First Step: Monthly Budgeting
How to budget monthly expenses. For me, the best way is to use a basic spreadsheet. It's simple and effective. Here is a template: Daily Budget Template - Google SpreadSheet Notes: Log your expenses every night when you come home It's not easy to keep doing it every day. You will probably need 1-2 months to get used to this mundane exercise The goal of tracking manually is to help yourself to revisit what you have purchased Once you become aware of what you are spending or wasting money on, then it will become easier to tackle and control unnecessary expenses Feel free to use various mobile apps like Mint to track your expenses. I recommend using a manual spreadsheet, but an App is better than without any monitoring tools.