When you are making a budget, you have fixed expenses which is your rent or mortgage payment, utilities, and other set expenses each month. Then you have your variable expenses. This is transportation, groceries, gas for your car, car maintenance, etc. The variable expenses are things you can control and cut down on bysetting a budget for those categories. And by cutting expenses you have money for savings each month for those unexpected emergencies. A great idea for budgeting your variable expenses is to put them in cash in envelopes with each category for each envelope By doing this with cash you see where the money is going. You keep track of each item you pay for in cash by writing each cash item down and by putting the cash in the envelopes it makes you much more aware of how you are spending your money. For instance you set a certain amount each month for food. This means you sit down and plan meals for a week and look into your pantry , refrigerator and freezer to see what meals you can make and if you need another ingredient to make that meal. Then you make a shopping list to go shopping just once a week no more than that to buy groceries within that cash amount you set for groceries for that week. When you run out of cash your done for that week. This helps you save money by adding up groceries as you shop either in the store by adding up each thing you buy on a calculator and comparing brands. Usually the store brand is cheaper than a name brand and I’ve found it taste similar and as good as the name brand saving you money . By writing out a budget for your money for the month and using the cash envelopes for your variable expenses you can save money and pay off debt sooner to become debt free. I found the above envelopes pictured at Walmart for 3.10 . They are different colors for your different categories which helps you tremendously. Try the cash envelopes for a month and see how much money you save for emergencies and maybe taking that much needed vacation you have always wanted to take.