When times get tough, it's often all too tempting to opt for a little self-indulgence.

Bad day at work? Treat yourself to dinner at your favourite Italian restaurant; Wife left you for the milkman? Jump on a last-minute flight to Spain; International Monetary Fund warns that the world may well be on the brink of the most devastating economic slowdown since the New York sidewalks were paved with splattered corpses of bankers who lost it all in the Wall Street Crash? Sod it, head to the high street and put it all on a credit card and worry about it some other day.

This, of course, is not the sensible attitude to adopt in a time of market uncertainty, and certainly not one which any credible financial advisor would recommend.

Hard as it may be - with mortgage repayments, energy bills and even bread prices rocketing steadily skyward – but managing to put even a few pounds away each week may mean the difference between weathering the economic storm or ending up in serious difficulties.

As Richard Norman, director of savings at the Post Office, advises: "In times of economic uncertainty, it's more important than ever to try and put money away. Our advice is try and keep saving regularly, even if it's just a small amount, and consider saving less frequently such as every other month."

The advice comes despite the Post Office's own research found that around five million Brits are now no longer able to put money away for the future due to the growing difficulties of paying for today.

In addition, some 19 per cent of people now regularly dip into their savings simply to pay for day-to-day expenses and are therefore becoming steadily worse-off, the research also found.

However, with a little common sense and quite a bit more self-discipline, it is possible to survive the looming downturn the global credit crunch looks like prompting.

The best thing for those people worried about their future finances to do is to simply sit down with a computer spreadsheet, or even a pen and paper, and work out their monthly budgets, with outgoings in one column and income in the other.

As James Falla, director of the advice service Thomas Charles & Co, explains, staying out of the red "isn't rocket science".

"You can then look at your monthly expenses and do a bit of saving," he stated.

"Simply live within your budget. If you’re spending more than you’ve got coming in then you’re going to get into debt."

While a night in front of a spreadsheet may not seem like an attractive Friday night option after a tough week at the coalface, it is only through such a frugal and sensible approach that many Brits will be able to remain relatively unscathed by any possible recession.