<prompt> Human: just wanted to give some background. TLDR at the end.22 year old male in colorado. work a steady job, get 40 hrs a week and good pay. have a couple of bills internet, cell, debt, and legal payments, and live a lifestyle thats probably too lavish...oh yeah, and no savings. zip. zero. zilch. i dont have a car, would like to get one soon. i rent my apartment, have a dog... im struggling. i live paycheck to paycheck and i am behind on bills. i float checks and abuse overdraft.i just know that i could do better financially than i am now. i come from a family that lived on govt. aid, and still does. my total monthly income far outweighs my parents, and they raised two kids. what i am asking is if there are any tools or methods i can use to better budget, save, and have a worry free account statement. TLDR: live paycheck to paycheck with steady income. would like to cease the weekly budget and move to a monthly budget. what are toolsmethods i can use to achieve that? what has helped you to achieve the same basic goal?  <response>: mint.com is often recommended to understand where your money is going. But you dont need mint.com . I started understanding money about ten years ago, and all it took me was all of the previous 12 months of bank statements then still on paper, and a notepad and a pen. You need to understand where your money is going every month. The bank statements or mint.com, andor your credit card bills will tell you more. Just sit down for one evening and you know enough about your current status. An overview of the last 12 months could be useful to know all your once-a-year and once-a-quarter bills, like I had a once-a-year-bill for a magazine I didnt really read, or a twice-a-year-water bill that always used to surprise me when it came. In the end, you make an overview of how much you are spending on each category. General categories are: housing - utilities - insurance fees including possibly health insurance - other health expenses - transport car, public transport, bike etc - pets - clothingappearance - groceries - phone - entertainment incl internet, cable, magazine subscriptions, books etc - going outdating - gifts - charity. Maybe you need more categories, maybe you need less. When you know what youre currently doing with your money, Im pretty sure there will be some categories where you didnt know you were spending so much on them, every month. Itll probably be easy for you to know where youd like to reduce your spending. And I promise it wont be as hard as you think it is. Visit rfrugal as well for some good advice to spend less. Maybe it helps to know that you definitely can turn your ship around. I turned mine around. I used to live like you, Im currently saving about 15,000 per year on a 40,000-after-taxes salary - and have been doing so for the last 5 years. 