One of the best ways to save money is to analyze just how much you’re spending now, and then see what you can cut outand the best way to do that is to make a budget. Some people might recoil at this thought, or think that they can get by just fine without one. The point of a budget is not to just “get by,” though. At its best, budgeting can help you become more aware of your spending activity and learn how to change it for the better.The first step is to come up with a monthly average of how much money you make. If you’re taking home a regular paycheck, this will be easy enough. If you have a job based on tips, have outside sources of income, or have an irregular income, this will be a little more difficult, but is still doable. In these latter cases, it might be easier to go to the next step and work backwards to an estimate.The next step, of course, is to find out what your monthly expenses are. There are two parts to this. The first part is adding up your bills. Most of the time, you can view your past month’s bills online if you have disposed of them (or have switched to electronic payments). Certain bills will be fixed, like car and insurance payments. Utility bills are likely to be variable, but you should still be able to come up with an average. The second part is coming up with your expenses that aren’t recordedgroceries, entertainment, savings, etc. Some of this will be included on your bank statements, so be sure to check these when coming up with an estimate. Add these two totals together.You should now have two monthly averages: monthly income and monthly expenses. Furthermore, your list of expenses should serve as monthly spending limits. Obviously, the goal is for your income to be greater than your expenses. If it is not, you will have to adjust your spending limits. That means you will have to look at the variable expensesthose that aren’t monthly bills. Can you cut back on certain kinds of groceries, or on the amount of times you go to the movies each month? Maybe you can cut down on your cable bill. The choice is up to youfeel free to experiment and see how the next month or two goes. Hopefully, you will find yourself thinking more critically about your spending, and finding new areas for improvement.