3 ways to spring clean your finances

Spring is a great time to tackle your to-do list: The rainy weather offers a good opportunity to tidy up your closets, get rid of unwanted clothes or reorganize the kitchen.

It's also a good time to look at your finances. By this time of year, you've hopefully made progress toward paying off holiday bills and have a clearer sense of your budget for the year.

Below, CNBC Select talks with two money experts about how to give your finances a spring cleaning.

Springtime also means tax season. Prepare your return if you haven't already and think about what you're going to do with your refund.

"Consumers should be thinking about what they would like to do with their tax refunds if they got one — whether that's putting it toward a savings goal or building an emergency fund," Sasha Grabenstetter, a financial counselor at eMoney Advisor, told CNBC Select.

Tax software programs like TurboTax, H&R Block®, Cash App Tax and TaxSlayer® can help you file your state and federal returns quickly and accuratley while still maximizing deductions to get a bigger refund.

It's not too late to think about next year, either: Marsha Barnes, founder of The Finance Bar, suggests creating a "tax toolkit" to help you put all your tax documents in one place.

There are no perfect rules of where to start paying off debts, said Barnes.

"Choose the bill with the lowest balance, the highest interest rate or the one that provides you with the most angst," she adds. "Begin with the desire to boost your financial confidence."

No matter which debt you work on first, you should still have a plan for the other bills that remain. If you have both student loans and outstanding credit card balances, paying off the card first probably makes more sense, since credit cards have much higher interest rates. But you should a plan in place for moving onto your student loans.

If you're overwhelmed, Freedom Debt Relief can consolidate your bills, reduce your monthly payments and potentially save your money in interest. There is a minimum debt threshold of $7,500 and FDR charges both a monthly fee for its service and a flat percentage of the total settlement you receive.

With the warm weather inching closer, you may already be envisioning your next vacation, music festival or night on the town. Instead of waiting for June, says Grabenstetter, "allocate more funds toward these goals in the months ahead, so you won't have to miss out because your spending doesn't allow for it."

She suggests creating a budget for smaller things, like sunscreen, bug spray, snacks and sunglasses.

Buying sundries with a credit card that gives you cash back or travel rewards can earn you rewards you can use. this summer: Chase Freedom Unlimited® users earn unlimited 5% cash back on travel purchases made through Chase Travel℠ and 3% on restaurants, takeout and drugstores.

New cardholders can earn an additional 1.5% on all purchases (up to $20,000 spent in the first year).

Vacationers can also experiment with value-based spending when planning their summer expenses, Barnes said. That involves figuring out what's really important to you and focusing on it when you allocate your money.

"In priority order, plug your top one to three experiences in your budget," she explains. "Do your best to avoid forcing them to fit. The overall goal of budgeting is to provide guardrails, or financial safety, around your money and your habits."

Tidy up your finances this spring by making sure your taxes are taken care of, that you have plans to address any debt and that you've budgeted for summer travel.

At CNBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. For this story, we interviewed Marsha Barnes, a certified financial social worker partnered with Wells Fargo and founder of The Finance Bar. We also spoke with Sasha Grabenstetter, a financial counselor at eMoney Advisor.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every personal finance review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of personal finance products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

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