the single best thing you can do for your financial well-being is to build a secure nest egg. View it as a kind of fountain of youth. Eliminating anxiety over your family's fiscal future will allow you to live more for today and help you feel more self-confident, relaxed and, in a sense, younger. Start seasonally. Squirrel away a portion (at least half) of your annual raise or holiday bonus directly into your savings account. Even if you don't get a salary bump this year, target at least 5 percent of your income for your 401(k), IRA or other tax-advantaged investment account. Call it the ab crunches principle: Slow and steady efforts pay off in visible results. And just like going down a dress size gets you to the gym regularly, seeing your assets grow inspires you to save a little more each pay period.