If you’ve never made a budget, you should try it to see if it helps you reach your financial goals. Doing a budget is never foolproof – you’ll rarely figure it out perfectly. But if you can manage to stick to it most months, you’ll make some real headway with your finances.

Here are some tips to get you there.

Look at Your Income

To do this, you should add your weekly or biweekly direct deposits or checks together to see what you’re bringing in each month. Only use your after-tax, bring-home pay.

Don’t forget about any other income you have coming in. If you have a part-time job or a side hustle, you should include what you earn from that too. If you have previously been treating that extra income as spending money, a quick look at what it could mean to your budget might have you reconsidering that strategy.

Subtract All Your Expenses

It’s not just enough to list all your expenses – you should also consider whether they are necessary. If you’re finding you have more expenses than money at the end of the month, you’re going to have to do some trimming.

Start with the non-essentials like cable and see if you can make enough cuts to end up with a balanced budget.

It can be tempting to cut down your food expenses dramatically if you find your expenses are starting to balloon, but you need to be realistic about what you can survive on month after month when it comes to food.

Don’t Forget the Semi-Regular Extra Expenses

Things like haircuts, Christmas gifts, and vacations should make their way into your budget too. You don’t want to have a perfectly balanced budget every month and then end up needing thousands of dollars at the end of the year for all the extras you forgot about.

Look at the Difference

The difference between your expenses and income is what you can afford to save every month. It’s never a good idea to have that number be zero because emergencies happen frequently. When they do, you’ll need a safety net of cash saved up so you won’t have to finance those emergencies on your credit card.

Make sure as the month rolls on that you track your spending so you can see how your actual budget stacks up to your anticipated one.

Include a Contingency Amount

It’s inevitable, especially in that first full year, that you’ll forget something you should have included in your budget. Repeatedly going over budget can make you feel like a failure or cause you to think the budgeting process doesn’t work.

To avoid those feelings of defeat and to help you stay the course, you should include a contingency amount in every budget. This will be money that isn’t designated for anything in particular but can be used for anything you need.

How much you put in this line item is up to you. Over time, you might realize you no longer need a contingency fund and you’ll be able to cut it out. If you don’t use it, you should add it to your savings if you can.