As early as 1990, some organizations in countries like the USA and Australia implemented this new budgeting program to replace the old and known method of budgeting, the "line item budgeting." Activity based budgeting is a method of budgeting in which activities that incur costs in each function of an organization are established and relationships are defined between activities. If you think you're responsible enough to use it in emergency situation, then leave one for those times. Buying a Gucci dress for a hot date isn't an emergency situation. Paying for school tuition fee or electric bills is a right example of emergency situation. Only fools keep more than one credit card. To ensure your goals can be achieved, write all the numbers down so you can do a trial and error as many times as necessary. Mistakes are far less costly when made on a piece of paper than with actual money. The process and mechanics of business budgeting vary by organization. Generally, budgeting consists of the following three phases. For those who live alone, then you have to be more considerate and more price-meticulous of the place that you will live in. You also only need to live in a place that has space for only one person. Living in a big house alone is very insensible and costly. Definitely not the result price budgeting would want to have. The easiest way to get started on budgeting is to formulate a very basic list of your monthly income and expenses. The former is easy, it is basically your paycheck and the money you make from your other jobs. The latter needs more details. You can start by listing the things you can easily identify (for example, rent, car, insurance, alimony, utilities, etc. As much as it is good to have some sort of reference, do not forget to make it personal. Customize your personal finance budget according to your expenditures. You are the only one who will refer to it on a daily basis so go ahead and make it your own. This way, it will also look more familiar to you.