The Key to Creating--and Sticking to--a Budget: Why budgeting is so hard to sustain, and what you can do to improve your chances of success

The best place to start is to take inventory of where your money goes. A lot of people have a rough idea of where they spend. Watch it for a month or two and you'll find out where it all goes. Another area to target early is high-interest credit card debt. This debt can end up costing much more than the initial purchase. So watch the credit cards! You need to see how much money you get a month then take out the constant bills. Slowly getting off of what you're used to spending things on will really help. Even if it's just $100. You can't believe you're depriving yourself. That is the key.