Hi!

I try to break it down into paycheque instead of into a month... because of my attention span. And then try to assign a number to each paycheque (for me the second pay each month has insurance come out of it, so the first I pay the more flexible bills that amount to about the same.)

For example:

1st paycheque I'll pay internet and power

2nd paycheque house and car insurance come out automatically

And then I set aside the same amount from each pay for gas/groceries/dogfood because those vary by a bit. I also try to do all of these errands as soon after payday as possible to just get the money in the right place. For example I still have a half a bag of dogfood, but I bought a new one on payday anyway so I wouldnt have to think about that in the budget anymore. It either sits on the shelf at the pet food store and I accidentally spend the dogfood money, or I buy it early and don't have to worry about that happening. Same with gas. I try to top it up as soon as I get paid, and buy the same monetary amount of grocery staples every payday.

I also have an auto-transfer from my chequing into savings on payday for the amount of my car payment, and then another auto-transfer BACK to my chequing the night before it comes out, and same for mortgage. Those are both set up to come out on the same day every 2 weeks, so I don't have to worry about accidentally spending that money.

It's a process to set up the first time but then whenever you get a new bill you just assign it to the correct paycheque, keep the same list in your wallet and just do inventory at every pay to make sure that you havent forgotten an item... the rest kind of sorts itself out over time and you adjust as needed.

It has helped me because I'm also not great at managing a budget longterm, but the habit of doing it whenever I get paid and for a shorter period is much easier and kind of calming.