US Patent 8438091 Target driven spending reduction plan

A method for generating a spending reduction plan, includes obtaining a savings target that has a target amount and a target schedule, analyzing, using a processor of a computer system, a spending history for a plurality of spending categories to generate a historical spending pattern comprising a plurality of spending variances corresponding to the plurality of spending categories, identifying a first spending category of the plurality of spending categories by comparing the plurality of spending variances based on a pre-determined criterion, analyzing, using a processor of a computer system, a first historical savings pattern for the first spending category to determine a first reduction percentage, and generating the spending reduction plan based on the savings target, the first spending category, a first spending variance corresponding to the first spending category, and the first reduction percentage.