<prompt> Human: EDIT Thank you all so much for all your tips and information. I cant thank you enough for this.Hello all, TL;DR at the bottom. I am 27 year old, who has struggled with impulsive buying my entire adult life. Whether it was supplements, games, food, electronics, you name it. I am now in a serious relationship and my SO has asked that we discuss our finances. We are considering opening a joint account for groceries, gaswe commute together to work, etc. SO is aware that I am impulsive and has a great amount of patience with me in this regard. I broke down my monthly income as decribed by the Boglehead forums, and on paper, It looks like I can save some money! This was shocking. What does rpersonalfinance advise I alter or change to be more realistic. Here we go: I have a regular monthly income of about 1400. BillsMine: 300 This is Sprint, Credit Card, Kohls Card Gas: 45 Food: 160 Rent: 300 Misc: 30-50 This varies month to month. Could be a movie, a dinner date. Who knows. This is strictly a couples night fund. Not my own personal purchase.This leaves 556. Somehow it ends up gone by the next paycheck. Usually because of a impulse purchase like a BOGO sale at Vitamin shop where I buy 200 of protein powder simply because its BOGO. Aside from my budgeting and writing the numbers down, does anyone have any tips or materials on how to stop Impulse buying? My SO has helps when she is around, but I am not always around her or familyfriends to talk sense into me. Its a serious problem I want to fix before we get more serious and consider combining money. Thank you all! TL;DR - I am impulsive and tried to budget out my expenses. I also would like help on how to stop impulse buying. Thanks! Assistant: Hmm.. why not give yourself a little spending budget? Maybe keep that 200 available, that way you can stick to a concrete number. Then you can put the rest in a savings account or towards your credit cards until the balances are paid and after you have 3 months worth of living expenses saved up you can start putting the extra money into a retirement fund.Also I recommend YNAB You Need A Budget. yes there is a small learning curve, but it really makes everything easier. I use it everyday. It especially helps with impulse buys because you have to type in every transaction manually - which is a good thing. Yesterday I logged a 2 transaction. It was an impusle buy, but Im keeping track of it.Human: I just looked at YNAB, I will download the free trial tonight when I am home. I am okay with a learning curve if it will help me realize how frivelous I can be with my money. I tried Mint, but staring at how much money I have or dont have until a bill is due doesnt necissarily help. Putting aside a finite number in terms of a budget is something I will have to really consider as I never quite know what I might want to buy with it. I think smaller is better. As you said, putting it towards an emergency fund is probably a better go of it. Thank you!  <response>: YNAB did exactly what youre asking for me. Youll be less likely to spend money impulsively when you stop looking at bank balances and start looking at whether categories are funded. 