<prompt> Human: Im a 21 year old female, and was attending college full time when I was in a major MVA. I had worked since I turned 15, but never saved anything as I lived above my means. I was completely dependent on my parents for advice. In the past, I have always asked my parents about managing finances and real world budgeting, etc. but I was always assured that it wasnt hard and I worried too much and they refused to sit down with me and teach me about managing money. They also thought it was a great idea to use my car accident money and put it towards a brand new leased Nissan Rogue, which is great but not fiscally responsible which Im seeing now. My boyfriend and I live in a 1BR1BA apartment in the 800 range monthly. He works part time for 10hour while finishing college. He also does Postmates and will be starting Lyft soon. He is looking for full time employment right now as well. I am disabled and waiting for an SSDI decision, but I think I could try to work online in some capacity or by selling things, commissioning art, etc. Now that we are financially on our own, I see that my own parents live well above their own means, and cannot manage their own money. I have followed this consumerism my whole life and just recently began living frugally. Living with our parents or other family is not an option. Parents and responsible people of reddit, What are the bare bones basics about finances and managing adult life? What would you advise your 21 yo self to do? Assistant: 1. Establish a savingsemergency fund at least 1,0002. Create a budget and stick to it. This means spending less than you take home each month. Thats literally it as the basics. After that you can create more goals and pay off debt and save for a house, etc. depends on what you want out of life. Human: How do you decide what to budget for though? Ive looked at many basic style ones, but a lot of them arent customizable to ones lifestyle. What about those little things like laundry detergent or new shoes? We are living as frugally as we can, and saving a lot but we also want to learn and get used to the process  <response>: Your comment is exactly how I feel about budgeting. It would drive me crazy to have a budget with a dozen or more different categories with different limits. Its too complicated and too rigid for my taste.As I mentioned in another comment, I personally use a version of a 50-20-30 budget. You can do a web search to read more about it. Basically, you put 50 of your after-tax income toward necessities, 20 toward further debt reductionsavinginvesting, and 30 toward wants. You do need to track every expense and put it into one of these categories, but it is much simpler than other budgeting styles out there.It may be difficult sometimes to choose which category some expenses should go into like cell phone and internet--necessities or wants?, and similar purchases can sometimes be necessities or wants clothes for example are sometimes a necessity but often a want. But you have to choose what makes the most sense for your situation according to your needs and goals.You also may need to change the percentages based on your situation. If you have a higher cost of living andor lower income, you may need to make the percentages more like 60-25-15, or 60-20-20. If you really need to pay off debt, you might need to do 50-30-20 with only 20 toward wants.In any case, this is much simpler than a budget with dozens of different categories with different limits, and it helps to track your spending and keep it balanced. 