How do I start improving my money habits and saving?

The worst part… making a budget.

See where your money goes now and where it needs to go.

This always hurts my feelings because then it’s obvious where I waste money.
 
This is literally a course assignment to get started.

Step 1: Add up your income and expenses for the past 3 months. (Income Expenses)/3 is what you keep. If you don’t like those numbers, spend less or make more.

Step 2: If you don’t have a cushy savings, set aside $1,000 to 3 months’ worth of expenses for emergencies. Put this savings in high yield savings account(s) (get close to 4% APY or more).

Step 3: If you have debts, prioritize paying them off. If you have no debts, prioritize retirement. If you have things you want to save up for (car, house, vacation, movie theater, sport tickets), slow down debt/retirement payments to save up for those things.

That’s the gist of it.
 
Always be tracking. The key to success is keeping it simple. Try to pay only with cash, checking, or debit. Track every transaction, then start putting those charges into categories. You want enough categories to match your spending needs, but not so many that tracking gets hard, and not so few that you miss what spending is happening. Once you've got that data, keep it going. Then you'll set up a zero based budget template. Account for all your income, tithe if that's your conviction, account for all your fixed bills (bills with ude dates), then what's left is what you have to save and put toward variable (categories). It's not restricting it's laying out a plan so you know how to adjust your lifestyle.
 
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