Getting a handle on the household finances will be a defining theme for many consumers in 2009. But with a litany of different accounts -- credit-card accounts, savings and checking accounts, not to mention IRAs, 401(k)s and money markets -- to complicate our financial lives, that goal may be difficult to attain without a little help.

Fortunately, getting your financial house in order for the new year is just a mouse click away. A slew of new web sites allow users to organize and track various accounts from one location. These sites make it easier for users to figure out how much money they have and where it's going -- an important first step in getting one's finances under control, says Belinda Fuchs, a wealth coach, CPA and president of OwnYourMoney.com a financial coaching and education company. The sites also warn subscribers when they're painfully close to overdrawing an account or missing a bill payment, saving them plenty of money in overdraft fees and other charges.

Here are five free sites that Fuchs recommends to whip your fiscal life into shape.

This award-winning web site (it has won multiple Webby and PC World awards, and was named Best New Financial Service at the American Business Awards) allows you to sync and track all of your financial accounts, create budgets, and sign up for alerts that warn you if you ve gotten charged a bank fee or exceeded your monthly budget. As an added bonus: The site analyzes your accounts and recommends better available interest rates for checking and savings accounts, and credit cards to help you save more money.

Launched in 2008, this money-management site provides budget planning and email reminders when bills are coming due. It also calculates what you ll have left after all the bills are paid. Like Mint.com, the site is secured by Verisign (VRSN), TRUSTe and McAfee (MFE), and doesn t store any user names or passwords related to your financial accounts.

Use this site to help you organize your debt and develop a plan to get out from under it. The site offers a quantified "financial health" score, which measures things like your debt-to-income ratio, your spending rate, and the terms of your various accounts. It also provides personalized advice on spending and helps you create plans to save for anything from graduate school to a new iPod.

Want to take the family on vacation to the Bahamas or start a college fund for your eldest child? This site helps you save for specific goals by suggesting a monthly deposit amount and providing other tips. It also includes social networking applications that allow you to invite others to contribute to your account. And, when you re ready to spend what you ve saved, the site provides a financial incentive of up to 6% to buy gift cards from certain retailers through the site.

If your credit-card issuer is charging you sky-high rates, then this site may be able to find you a better deal. BillShrink monitors millions of credit-card rate combinations, and matches them against individual consumers' usage patterns. Just upload your credit-card bill and the site will do the rest for you. Bonus: They also offer the same service for cellphone plans.