2. Prioritize your expenses

Secondly figure up your regular expenses by going through your spending for the last couple of months. Get an idea of what you spend on groceries, housing, utilities, entertainment and other items. You should also plan for putting some amount of money into a retirement account and emergencies account.

Figure out which things are most unessential. For instance, if you run into a lean month, you may need to avoid eating out, or you may have to buy fewer treats at the store. Prioritize your spending so that the most important expenses are at the top of your list.

3. Create two different checking accounts

Have your real monthly check, regardless of its size, go into one account. This is nothing but your easily accessible savings account. One of the best things is to create a second account, from which you will pay all of your bills each month.

At the beginning of each month, deposit enough money from the first account into the second account to pay all of your bills. This creates a habit of sticking to a realistic budget, ignoring the variances in your income.